Document g2RO9vqwrzJg67ZZM8jXL6zYQ
PROCEEDINGS
OF THE
National Safety Council
TWELFTH ANNUAL SAFETY CONGRESS
Held at the
'
Statler Hotel, Buffalo, N. V.
October 1 to S
1923
Copyright 1924. National Safety Council
National Safety Council
168 North Michigan Avenue, Chicago
HONORARY MEMBERS
. Association of Iron, and Steel Electrical Engineers Elbert EL Gary, Robert W. Campbell, Ralph C. Richards
OFFICERS (1923-1924)
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Li. A. De Blois. President. C. B. Auel. Vice-President in charge of General Activities. Marcus A. Dow, Vice-President in charge of Public Safety. George T. Fonda, Vice-President in charge of Local Councils. H. A. Reninger, Vice-President in charge of Industrial Safety. David Van Schaack. Vice-President in charge of Public Relations. Homer E. Niesz. Vice-President and Treasurer. W. H. Cameron. Managing Director.
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE (1923-1924)
The Officers and James P. Barnes, Louisville Railway Company.
Frank N. Fisher, Memphis Motor Car Company.
Gen. Alfred F. Foote, Commissioner of Public Safety of Massachusetts. Frank Frey. Jr.. Gender, Paeschke & Frey Company. R. R. Hadsell. New York State Railways. R. Dawson Hall. McGraw Hill Publishing Company. Julien H. Harvey. Kansas City Safety Council. Robert T. Herdegcn, Dominion Forge and Stamping Company.
Col. C. L. Hinkle. Chicago, Great Western Railroad Company.
Walter G. King, American Optical Company. F. M. Metcalfe, Northern Pacific Railway Company. H. W. Moses, Edison Electric Illuminating Company. S. C. Mumford, Detroit Edison Company. C. E. Pettibone, American. Mutual Liability Insurance Company. Oliver T. Remmers, Anheuser Busch, Inc. A. D. Risteen, Travelers Insurance Company. H. A. Rowe. Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad Company. R. B. Stoeckel, Commissioner of Motor Vehicles of Connecticut. John H. Truett. United Railways and Electric Company. F. P. Walker, General Necessities Corporation. A. L. Watson, Hooker Electrochemical Company. A. W. Whitney. National Bureau of Casualty and Surety Underwriters. A. H. Young, International Harvester Company.
CONTENTS
Annual Meeting of Members................................................................. General Session................................................................................................... General Session--Health............................................................................ G%neral Session--New York Department of Labor.... A. B. C. Session...................................................................................................... General Round Table..................................................................................... Annual Banquet.................................................................................................. Automotive Section ........................................................................................ Joint Session--Chemical and Rubber............................................. Chemical Section................................................................................................ Cement Section ................................................................................................... Construction Section..................................................................................... Education Section ............................................................................................. Electric Railway Section............................................................................ Employees' Benefit Association Section..................................... Engineering Section........................................................................................ Health Service Section.................................................................................. Ice and Refrigeration Section.............................................................. Marine Section ................................................................................................... Metals Section ......................................................... ........................................... Mining Section...................................................................................................... Packers and Tanners Section................................................................. Paper and Pulp Section................................................................................ Petroleum Section .......................................................................................... Plant Publications Section....................................................................... Public Safety Section.-....'....................................................................... Public Utilities Section.................................................................................. Joint Session--Public Utilities and Electric Railways Rubber Section .................................................................................................. Steam Railroad Section............................................................................... Taxicab and Delivery Section.............................................................. Textile Section..................................................................................................... Woodworking, Section ............................................................... Index ..............................................................................................................................
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The National Safety Council
What It Is
BODY OF MBX determined to prevent accidents. The
A members are employers in every industry--including workshops, public utilities and mines; schools and colleges: government officials and other individuals inter ested in industrial and public safety. The National Safety Council is a service association--not for profit. It is a means of exchanging and pooling information upon prac tical safety methods. Over one million dollars have been spent in accumulating every scrap of accident-prevention experience, and the Council has printed and distributed over 3.000 different pictorial bulletins visualizing the causes of accidents. The monthly magazine, the Annual Congress Proceedings, the specialized pamphlets--are all sent auto matically to members, and are summaries of the experi ences and information contributed by all, for all.
Organization
The 4.000 members (employing 6,000,000 workers) elect
Directors: the Directors elect an Executive Committee, and
the Executive Committee elects the unpaid and paid officers.
Over 1.000 persons serve on the non-paid committees. The
officers and Executive Committee have met monthly for
more than ten years to determine the policies of the Asso
ciation. Many thousands of dollars are contributed through
the time and traveling -expenses of these committees, not
shown in the Treasurer's Annual Report. The headquarters'
staff consists of forty-four persons, including technicians
of high standing, who carry out the policies laid down by
the governing committees.
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The membership is subdivided into twenty-four Sections (such as Metals. Woodworking. Steam Railroad, Mining. Construction, etc.), and the sectional activities are directed by voluntary officers and committeemen. Local councils intensify the propaganda in more than fifty leading cities.
National Safety Council
Annual Meetingr of Members Buffalo, New York October 1, 1923
CHAIRMAN, MARCUS A. DOW, President, National Safety Connell
RESIDENT DOW: We will open the Twelfth Annual Congress of the National Safety Council with an invocation by the Reverend Arthur H. Gordon, of Buffalo.
Dr. Gordox: O Lord, our God, Thou art over all and Thy tender mercies
are over all Thy works. We bless Thee for the fidelity of Thy dealings
with us and for the constancy of Thy preserving care. As we go about
our accustomed tasks Tbou dost give Thine angels charge over us to keep
us in all our ways. As we lay ourselves down in sleep we awake because
Thou, Lord, dost sustain us. Help us, we pray Thee, to esteem ourselves
highly in Thy sight and for Thy sake. May Thy providence over us
teach us prudence for ourselves. Help us to revere our bodies as the
temples of Thy spirit and as the instruments through which we worship
and serve Thee, and help us to keep them from anything that defiles or
disables. Not a sparrow falls to the ground without our Father's knowl
edge, and we are of much more value than many sparrows. As we care for
ourselves, grant, we pray Thee, that we may have solicitude for our fel
lows who are made in Thine image.
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God forbid that we should count commercial gain above human good or should expose others to danger in order that we ourselves may be ad vantaged. Rather help us to bear one another's burdens and take pains ourselves for the security of others and .thus fulfill the law of Christ.
We ask Thy special blessing upon the Congress which is being held here in this city during this coming week. It is not Thy will, our Father, that one of these little ones should perish. Grant, we pray, that they may be prospered here as they plan and work for the realization of this. Thy will on earth as it Is in Heaven. Grant that as the result of these conferences there may be stirred up the sluggish sentiment of this com munity and there may be enlisted cooperation from all quarters, which shall make not only this city and this state, but all this nation and the world safe for men and women and children. Amen.
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6 Twelfth Safety Congress
ADDRESS OF WELCOME
> Mayor Frank: X. Schwab
I am glad to see that this- country is coming into Its own. Up to
ten. or fifteen years ago we thought more of the almighty dollar than
we did of humanity, but it seems today we are working toward that
other Issue of humanity.
We are here today to bring about better conditions, we are here to tell the man or the woman who is a little bit careless that they must be more careful. The people who are arrested for accidents are not the type of people who want to kill others; it Is just a matter of being too greedy. We have too much business, too much money at stake and we forget humanity. Humanity should be our watchword. I can see by the general conditions of the hospitals, by the conditions existing generally otherwise, by the Safety Council, by you ladies and gentlemen coming here, that we are thinking more of humanity than we were some years ago.
In conclusion I want to express the well wishes of all the people of Buffalo. Ask and you shall receive. We are at your service. .
' ADDRESS OF MR. A. L. KINSEY
We in Buffalo are building big things for our city, and we want to hold the best and the largest Safety Congress ever held up to this issue.
I want to say on behalf of the committee that we are deeply appreciative of the work that the National Safety Council has given us. Without them we would have been lost. Mr. Smith has been with us for practically four weeks. Mr. Cameron, Mr. Dow, and every one else have helped tremend ously. The Committee does not want to take any credit except that which is due them for having done only their share with the National Safety Council.
Up to last year safety in Buffalo was carried on Individually. That is. each plant had its own program; the city had a program, bat there was no coordination of all of those programs. The Chamber of Commerce felt that they could go ahead and coordinate all this work. I think that they have done that most successfully, and the fact that they have done it successfully is due to one man, and that man is Sydney Coleman. He has done the job one hundred per cent since he has been with the Chamber of Commerce.
If every city had the cooperation of the city administration in their safety work, they would get along in wonderful shape. We certainly have had it here. When we asked for an appropriation to help this Congress, we got it; we got every cent we asked for. We have got everything we asked in the way of traffic work. The mayor and his committee and his councilmen have delivered one hundred per cent.
Annual Meeting of Members
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In view of the fact that we are only a year old in organized safety, we feel that we are.greatly complimented by your Congress coming here, and we hope that in coming here you will not be disappointed, that' you will go away having learned something or having gained a message or a number of messages.
I want to thank you for coming to Buffalo. We want to do everything we can to make your stay pleasant and profitable.
APPOINTMENT OF TELLERS
President Dow: The executive committee, having appointed three in
spectors of election- at its meeting yesterday, the chair will now appoint
these men as tellers of this meeting:
Mr. Adam - H. Lintz, Chairman
Mr. A. S. Phelps
,
Mr. Girard C. Varnum
ADDRESS OF PRESIDENT
Marcus A. Dow
Let me begin by reminding you that for the twelfth time we are
gathered together in Annual Congress to exchange greetings and to
rededicate our lives to the cause of safety. For another year we have
striven to remove from our public and industrial life the stigma of
avoidable accidents, to strengthen the bonds which unite the employer,
the employee and the community, and to increase human happiness by
preserving and prolonging life.
As pioneers and investigators in a new realm of social and industrial
science and as fellow-members of the Safety Fraternity, we are gathered
here, at our annual reunion. This, my friends, is our yearly opportunity
for the personal expression of goodfellowship and for the repledging of
our honor and our lives to the Safety Crusade and to the Council of
.which we are so proud.
_
Our association is one of organized strength, of organized power and will. Three thousand, four hundred members pulling together in the same direction will uproot the mightiest oak of prejudice and lethargy. The National Safety Council is welding public opinion upon the accident problem. It is an army 3,400 strong of the nation's most progressive industries, railroads, insurance companies and individuals who have de clared their determination to save human lives from accidents, expressing their intention to create, if you please, a public sentiment for the highest standards and for the finest relations in business and domestic concern.
When the members of such an organization, working together stead fastly and loyally for eleven years to promote a common cause and through all the fluctuations of dally life, including the stress of war and its inevitable aftermath, continue their allegiance to this common source of inspiration as have the members of this Council, I have con fidence that the permanence of th safety idea in America, is assured.
8 Twelfth Safety Congress
Associations are judged by their achievements. Leadership may focus attention, but strength and continuity depend upon the loyalty ot the members to their pledges and principles, and the members of the National Safety Council can. congratulate themselves that their eleven years of wise effort have created the most powerful single progressive and stable safety organization in the world.
The point of our arrow of purpose is to save human lives, and the consummation of our eleven years of effort has been the realization that each member can save human lives and can prevent accidents with attendant human suffering if he will but do the things that we together have learned will bring about the maximum of safety. Our association is more than a business men's club. Its economic objectives, true, are worthy of the highest praise, but as the beacon of our endeavors let me remind you that we are banded together for the highest form of human service, to work and to strive that the lives of others may be saved.
HUMAN LIFE IS FORGOTTEN IN BUSH
In this truly remarkable age when the development of mechanical means of production and transportation has reached a stage not dreamed of a century ago. when we have learned to value so many things that were unknown to our forefathers, we have been somewhat careless of the thing of real fundamental value that is back of it all. As we hurry through our crowded streets, as we hurry from our great prolific factories, as we speed from city to city ou errands of business or of pleasure, we should keep constantly in mind that there is one great, significant, intrinsic thing that gives value to everything, that makes the street worth while, that makes the factory worth while, that makes our institutions worth while, our cities worth while, the nation worth while; that thing is human life. It is the life of our men, of our women, our boys and our girls that gives value to every other desirable thing in the world. The National'Safety Council is dedicated to the conservation of this thing of fundamental value in the world. . To accomplish its purpose it must have members. To increase its usefulness it must have more members. The original live members of this Council gave their pledge to add to the membership of the organization, and there are few finer examples Of perseverance than the growth in membership of the National Safety Council, made possible through that same membership pledge cheerfully assumed bv each member.
There is only one right and economic way to double the number of our association members, yes, even to treble it, and that is for every member to be loyal to safety, loyal to.himself, loyal to his associates, and to induce his friends and neighbors who have similar safety problems to become members.
A double membership would mean double service and double influencein the progress of our nation toward safer working conditions, safer community and living conditions.
Annual Meeting of Members
D
This annual meeting, my friends, is the Council's New Year's Day. Now
is the time for you to make your pledge that you will perform your duty
to yourselves, to your associates, to your Council, and to your country
by bringing in at least one new member during the coming year. The
really big-hearted member would not stop at one. Why not try to make
it even one a month? The Safety Council is ready at all times to send
samples of our literature service and to supplement our own efforts.
As good business men we are, of course, interested in the status of our
financial condition at the end of the fiscal year. The reports of my
fellow officers will show a substantial increase in the number of members,
in the Income for the year, and a marked improvement in our financial
condition. The determination to set aside seven per cent of the monthly
collections from dues as a reserve fund h'as been continued, and that
reserve has been invested in. securities. As the income has increased to
an extent that seemed to warrant it, new activities and a more helpful
service have been undertaken. Now with an increased income, other
activities and a still more helpful service could be developed but, as you
well know, all of the activities for public and industrial safety of this
organization must be paid for out of the income from dues.
The reports of the vice presidents will give you in detail their activ
ities, their supervision and direction of the principal standardized activ
ities of the Council during the year. There have been, however, some
particularly important activities that are significant, to my mind, from
the standpoint of realizing the Council's objectives, such as, for instance,
the district meetings that have been held of the members and others
under the auspices of the Engineering and Mining Sections, and these
successful conferences really point the way to other similar meetings
of trade groups during the coming year.
The monetary assistance of the National Bureau of Casualty and
Surety Underwriters referred to at some length by President Young at
the Detroit Congress has made it possible for us to intensify the Coun
cil's assistance to the public school in making safety a part of daily
curriculum, and the significant exhibit that has been prepared for
your inspection at this Congress and the safety play "Adventure" which
will be called to your attention more in detail later on this morning are
particularly worthy of your attention.
.
ACTTVTTTER OF I-OCAI, COL'SCUS
There have been so many activities of importance in your Council's
development during the past year that I am going to ask your indulgence
for a few moments while I read this report, and I think you will agree
with me after I have finished that the Council has developed wonder
fully and has had a most successful year. There has never been so
many safety activities in the large communities as this year, as evidenced
by the establishment of ten new community safety organizations, making
a total of twenty-eight now directed by salaried managers and a staff,
and, of course, sponsored and led by hundreds of voluntary officers and
committeemen.
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10 Twelfth Safety Congress
The production, of three new safety films was undertaken, this year by your Council, and you will have the privilege of witnessing the first showing of one of these films following the addresses of this afternoon's session.
Four new trade sections have been organized. Many new publications have been prepared, printed and distributed. Two field secretaries have given valiant service to many communities. Medals have been awarded to the winning teams in first aid contests. A Middle Western States Motor Vehicle Conference was brought about and organized. The local council managers have met quarterly under the auspices of your national organization, and there are many activities that you are familiar with.
The National Safety News, is now considered to be the premier safety
publication of the United States. No other institution or agency is pre
paring 500 new and original safety bulletins each year and distributing
them in millions of copies.
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. The safe practices articles are accepted as the most practical standard for- applying safety yet produced. Literally, tons of information are being sent out on request from the library and information bureau. In the sev eral divisions of the Council's headquarters office, every unit of knowl edge passes into the stage of positive or scientific.
Any member of the trend of safety development in the United States must agree that the scientific stage is reached. Correspondence has been maintained with every known safety agency. There has been an interchange of national and international ideas and publications, and every inquirer, whether a member of the Council or not, has received some assistance in. response to his manifested interest in safety.
Much praise is due to the officers, the committeemen and the members responsible for the success of our local councils. The activities of the sections and the special committees and the reports from local council officers will be included in the Annual Congress report, and you will read with interest and gratitude the reports of the sectional officers made during the progress of this Congress.
WEDGING IN PROCESS COUNTS
Next to the commendable services of members and the intensive com
munity safety work, the growing interest in industrial trade groups in safety deserves recognition. It is this wedging in process that counts. The maximum accomplishments, I think, will be attained when every community becomes alert to the safety of the citizen and when every trade organization makes certain that every member within its jurisdic tion is portected by the best known practices in shop operation, and when these two divisions of your Council's activities are fully and com pletely worked out, our national safety problems will be solved.
It is pleasant to remind you again of the Engineering Standards
Committee and the progress made during the year in the preparation of
many safety codes.
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Annual Meeting of Members
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The American Association of Industrial Physicians and Surgeons and the New York State Labor Department, synchronizing their annual meet
ings with our Congress here in Buffalo this year are worthy of your special consideration.
The federal and state governmental safety agencies have intensified their efforts by increasing their safety services. The insurance companies, perhaps, are spending more money than all the other agencies put to gether for encouraging improved working conditions in our industries,
and we are mindful of the example which our Canadian and British friends are showing us by their steady advance in national and associa
tion safety work.
I should like here to make special mention of the enterprise and or ganization of the steam railroads of America in contributing significantly toward the reduction of accidents through the Safety Section of the American Railway Association. This Section, through its various com mittees, my friends, has developed a real worth-while safety service. It has conducted two annual conventions and has conducted two nation wide crusades for the lessening of accidents at grade crossings--a most commendable and praisworthy safety service.
I should like to remind you, again, that all of the money paid out through your treasury does not represent the entire cost of conducting the affairs of your association. For instance, during the past twelve years your executive committee has met monthly and the out-of-town members of that committee have always paid their own traveling ex penses and have contributed without cost to the Council their time in attending these meetings. Other committees have been equally free and generous in their contribution to the Council, and while the thanks of the members are due these leaders for their service and their contribution to safety, yet I venture to say that everyone of these voluntary committee men finds his greatest reward in the realization that human lives are being saved and human suffering is being prevented by the work that he
is doing.
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PRAISES CO0NCIL STAFF
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I should be neglectful, indeed, if I failed to say a word or two in com mendation of the splendid and efficient service that has been rendered by the paid staff of your Council during the past year, all of whom have worked zealously and enthusiastically uncounted hours to carry out your ideas, to develop new" ideas for you, and to develop a worthy safety service. Let me say that no association, no organization, no business enterprise in this country ever had a more loyal and efficient staff of workers than the National Safety Council headed by our indefatigable and enthusiastic managing director, old reliable "William H. Cameron.
Now my friends, as I said to you in the beginning, the President's annual report must necessarily he largely in the nature of a report of the activities of the Council service during the past year. I feel that this is going to be the biggest, the most enthusiastic and perhaps the
12 Twelfth Safety Congress
finest Congress we have ever held, due in a measure to the splendid cooperation of the local community, that is true, but due in a still larger measure to the growing Interest in the safety movement and in life con servation. throughout the United States, as is evidenced by the large reg istration here at our Congress meeting this morning.
I hope that the sessions of this Congress will be an inspiration to every one of you to go forth to your homes and to perform that kind of safety service that springs from a service of the heart, a service that will mean that you will continue by your own personal effort, by your day-to-day, hour-by-hour accident prevention work performed conscientiously In your own communities, a thing which will redound in great benefit to humanity during the coming year.
I believe that the growing interest in our National Safety Council's Annual Congress, as evidenced by this great gathering here today, augurs well for,:-the future of safety in. America.
The next item on our program of business this morning is the reading
and disposal of the minutes of the last meeting. As these minutes have
been printed, a motion will be in order, I think, to dispense with their
reading.
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Mr. Thos. Carrow (Pennsylvania R. R., Philadelphia) : I move that the reading of the minutes be dispensed with.
The motion was regularly seconded and carried.
ANNUAL REPORT OF MANAGING DIRECTOR
"W. H. CAMEKoy
The National Safety Kcics has been improved in quality and in the number of special articles; there has been an increase in the total circulation and in the number of extra copies ordered by members for their foremen and superintendents. The production of a magazine of the present size and quality at so low a cost is made possible only through the remarkable generosity of members in contributing special articles, photographs, information on special hazards and safeguards, and data for symposiums. Few if any magazines have the services of so large a staff of able, energetic, volunteer contributors.
The "Workmen's Bulletins have been continued at the rate of 36 per month and have been improved in quality. More time and money has been spent upon the bulletins than ever before, and each month one of the large-sized bulletins has been painted especially for- the purpose by a well-known artist. A total of 1.250.000 extra bulletins has been ordered by members during the year.
T7ie Safe Practices Pamphlets have appeared bi-monthly under the supervision of Mr. R. J. Young and with the invaluable help of the Con ference Committee of 75 safety engineers. Several of the earlier pam phlets have been revised and reprinted. This "safety encyclopaedia" now numbers 56 pamphlets in the general series, and S sectional, to which
Annual Meeting of Members
13
should be added three valuable "Data Sheets" issued by the Chemical Section during the year. An alphabetical index to the contents oC all the Safe Practices pamphlets has been prepared for distribution to mem bers desiring it.
The Information Bureau has answered 4,554 requests tor information-- nearly double the number received during the preceding year------involving the distribution of over 50,000 pieces of information, including clippings, pamphlets, books, photographs, blueprints, bulletins, etc.
Films and Slides have been loaned to members in increasing quantities. The two albums of photographic reproductions of the entire slide col lection (now numbering more tban 1,100) are in constant circulation among members for the selection of slides for their specific purposes. The film library has been kept up to date--and. most gratifying of all, funds have been raised for the production of three new National Safety Council films to cost $20,000 and the first of these will be exhibited for the first time at the Buffalo Congress.
The Safety Calendar has been regarded by members as a real item of service, as shown by the fact that'300,000 copies of the 1923 Calendar were distributed- Four leading artists have prepared thirteen remarkably fine paintings for the 1924 Calendar.
The 1922 Congress was considered the most successful in the Council's history. The Proceedings of this Eleventh Congre'ss, after the most rigorous editing, contains over a thousand pages, of general and special safety information with complete alphabetical index.
National Safety Codes, looking toward the elimination of conflicting requirements and the accurate determination of practical standards, have received greater attention than ever before. Under the Council's sponsor ship the Code on Power Presses has been completed, approved by the American Engineering Standards Committee, and widely distributed; the Codes on Construction Work and Paper and Pulp Mills will have their final hearings at the Congress; substantial progress has been made on the Code of Colors for Traffic Signals and the Textile Code; and the first draft of a new Forging Code has been prepared. The three last mentioned have been in joint sponsorship witb other organizations. In addition, the Council has been represented by various members on some 34 com mittees formulating other standard codes; Mr. A. W. Whitney, long a member of our Executive Committee, has been Chairman of the American Engineering Standards Committee, and our Chief Engineer has been Chairman of the Safety Code Correlating Committee.
The Plant Publications of Council members have been given a special service including original safety cartoons and reproductions of the--1923 Calendar pictures with accompanying stories. Other Special material and assistance have been given to members publishing plant magazines or contemplating the establishment of a publication.
The Industrial Sections have been more active, on the whole, than ever before. All of the sections have held executive committee meetings dur ing the year for the planning of their intensive service to their members
14 Twelfth Safety Congress
and several have conducted energetic membership campaigns. Many of
the sectional committees have performed invaluable service to their fel
low members by furnishing photographs for bulletins, conforming to the
present high standard of excellence.
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The Engineering Section held three successful meetings during the year
and its research committees are doing valuable work on fundamental
safety problems. Many new members have been added to this section.
A. New Marine Section and a new Ice and Refrigeration Section have
been organized. This raises the number of industrial sections to 18, plus
Health, Education. Engineering and Public Safety and groups interested
in Plant Publications and Employees Benefit Associations. Of particular
significance was the holding of two highly successful regional conferences
of the Mining Section in Butte, Montana, and Globe, Arizona.
FOBEJCC SAFETY
While most of the work for safety on the streets and in the homes has
been directed toward the formation and upbuilding of community safety
organizations, the Council has also increasingly fulfilled its obligation
as national leader of the whole Safety Movement. The public accident re
port forms prepared by the Public Safety Section have been widely dis
tributed. Several radio messages, including a special Fourth of July
warning, have been broadcasted from a number of stations. A special re
port on radio hazards has been prepared. The National Code on Colors
for Traffic Signals, already mentioned, is of far-reaching importance for
public safety and is a step toward uniformity in traffic regulations in
general. Another step in the same direction was the holding, under
Council auspices, of the first conference of motor vehicle authorities of
the middle western states, resulting in a permanent organization of these
officials. The Public Utilities, Electric Railway, Steam Railroad and
Taxicab and Delivery Sections have cooperated in the development of the
public safety program and close contact with them has been maintained,
by the Public Safety Division of the headquarters staff.
The Education Section has been much more active than ever before,
through the services of a full-time assistant secretary, made possible
through the generous assistance of the National Bureau of Casualty and
Surety Underwriters, which also helped to finance the field secretarial
service to local councils mentioned below. The Education Section has
made contact with literally hundreds of public school systems throughout
the country and in a large number of these communities safety education
has been put on a sound and practical basis. Six demonstration centers
have been a valuable aid to this work.
Our Publicity Service in the public safety field has been considerably developed. Series of safety lessons and daily safety messages have been
sent to and used by hundreds of newspapers. Dispatches and feature
stories have been sent out in cooperation with national news agencies.
Material has also been sent to the newspapers. Much special material
and assistance have been given to local councils and members, for local
publicity campaigns.
Annual Meeting of Members
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LOCAL COUNCILS
Our intimate contact with and service to the Local Councils has been greatly developed. The preparation of a series of local council organiza tion and activities has been begun and the numbers on "Financing,? "Or ganization and Activities," and "Foremen's and Safety Supervisors' Schools" have been prepared. A monthly news letter of specific in formation has been sent to the local council officers, with valuable en closures. A pamphlet on the "Trend of Public Accidents" was printed and distributed. The quarterly conferences of local council secretarymanagers and headquarters' officers have been widely attended. A set of "Elevator Safety Lessons" has been prepared and printed for local council use. Ten new local councils have been organized. Two new field secretaries have given all of their time to the organization and service of the locals. Extensive correspondence has been maintained both with the existing locals and with communities desiring to organize for safety. State and municipal authorities have been furnished with copies of the Council's public safety material and have been inspired to greater activity in accident prevention work.
EXTERNAL RELATIONS
Cordial cooperation has been maintained with other institutions inter
ested in Safety, such as the American Museum of Safety, the United States
Chamber of Commerce, the Boy Scouts, the Canadian Safety Council, the
Ontario Safety League, the American Association of Industrial Physicians
and Surgeons, the Safety Section of the American Railway Association,
the Safety Bureaus of the insurance companies, and state and federal
government departments, as well as the American Engineering Standards
Committee and the National Bureau of Casualty and Surety Underwriters
already mentioned.
.
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Safety Exhibits have been furnished on request for a number of trade association and other meetings.
Extensive General Publicity, in addition to the public safety items al ready mentioned, has been secured and a large number of special articles has been furnished to and used by trade magazines and other publications.
staff
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To enumerate the real "staff". of the National Safety Council requires almost a membership roll of the organization, so large is the number of members who have contributed to the National Safety News, the bulle tin service, the Safe Practices pamphlets, the upbuilding and service of the various sections, the Annual Congress, the film and slide collection, and all the committees and .activities, both national and local.
In addition to Carl L. Smith and W. R. Rasmussen, Field Secretaries, and Mary Noel Arrowsmith, Assistant Secretary of the Education Section, the headquarters stall now comprises 42 persons, including:
W. H. Cameron, Managing Director and Secretary.
16 Twelfth Safety Congress
Sidney J. Williams. Cbir-f Engtoerr tin charge of Industrial Division
and Publications) .
Fred M. Rosseland, Chief of PoWic Safety Division (including Local
Councils ).
W. Dean. Keefer, Chief of Business Division.
George Earl Wallis, Editor fcigd Director of Publicity. R. T. Solensten, Supervisor of bulletins.
John M. Sandel. Safety Engineer.
-
C. T. Fish, Associate Ed itor. Mary B. Day, Librarian. Mary M. Wells. Assistant Librarian.
M. Mollan, Chief Clerfc.
REPORT OF FINANCE COMMITTEE
Homes E. Niesz. Ch.vibman
An analysis of the report of the Treasurer submitted herewith shows a substantial increase in both gross and net earnings during the fiscal year ending July 31, 1923.
The total gross revenue is $261,644.88, an increase over the previous
year of $55,648.56.
'
The amount of revenue from memberships is $164,943.56 which is an
increase of $12,603.35 over the previous year.
' A very substantial source of profit was the sale of calendars of which over 300,000 were sold, providing a net revenue of $25,451.04, or an in crease from this source over the previous year of $18,582.33.
There is a gross increase in expenses of $37,906.94, which is due to
two principle causes; the setting aside in reserve for future members of $11,629.18 in cash and the increase in expenses of operation due to
the addition of one field man paid for from the funds of the Council;
increase in the number of employees and some salary increases to the
office and staff, which resulted in increased facilities and improved serv
ice to members.
'
The net earnings transferred to the surplus account amount to $11, 901.97, as compared with $4,662.78 for the previous year.
There has also been set aside out of the earnings during the year a special fund as a reserve for future service to members amounting to $11,629.18, as compared with $1,000 transferred to this account during the previous year. This fund is obtained by taking seven per cent of our gross revenue from membership fees, is deposited in a separate bank account and is periodically invested in higb grade bonds. There is now on hand a total of $12,629.18 in cash or liquid securities.
The resources and income of the Council are increasing in a very satisfactory manner and the expenses are being maintained at a level which is conservative but subject to increase as our income may warrant, each' additional item of cost representing greater service rendered by the Council. .
A-nnual Meeting of Members
17
The detailed report is as follows:
ASSETS
As at July 31, * 1923
As at
July 31, 1922
Increase Decrease
Current Assets: ' Cash.................................................................... Investment Securities..................... Accts. and Notes Rec.......................... Advances to Staff........................ Inventory of Supplies..................... ^Deposit with Postmaster . , . ..
Total Current Assets :.....................
$14,265.28 9,986.25
11,882.49 660.00
3,283.91 464.54
$ 6,120.37
15,860.63 286.03
3.384.60 484.05
$ 8.144.91 9.986.25
373.97
$
3,978.14
100.69 19.51
$18,505.13 $4,098.34 $40,542.47 $26,135.68 $14,406.79
National Safety Council Reserve Fund Investment ..................................................
Office Furniture and Equipment .
Deferred Charges......................................
12,629.18 11,093.86 11,069.10
1,000.00 11,327.09
2,529.56
11.629.18 .
8.539.54
233.22
$34,575.51 $ 233.23 $75,334.61 $40,992.33 $34,34 2.28
LIABILITIES
As at July 31,
1923
As at July 31,
1922
Increase Decrease
Current Liabilities:
Accounts Payable.................... . . . .
$ 4.002.85 $
$ 4.002.85 $
Current Accounts (Local Councils! . 1,565.68
1,828.20
' $ 4.002.85 $
Total Current Liabilities..................
$ 5,568.53 $ 1,828.20 $ 3,740.33
262.52 262.52
Accrued Expenses ...................*.. ,
.
Deferred Credits.................................
Special Film Fund ...........................
.
Reserve for Future Service to Mem-
bers ....'..................................................
.
Surplus ..........................................................
.
315.15
10,100.00
12,629.18 46,721.75
284.35 3.060.00
1.000.00 34.819.78
30.80
10,100.00
11.629.18 11.901.97
3.060.00
*37,402.28 $3,060.00 $75,334.61 $40,992.33 $34,342.28
STATEMENT Of' GROSS REVENUE AND EXPENDITURE
Fiscal Tear Ending- July 31, 1923
GROSS REVENUE
Membership Dues:
.-
Active................................................................................................................-....................- . . . 5161.3S9.06
Additional Service ..............................................................................................................
574.50
SIS4.943.5C Sales of Pamphlets, Bulletins and Miscellaneous Receipts. ......... 1C.015.I4
Gross Revenue, 1923 Calendars..........................................................................................................
63.521.94
Gross Revenue, National Safety News (Dues from Council Members
_
not included! .....................................................................................................................................................................
16.875.01
Interest Earned..............................................................................................................................................- 239.23
3261.644.38
18 Twelfth Safety Congress
GROSS expenditure and disposition oe net revenue
Annual Congress Expense...................................................-.........................................................................$ Annual CongTess Exhibit....................................................................................................................................
1922 Annual Congress Proceedings...................................................................................................
Automobile Dash Cards...................................................................................................................................... 1923 Calendars...............................-..........................-.................................................................................................... Cartoon Service.................................................................................................................................................................. Chauffeurs' Lessons................................................................................................................................................... Depreciation. Office Furniture and Equipment....................................................................
Exchange ................................................................................................................................................................................ Expenses of Various Local Councils.................................................................................................. Field Work, including Salaries ................................................................................................................... General Bulletins ......................................................................................................................................................... General Oilice Expense ..................................-................................................................................................... Library Expense............................................................................................................................................................. Membership Solicitation Expense....................................................'....................................................
Miscellaneous Publication Expense ..................................................................................................... National Safety News.........................................................................................................................................Office Printing and Supplies .......................................................................................................................
Postage .......................................................................................................-............................................................................... Publicity ..........................................................................................................-..................................................................... Rent of General Offices .............................................................................................-....................................... Safe Practice Pamphlets ...................................................................................................................................
Salaries of Officers and Staff.......................................................................................................................... Sectional Activity Expense, including printing bulletins.................................. Sundry Activities........................................................................................................................................................... Taxes and Insurance ................................................................................................................................................. Telephone and Telegraph.................................................................................................................................... Traveling Expense--Administrative, including National Committee
Expense...........................................................................................-................................................................................. Loss from Exchange of Equipment .................................................................................................. Adjustment of Reserve for Bad Debts......................................................................................
2,529.31 1,622.81 5,566.45
74.27
38,070.90 36.29
196.46 1,716.05
231.93 529.11 7,196.02 13,482.28 3,348.53 418.71 6,100.51 2,057.73 28.377.68 2,480.38 2,498.09 170.99 6,000.00 1.884.68 79,865.22
16.944.61 11.092.86
502.88 1.526.01
3,383.48 178.75 157.49
Total Gross Expenditure
$238,240.48
Transfer to Reserve for Future Service to Members................................................ 11,502.43 Transfer to Surplus.................................................................................................................................................... 11,901.97
$261.644,88
HOMER E. NIESZ. Treasurer.
We "have examined the above Comparative Balance Sheet of the National Safety Council as at July 31, 1923, and. July 31, 1922, and the attached State ment of Revenues and Expenditure for the year ending July 31. 1923, and have compared them with the books and vouchers and have found them
correct.
ARTHUR YOUNG & COMPANY,
Chicago, Illinois, August 13, 1923.
Certified Public Accountants.
Our financial experience since the beginning of the new fiscal year is indi cated by the following figures:
Total Income August 1 to September 29. 1923, inclusive......................................... $19,403.99
Total Disbursements August 1 to September 29, 1923, inclusive.................. 19.143.90
Bank Balance.....................................................................................................................................................................
6.695.05
Accounts Payable...................................................................................................................................................... Investments ....................................................................................................................-.............................................
7,121.70 9,985.25
Uncollected Dues .........................................................................................................................$14,299.72
Notes Receivable .........................................................................................................................
408.37
Miscellaneous Accounts Receivable.................................................................... 4.9 40.61
Total
$19,648.70
Reserve Fund Account on Deposit ...:............................................................................................. 1,407.74 Reserve Fund Account Investments......................................................................................................... 12,938.22
Total Reserve Fund Account.........................................-................................................................... 14,345.96
Film Contributions included in Bank Balance......................................$3,623.55 Local Council Dues collected, included in Bank Balance. . . 469.68
Total..........................................................................................................................................................$4,093.23
A motion was regularly made, seconded and carried that the Treasurer's report be accepted.
Annual Meeting of Members
19
REPORT OF VICE-PRESIDENT IN CHARGE OF INDUSTRIAL SAFETY
C. B. Auee.
I have decided not to submit the very complete, illuminating and farreaching report I prepared, but simply to say instead that our efforts during the past year have been reflected In the columns of the News, in the bulletins, the Safe Practices pamphlets, and in the activity of the Council generally.
REPORT OF VICE-PRESIDENT IN CHARGE OF PUBLIC SAFETY ..
' David Van Schaack
I think that public safety is destined to be perhaps the greatest activity of the Council In the future. The Council has certainly done a wonderful work" in Industrial safety, and that work is by no means done, but the. field of public safety is really so much larger that I venture to predict that the future of the Council lies largely along those lines. I think the Council is on the right track in public safety. Of course, the solution will never entirely be found, and the work done so far has been largely experimental, but public safety depends upon two things, the interest of the public and appreciation of the public hazards and the need Tor over coming them, and I think the Council through its organization of locals, through organizing communities themselves for their own public safety, is decidedly on the right track, as the Council is also trying to enlist the aid of that great organ of public opinion, the press.
During the past year the Council has- kept at work along those lines of public safety. Perhaps the most notable thing it has had connected with it has been a continuation of the movement for motor vehicle con ferences. The Council has the privilege of calling the first conference of the administrators of the "Western States held in Chicago, which "Will eventually include about fiEteen states, and that conference is now well organized and actively at work just as the Eastern Conference is. With the extension of that conference movement to the South" and the extreme West, the country will he organized along those conference lines, and I think eventually we will get near as possible to uniformity of safety
laws and safety regulations so far as they apply to motoring traffic.
REPORT OF VICE-PRESIDENT IN CHARGE OF SECTIONAL ACTIVITIES
Geokge T. Fonda
"
The Congresses are becoming so congested, as most of you know, that
it is pretty difficult to cover all the ground and get around and attend
the meetings that you are most interested in. In the Engineering Sec
tion we figured that at least we could eliminate some of this congestion
by holding our meetings in the different parts of the country during the
year.
-
20 Ticclfih Safety Congress
The Engineering Section simply made the background tor tl>Wte t&wt
- ings, and we tried to discuss such subjects as were of interest geooTTrity
to that particular community, and a great deal of strea* w pact
Tby
question of public safety and traffic regulation, which, a* Jltr. VgUfeawcSr.
says, is getting to be a very important phase of the Mttwc*
Eft
this country.
The local Councils in Chicago and is HetroR wre esreadwfcr 4lvtVmr. a ffiBrv piece of work, and we hope that the after&aatcfc of Tri*f*wr> heW % ffftaai! cities has been worth the effort that -we pwt tste CT"W.
REPORT OF RESOET;TKXS C&M3CITTSS
C 1*. Tomkm>
"WHEREAS. This Annual Safety Oongreaa is tatace4 hv location fcu
a city whose public officials, civic oeganfaesiietts. laflwtrtw tail leading
citizens have shown an exceptional tatereet and ahifity in eaeeeoakf&g
its accident problems, both industrial and public, and
-
"WHEREAS. This demonstration of successful safety work, ho less than the courtesies of the same organizations and individuals in arranging for this Congress, forms a most ' valuable contribution to the cause of Safety, therefore be it
"RESOLVED, That a vote of thanks be extended to the City of Buffalo, the Honorable Prank X. Schwab. Mayor, the Commissioner of Police, the Board of Education, the Safety Bureau of the Buffalo Chamber of Commerce, the Niagara Frontier Convention Committee and to Mr. A. L. Kinsey, its General Chairman, to Mr. John B. Madden, the Chairman of the Industrial Safety Committee of the Buffalo Chamber of Commerce, to Mr. A. B. Wright, the Chairman of the Public Safety Committee of the Buffalo Chamber of Commerce, Mr. Floyd M. Wills, as Treasurer, and to Mr. Sydney H. Coleman, Manager of the Buffalo Safety Council, and all the members of this Council and its committees, and to all others who have assisted towards the sucess of the "Five Days for Safety' and of this Congress."
I move the adoption of this resolution.
(The motion was seconded and' carried.)
It is customary at these Congresses, as you know, to re^.enunciate the principles for which this Council stands, and I therefore offer the resolu
tions as we have offered them from year to year and have found no occa
sion to retract.
'
'
"WHEREAS, The S0,000 accidental deaths and millions of injuries occurring each year on our streets, in our industries, in homes and else
where are a blot on American civilization and the cause of untold suf
fering and sorrow, and
"WHEREAS, The direct economic cost of accidents involving personal injuries and deaths is estimated to run into billions of dollars annually, and
A.nnual Meeting of Members
21
"WHEREAS, The safe and expeditkms lraadltsg f stffget asA highway traffic has become a most sertees ptwWettt #a** &* g<jeartgf f aatowofefle fatalities is steadily increatsf&fc.
"WHEREAS, Experience h* flaOtit,Vfseyiy9- fStfi* mE kmt teveiity-ftve
percent of industrial accke*&* *P*
**W t*e* e^saasnrsW effort
of certain communities ft&43!S#&pr= f** wS, ra#nl
<** $Mribtic
accidents is possible, therefore *e K
"RESOLVED, That the .VaSeMi Swpety CSwweT? m f+= f*s<rw?f3i Carnal
Congress assembled in Ratface
<.-
"1. The adoption and sCrfcS ggrtwW wduwwt of uiigD^B-. ffi*T-iWSir new*
and ordinances for the a**T LTuShi *
C CS*r*
multitude of law-abiding
**# ji>#w^rT--uin>^ ;)n*i>a- m* p-riwrfnai
recklessness of the few.
"2. The more careful MEy *nF ofcr upiwi wW HlaB*'y existing and projected, by qwb||WlMBt "b'jgTt--i^atat oSHT the standpoint of safe and edtcSeft? wdfep >lw*iwiBurtW.
both mtwt
"3. The safeguarding of *R ffaftfseeoew: mmtes$tomr$' aSMt iPtbewi S Pafert-
try and elsewhere according e seaa^dafd **< fbi<ftc
***&*.
"4. The development of indttatri&X jrqiUjpWWftT ## prwwnwee altottg line* of inherent safety for the doable parpen; m etSSrUtattttc accident hazards* and increasing production efficiency.
"5. The education of all workmen and their supervisors in safe methods and habits of work.
"6. The training in safety thinking of all school children, as well as students in colleges and universities, both for their own protection and
as an object lesson in good citizenship.
"7. The mobilization of all community forces through state and city safety councils for securing these ends through the overwhelming force of enlightened public opinion."
I move the adoption of that resolution.
The motion was regularly seconded and carried.
Mr. Tolman: Our former President and one of the founders of the soci ety, Mr. Ralph G. Richards, has been very seriously ill. You will be glad to know that he is very successfully recovering. It is that illness that has kept him from us at this meeting and we all know how much it means to him not to be able to attend and how glad he would be to be with us. I am, therefore, as Chairman of the Resolutions Committee, with your assent, sending him this simple telegram which I will read:
"The members of the National Safety Council in meeting as sembled send greetings and best wishes."
A motion to send the telegram was carried by a rising vote.
Mr. Tolman: It has been the privilege of the National Safety Council, conforming with the policy of its founders, to cooperate in the interest of safety with many national organizations. I hesitate to name any in-
22 Twelfth Safety Congress
dividually because there are too many to mention all, but prominent
among the more recent national organizations directly cooperating for
the advancement of safety are:
'
The Chamber of Commerce of the United States.
National Automobile Chamber of Commerce.
American Automobile Association.
Careful Crossings Campaign under the able direction of Mr. It. A. Rowe.
Boy Scouts of America.
There are many others, including innumerable local organizations.
Mr. Chairman, I therefore move that we view with hearty commenda tion the growing adoption of safety activities as an essential part of the activities of national organizations, and tender our continued co operation in the future as in the past in support of such activities.
The fnotion was seconded and carried unanimously.
REPORT OF NOMINATING COMMITTEE
Robert Scott
.
"Complying with your Instructions, we the Nominating Committee appointed by you, with the approval of the Executive Committee, and as provided by Section S of Article VI of the Bydaws of the Council,, and as further provided by Section 9 of Article VI of the By-laws,, present here with the report of the nominations for successors to the Directors whose terms of office expire at the annual meeting, October 1, 1923.
"The following list has been approved by the Com _ittee and is here
with submitted.
"Nominated to succeed those directors whose terms of office expire
October 1, 1923:
'
"Charles M. Anderson, Manager, Memphis Safety Council, Memphis, Tenn.
"Julien H. Harvey, Director, Kansas City Safety Council, Kansas City, Mo.
"Herbert A. Rowe, Claims Attorney, Delaware, Lackawanna & Western
R. R. Co., New York, N. Y.
'
.
"Major Robert Sylvester, Superintendent of Protection, E. I. du Pont de Nemours & Co., and Honorary President, International Association of Chiefs of Police, Wilmington, Delawarel
"The names of the following Directors whose terms expire October 1.
1923, are submitted for reelection:
-
L. D. Burlingame L. A. DeBlois H. W. Forster Huston L. Gaddis J. A. Oar tel
C. E. Pettibone Dr. A. D. Risteen B. F. Tillson C. P, Tolman A. W. Whitney Charles B. Scott
'`Respectfully submitted by the Nominating Committee."
A/nnual Meeting of Members
23
President Dow: No Members' ticket having been nominated under the provisions of your Constitution and By-Laws, a motion to close the nom inations will be in order.
A motion was regularly made, seconded and carried that the nomina
tions be closed.
'
A motion was regularly made, seconded and carried that the Secretary cast the ballot of the Congress for the nominees presented by the Com mittee, and Secretary Cameron cast the ballot.
Mr. Adam H. Lintz: On behalf of the Tellers' Committee, as Chairman, I wish to certify that 2,549 votes have been cast in favor of the new Directors selected by the Nominating Committee.
President Dow: You have heard the Report of the Tellers. What is your pleasure?
A motion was regularly made, seconded and carried that it be adopted.
President Dow: There is one particular item of new business to be
brought before the meeting.
.
I would like to call upon Mr. Arthur Young to make hjs report with
reference to an invitation from the League of Nations.
REPORT ON LEAGUE INVITATION
Mr. Arthur Young: At the Executive meeting last night an item of
prime interest and importance to our membership was discussed, and I
think it is also an item of prime importance to the world at large. Most
of us are familiar with the fact that under the Treaty of .the League of Nations, under the so-called Labor Section, there is created the Interna
tional Labor Office with its Headquarters at Geneva, Switzerland. Its
membership comprises representatives from the working classes, from
emplo3rers and from government officials from fifty-two states partici
pating.
.
_
Their session begins this year October 22, and the prime, subject of
discussion is methods of factory inspection.
'
The National Safety Council has been honored by an exchange of cablegrams with Mr. Thomas, the President of the International Labor Office, and invited to send a lecturer to pls^ce not only before one country but the whole world the safety story of America.
That invitation carries with it recognition of our Association as the prime organization, the most important organization in the world, and very definitely we are recognized in those communications as having done the most effective safety work in the world.
At the Executive Committee meeting last night the invitation was accepted. Arrangements are now being made to select a lecturer and representative films, and already we are assured unofficially that official invitations from the governments of the British Empire, from France, from Holland and other Continental countries will be offered our repre-
24 Twelfth, Safety Congress
sentative so that his trip to Geneva at the expense and invitation of the International Labor Office will become virtually a world-wide tour of a National Safety Council representative.
A motion was regularly made, seconded and carried that tbe Congress approve the action of the Executive Committee in accepting the invitation.
President Dow: It gives me great pleasure to introduce to you at this time the Industrial Commissioner of the State of New York, Honorable Bernard L. Shientag.
ADDRESS OF NEW YORK STATE INDUSTRIAL COMMISSIONER
Beskasd L. Shiektag
On the whole, the present standard of living of the working men and
women of America is the highest in the world. While this fact must be gratifying to all of us we must be equally conscious of the fact that in
a country as rich and powerful as ours there is still much room for the
improvement of that standard. Particularly is this true of certain indus
tries in which large groups of women are employed at less than a living
wage. But the present standard, at least, will be maintained. Our work
ers will never return to the level of other days. History justifies this
conviction. Workers of every age have managed to retain the standard of
living gained during periods of prosperity and plenty. Employers or
plant managers who keep this fact in mind in planning for the future are
farseeing. Those who look for any real reduction in wages to solve their
difficulties are most likely doomed to disappointment.
Industry, therefore, must be so organized and so conducted as to main
tain present standards of living and, in fact, to improve upon them from
time to time. How can Industry perform this task? And by "Industry"
I do not mean employers alone, but employers and employees who to
gether constitute the economic fabric of the nation.
In the first place, industry must become more efficient and more
productive. Waste in industry, which has been estimated as high as
forty per cent, must be materially reduced. Faulty methods of business
administration and of production, and the waste of seasonal employment,
when corrected, will, it is estimated by scientific investigators, save bil
lions of dollars every year. Labor, too, must do its part in bringing about
the elimination of wasteful practices and in helping to attain for indus
try that degree of efficiency which will enable it to meet the requirements
of a decent standard of living.
'
'
In addition to greater efficiency in the methods of production and of business administration, greater attention will have to be paid to the conservation of the human resources of industry--to the prevention of industrial accidents and diseases. Here, again, capital and labor can accomplish but little of value, if they stand separate and apart from one another. Capital and lahor working wholeheartedly together can do much to reduce the tremendous human and economic loss occasioned by the
A.nnual Meeting of Members
25
large number of industrial accidents every year. It has been estimated that about eighty per cent of all industrial accidents are due to neglect. If only one-half of these were prevented by proper care and safeguards, industry would save enormous sums every year which would inure to the benefit of employers, employees' and the consuming public. A speaker at the Safety Congress of the Labor Department last year estimated the economic loss to the country as the result of industrial accidents to be over a billion dollars a year and in the State of New York to be over one hundred million dollars a year. I believe this to be a very conserva tive estimate for it does not take into consideration the loss in production and the loss involved in training those injured.
ixcieaw; tx isorsTWAi. accidests in st.w YORK
In the State of New York today we find that the industrial accidents re ported to the Labor Department during 1923 show an increase in number of approimatxely fifty per cent as compared with the last six months of 1921 and an increase of fifteen per cent over the last six months of 1922. How much is due to increased employment, or to better methods of re porting, we cannot state.
When we also consider the tremendous losses occasioned by illness among industrial workers, much of which could be prevented; when we consider the Impairment of health and of efficiency caused by unwhole some working conditions, we are forced to the realization that in this field of human conservation lies the hope and the salvation of American industry for the future.
The steel industry has yielded to popular demand and is now in the course of abolishing the twelve hour day. It may be safely predicted that this change will result In a gradual but steady decrease in the number and severity of accidents, less lost time by employees, and increased efficiency and production for the industry as a whole.
What happens when a man loses an arm or leg in an industrial acci dent which could hav been prevented if care and precaution had been taken? 'The employer pays; the employee pays, because no amount of compensation that he receives can replace the lost member of his body: industry pays in the form of increased cost of production. and the people as a whole pay because they have to assume and share this increased burden.
The National Safety Council is doing much to bring home to employers and employees the message of safety in industry. This is not the work of a day or a year. It is a task of continuous effort, slow in its results, but rich iu the rewards that it holds forth. In addition to the efforts of Individual employers and of organizations such as yours, public depart ments of the state and nation should wage an unceasing campaign to bring about this result. Departments of Labor, of Health and of Educa tion should marshal their forces to conquer this deadly but vulnerable enemy which drains the economic resources of the nation. Inspection alone will not do this. Methods of compulsion cannot bring about a sue-
26 Twelfth Safety Congress
cessful solution. After all. the hope for the future lies' in a continuous process of education that will day in and day out preach the gospel of
health and safety In industry and teach the principle^ and methods where
by accidents and diseases may be reduced.
'
I pledge you the most earnest and energetic efforts on the part of the
Labor Department of the State of Mew York in such a campaign. There is no more important function that a Labor Department can perform than to point out the way to reduce industrial accidents and disease. Let us not he discouraged by the magnitude' of the problem before us. It can be solved. If we look back twenty, or even ten years, we realize the prog ress that has been made. Let us continue the task with increased vigor and energy and we shall not only profit' in a material way, but we shall be performing the greatest service that it is possible to render to our
fellow men.
.
THE INNER MEANING- OF THE SAFETY MOVEMENT AND ITS APPLICATION TO THE PROBLEM OF EDUCATION
A. W. Whitney, Associate General Manager, National Bureau of Casualty and Surety Underwriters, New York.City; Secretary, Education Section. National Safety Council
The time has come in the development of the safety movement when it is necessary to make not only an estimate of what has been aecomplised but also a forecast of what there is to do. ' The first big blow against waste of life and limb has been struck and for this it was scarcely more necessary to have a philosophy of safety than it was to have a philosophy of life-saving when a child that is within reach is drowning. The big, obvious things have been done; the emergency has been met. The prob lem now reaches further back into the structure of society. Where does the safety movement belong in an orderly organization of society? What are its possibilities; what are its limitations; how does it join up with the other' elements of life; and finally in the light of the answers to these Questions how can it be developed in the best possible way?
I must Qualify my statement by admitting that the emergency has not been fully met in the public safety field; here there is still pioneer work to be done. But in a certain sense this only substantiates my point,
for in this field it is by no means obvious what ought to be done. The
problem is here much more intimately Intertwined with the social struc
ture than in the case of industrial safety and it is to a very considerable
extent educational.
-
.
SAFETY PROBLEM NOW EDUCATIONAL PROBLEM
The safety problem is now indeed in every field primarily an educational
problem; and it is this fact particularly which makes it necessary to have
a philosophy of safety, for we cannot afford to teach safety, and par
ticularly to our children in the schools, unless we know what we are
doing and what the underlying results of our teaching ,will be. ....
*
Annual Meeting of Members
27
. A. good example of the closer analysis that must he made when, the
problem becomes educational arises out of the use of the slogan "Safety
First," and this is a particularly good example for it brings ns to the
very heart of the practical problem.
.
The term "Safety First" originated, I believe, in the railway field and
there it is literally applicable for safe operation is a condition upon which
all other elements of railway operation must rest; and it was natural
enough that it should have been extended to the industrial field as well,
for there also under normal conditions it is equally applicable. But a
kind of inertia it has been carried still further so that it is popularly
supposed to express the guiding principle of the safety movement in gen
eral. As a general statement of our attitude toward life it is, however,
not only grossly inadequate but positively wrong, misleading and harm
ful; and it can be excused only as one of those careless, exuberant over
statements which we as a people are so fond of making and which we
do not expect to have taken literally; and yet the world Is full of literal
minded people.
-
.
SAFETY SOT A PRIME OBJECT IS 1.1FTC
It is not true that safety is the prime object in life. We do not need more than a casual knowledge of either history or the human heart to realize that the passion for a first-hand experience of life with all its freshness and poignancy and danger is the driving force in the world. And when this is gone life will have lost not only its flavor but its spiritual significance as well. To attempt therefore to teach safety first in a literal sense to a child is to do violence to feelings that are deeply embedded in his nature and must result either in repression and fear or in repudiation as at the hands of the two children of a friend of mine. Me lives on Long Island Sound; his boy and girl are strong and fearless swimmers but the shore is somewhat dangerous and in an uninspired moment he let his anxiety take the shape of two neatly framed "Safety First" signs which he hung in his children's bedrooms. He saw at once that the signs had produced an effect, but the nature of the effect was not evident until a few days later when he wojte to see on his own bed room wali a sign neatly framed reading, "Aw, Take a Chance." He Is an Irishman with a sense of humor and he saw the point. This was the perfectly normal' reaction of a healthy-minded child to the attempt to make safety a primary element in life and any such experience as this must wake us up with a shock to a sense of the delicacy of the field in which we are working and to a sense of how much it behooves us to know what we are doing lest we do more harm than good.
This is primarily an effort to penetrate below the surface of the safety movement and to realize the realignments that are necessary if we are to hope to be successful in'getting safety into the schools and in having it properly taught.
THE SAFETY MOVEMENT IN DRAMA
I cannot do better in presenting the matter than to give the reasoning which, led the Education Section of the National Safety Council to think
28 Twelfth Safety Congress
that the safety movement might be properly presented in dramatic form. Art is a touchstone; it will tolerate nothing that is not true and right and wholesome in the deepest sense; it will have nothing of special pleading and propaganda. If then we can make a drama of safety we are sure by that token to be on substantial ground.
The more immediately practical impulse toward dramatization came however from the following consideration. The experience that we had
already had in the schools of certain cities such as St. Louis and Detroit had shown that a 50 per cent saving in accidents among children was quite possible and therefore a saving of 10,000 lives per year if such work were done in all the schools throughout the country. Further more, we could reasonably expect that such work would produce achanged psychology in the next generation which would express itself in better laws and a better public opinion. But to get access to the schools required first a certain adult education among school super intendents and parents. This was too difficult and too slow a process to accomplish through an appeal to the intelligence and if we were to have the success that we desired we should have to make our appeal through the more quickly-turning gate of the emotions. But an appeal to the emotions on any adequate scale meant dramatization. But dramatiza
tion to be legitimate and effective must he rooted in something funda mental. It became -therefore of tile greatest importance to find out what the dramatic possibilities of safety might toe. The following was the line of reasoning pursued.
The word accident by derivation means something that "falls across." Falls across what? Evidently some orderly procedure, for If there were no order there would he nothing to distinguish an accident from any other happening since in that case every happening would he equally
casual. An accident implies, therefore, an order in the world and this, by a liberal but legitimate use of the word, we may characterize as a purpose, a purpose that is unfolding itself and whose existence we recog nize, at any rate when it is interfered with. An accident is therefore
something that balks the order or purpose of the world and safety is
something that lets it have its. way. Safety is then a part as it were
of the great order itself.
.
To discover the world-purpose and to bring life into harmony with it is nothing less than the very goal of life and not easily to be reached. But to go far enough to find where safety belongs in the world-order is not difficult. "We need only realize that the human race has reached its present estate not only by an easy growth but by an intense struggle in which the victor has been he whose soul was most on fire with the urge of life and that our ancestors have poured all this potent, restless energy into our veins. With this inheritance life must be lived as an adventure if it is to be worth carrying on. Nature has not been satisfied with a perfunctory, spiritless performance of the life-drama but has filled it with passion. Birth, a bahy at Its mother's breast, growth, a wide-eyed, wondering child eager for life, maturity, the kindling of the
spark of life in new dependent lives and the manifold experience of caring
A-tinual Meeting of Members
29
for them, death, the completion of the span and the slipping, away to make place for those waiting to be born; these are high adventure* in which the human spirit comes to grips with eternal realities. It is the purpose of the world that each shonld have his adventure and it is the supreme
mischance if he fails to find it!
'
Safety then, guardian of the unfolding world-purpose, instead of dim
inishing the adventure of life is precisely that which makes it secure.
Instead of making the world safe from- danger we are in a far deeper
sense making the world safe for adventure, or, in a still fuller sense, we
are saving the world the bad'adventure which mere chance has waiting
for it and for the good adventure which it is the purpose of the world
that we should have.
-
It seemed clear to us after such a forecast that the stage must be set
for heroic action. _ Our thoughts went back to the Greek drama, the
conflict between the will of man and the world-purpose under the form of necessity or fate. But here was scarcely less compelling theme, the con flict between the world-purpose and blind chance, led on by ignorance and carelessness.
The practical problem for the dramatist clearly was to present life as
adventure with chance and safety playing their proper roles. We were fortunate in being able to interest Thomas Wood Stevens in the problem. He wrote the play and called it "Adventure."
The play is not propaganda; it is deeper and more powerful than propa ganda. I am not sure that the word safety even occurs. Its purpose is to lay a basis for a right understanding of what safety means, without
which we cannot build a worthy and permanent superstructure. a modern drama of adventure.
It is
We had expected to have the play performed by an admirable local amateur organization known as the Buffalo Players anti preliminary
announcements were made to that effect but it later appeared that a more adequate interpretation could be given, considering the short time at our disposal, by turning the whole undertaking over to the Depart
ment of the Drama of Carnegie Institute of Technology, which through
the cooperation of President Baker and' Professor Stevens we were able to do. We have thus the added advantage of having the play produced under the direct supervision of the author, at the same time that we
are receiving valuable cooperation from the Buffalo Players.
The play is frankly an experiment. We have tried it here because we want you to be the judges o whether it is worth while. Are we
right in thinking that the dramatic appeal of safety is the most ready way to the emotions and thus to effective action? It is an experiment In another sense for the interpretation that we have given touches only one of many aspects of the subject; there are others that will repay dramatic treatment.
KKI.ATION OK SAFtri V TO KDL'CATIO.N
At this Congress the Education Section has also provided an exhibit which alms by an appeal to the eye to tell much the same story. The
30 Twelfth- Safety Congress
pageant-drama is meant for grown-ups, for the immediate problem Is
to reach the parents and so to unlock the schools, but the exhibit Is
meant for the children and those of larger growth who still have the
heart of a child.
This is not the time to attempt to develop the practical consequences
of this aspect of safety. One general fact however, is so obvious as to
demand attention, namely, that the public safety movement and the
recreation movement must go hand in hand. We cannot put the chil
dren off the streets unless we can provide other places for them to play. We have no right to drive out the bad adventure, bad as it may be,
unless we can make the good adventure possible. In other words the
safety movement If It Is to be a force in the world must be definitely
positive and not negative; it must open the door to the beautiful life
at the time that it closes the door to the ugly life. This is an exceedingly
difficult problem, particularly in the cities. An authority on the care
of children asserts that the problem of adventure is the most serious
of the problems of the city child, far more difficult to solve than the problem of health. We shall, however, not make much progress with the
public safety movement until it can be put on such a basis.
-
The second part of the problem has to do with the relation of
safety to education. We have had fair sucess in getting schools to
put safety into their curricula. Shall we be satisfied with such progress
or may we look for still greater things? The answer to the question I am
satisfied depends upon what safety has to contribute to education rather
than upon what education has to contribute to safety.
Education must be directed toward the problems and needs of life.
If, however, the place of safety in the educational system Is to bear
a direct relationship to the seriousness of the problem of accidents among
the other problems and needs of life, its place, cannot be large. . Life is
full of tragedy and one must admit, without minimizing the enormous
loss and suffering from accidents, that there are other forces at work
in the world which are still more cruel. War, disease, crime, vice,
poverty and still other social and economic maladjustments, all weigh
more heavily upon humanity; and the Great War, the Russian famine
and the Japanese earthquake bear contemporary witness to the cheapness
of life. Furthermore, the principal work of the schools must always be
a preparation for the normal activities of a well-ordered life. The strength
of the claim of the safety movement upon a place in the educational
system is not to be measured primarily by the saving of life and limb,
however important that may be.
*
,
Education is the process by which- one becomes fitted to be a working
part in the world-order and it is equally the process by which one be
comes fitted to experience the satisfactions of life in the fullest and
deepest sense. The results are to be had only through an appreciation'
and an understanding of the forces that control the world and an edu
cational system is to be judged by the success with which it brings
such knowledge. The question of whether a particular study belongs
in the curriculum is to be decided' therefore not in the light of its
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31
immediately practical effect but by means of this larger and fuller test. Cooking and manual-training have been introduced very generally into the schools. This was not primarily to make good .cooks and carpenters. The fundamental reason was that these things bring the child into a knowledge of primary human needs, those of food and shelter, and the ability to satisfy these needs gives him a sympathetic understanding of the world and his place in it that makes him play his part, whether it be that of cook or carpenter or that of physician or statesman, not only more acceptably to society but with greater understanding and appreciation and consequent satisfaction to himself. It is by such a criterion that the study of safety must be judged. The question. Is then: What can a knowledge of safety contribute to tbe higher discipline of life?
6AFETT WOKK BEGAN AGES AGO
I say that the primary purpose of education Is to fit one for taking a working part In the world-order. But safety is the condition which allows the world-order to go on and is thus at the very bottom of the problem. Tbe history of evolution .in the animal and plant world makes
this quite plain. The success of an Individual or of a species to find and retain its place in tbe world is measured by its ability to make itself safe. Survival of tbe fittest is tbe survival of tbe safe. If the word is used in its broadest sense. Safety education has therefore been in tbe curriculum of nature from time immemorial. Tbe mother bear teaches her cubs the dangers and the good adventures of the forest and the sand piper's babies know the perils as well as the joys of the beach. There must have been Dr. Paynes even in the Paleozoic age and they were equally successful, otherwise we should not be here today.
The only new thing about tbe safety movement in our day Is that it
is a movement and not an institution or an instinct, and that is wholly
because of the abnormally rapid development of modern life. If life
flowed on as it did in prehistoric times safety would be a family matter;
it would be part of the family discipline, like not eating with one's
knife or not lying abed in the morning, both undoubtedly prehistoric
vices. But those were days when it took a hundred thonsand years to
produce a first-rate peril like the megatherium and a family had leisure
to develop instincts and traditions; but nowadays generations of species
(that is, new models), of automobiles (the modern megatherium) have
come and gone in a time in which the megatherium would not even
have changed its stream lines. Schools exist because of our inability
to keep up with the development of the world; they are artificial insti
tutions, and their discipline only a vicarious family discipline. That we
should need to teach safety in schools is therefore no stranger than the
fact of schools themselves. Such reasoning Is sufficient to prove that
safety is. entitled to a place in education; whether the place is an- Im
portant one, however, is still to he shown.
..
To learn the world-order is the task of education. But to do this is
not enough to see the world running right; it is necessary also to see
32 Twelfth Safety Congress
it wheu running wrong. The best way to learn about an automobile is not to watch it when it is firing on all cylinders but to take it apart and make it go when there is something the matter with it.
There are plenty of disorders In the world for young mechanics to work on, but there is very definitely a problem in finding disorders that are sufficiently simple for a child to understand. To understand the maladjustments that underlie the World War, the coal strike, the Russian situation, the occupation of the Ruhr, the Versailles Treaty, the negro question or the divorce question it is necessary not only to have an in timate knowledge of an exceedingly complicated background of facts, but it is also necessary to understand the motives that are back of human behavior. These problems are vexatious also because they de pend upon imperfectly accepted social and ethical standards, but even the problems that arise in connection with established standards are of doubtful educational value.
. PKOBX.KM.-i OK KlIKOXTIOX
The primary problem of ethical education evidently is to discover those parts of the child's mind which have been sensitized by race ex perience and those parts of life where an experience can be readily ac quired that will serve as a background for judgments of conduct and where the problems of behavior are relatively simple. Such a study will indicate the points at which an approach can be most effectually made.
For the darker background I propose that the maladjustments that are responsible for accidents be made use of as being the simplest and most available examples of an-imperfectly ordered world. Such examples are for the most part extremely simple, the evil effects are evident, the conduct that is necessary for their avoidance is readily discoverable and can in many cases be put in operation by children themselves, and the emotional appeal, particularly with children, is exceedingly strong. Flowing blood and bruised flesh are clearly not a part of a well-ordered" life; an emotional understanding of this comes to a child as part of its race inheritance, as the mental residuum from its pre-historic safety lessons; so that to teach world-order through safety is to build directly upon the past.
Another advantage of this approach arises out of the substitutional character of safety. Safety substitutes the good adventure for the bad adventure. It involves therefore a study of values. What is the good adventure? What is the bad adventure? What makes it good? What makes it bad? What is worth .while? What is not worth while?
The ability to make such discriminations is one of the crowning achievements of the human spirit and there is no reason why even the youngest child should not begin to make such distinctions if sufficiently simple. Here, therefore, in effect is the opportunity to let a child begin to build up for himself a philosophy of life which may, if it is not mis handled, become a real force in years to come. This approach to the study of values not only makes use of the child's- instinctive feelings
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33
with, regard, to danger but, through the connection, of safety with adven ture, carries the problem of choice of conduct far over into the realm of positive values.
This entire analysis has been built upon the conception of a worldorder; a world that is not the plaything of chance but the expression of an unfolding purpose; a world in which the traveling shuttle of life weaves the woof of a man's restless activity into the warp of eternal truth and in which as artist and creator he is himself making the pattern. We are only standing guard to see that the pattern is not carelessly spoiled.
THE YEAE'S EXPERIENCE WITH LOCAL. COUNCILS
Li. A. De Br.ois, Vice-Pbesident, National Safety Council; E. I. du Pont
de Nemootb & Company, Wilmington, Del
This has, I am convinced, been a year of satisfactory progress. We com menced the fiscal year with 34 chartered local councils; of these only 18 were provided with paid full-time managers or secretaries. We have finished the year with 51 chartered local councils and of these no less than 30 have paid full-time managers or secretaries. Of these seventeen new councils eleven have been the direct result ot field work, in eight instances on what might be .termed "virgin soil." These eleven new locals of our own organizing are:
Atlanta
,
Baltimore Des Moines
Memphis
Nashville
Providence Richmond Springfield (Mass.) Springfield (Ohio) South Bend Toledo
This list of prominent cities newly organized for safety is highly In spiring. ' Very considerable advance was made in providing more adequate serv ice to the locals. For this much credit is due our Managing Director, Mr. Cameron, the Chief of the Public Safety Division. Mr. Rosseland, and the Vice-President in Charge of Public Safety, Mr. Van Schaack. Needless to say the successful field work of the year can be largely credited to the experience, resourcefulness and untiring efforts of the field secretaries, Messrs. Smith and Rasmussen.
As for the personnel of the local councils themselves, one has only to look back over the intimate and beneficial conferences of the local council secretary-managers this year at Chicago, New York, St. Louis and Buffalo to realize the fine spirit of this body of men who are guiding the safety work of great communities in remote parts of the United States and who are the outposts of the National Safety Council and the present pioneers in public safety development.
34 Twelfth Safety Congress
I have paid but scant tribute t'o the progress of local council work dur ing the past year and to the ability and spirit of the men to whose efforts it has been due, but my excuse is a desire to place before you within a limited time what I conceive to be the lessons which we should glean from this experience. -
The world has become mechanical--manpower and horsepower (except as a unit of measurement) are falling into disuetude. "Harnessing Niagara" was an achievement, conveying its force to great distances was an accomplishment, but to make Niagara freeze itself into little cubes in the millionaire's kitchen, brown the buckwheat cakes on the foreman's breakfast-table and drive the sewing machine in the third-floor-back trans cends any of Aladdin's mythical efforts. Not content with harnessing mere coal deposits and rivers, man harnessed the oil fields, and with what result?--the development of cheap and light mechanical motive power enabling him to flivver the sea, flivver the air, and flivver the surface of the land. See also what the gas engine is doing for the farms--the last stronghold of horsepower. The up-to-date farmer ploughs, reaps, threshes, harvests, milks and goes to market by mechanical power; his wife churns. pumps, sews and sometimes cooks with it; and when the day's work is done they sit together under Its light and listen* to music which power is broadcasting a thousand miles away. First into our industrial life, next into our public life and finally into our home life have crept the manifold applications of power to our daily peeds. But, because power is the application of mechanical forces which the human body cannot with stand, power has taken and continues to take its toll of life and limb. The path of its application.'to man's needs is tracked with blood--first in the industries, some of which a decade ago were called "slaughter houses." today upon the streets where every man's life is in jeopardy-- perhaps tomorrow within our homes, its latest field of conquest.
MUST ROUSE PUBLIC CONSCIENCE
Nature's own efforts to protect the individual of the species from the dangers of his environment are marvelous but they are inexorably slow. Human efforts at protection will always lag far behind the inception and even the conception of the hazard. It seems that an incredible number of human beings must be killed or injured before the public conscience is aroused. It is true that the majority of those industrial establishments which were termed "slaughter-houses" have at last become "a safe place in which to work." but yet the automobile has been allowed to take a toll of 100.000 lives in this country alone and notwithstanding our recog nition of what is going on in the annual increase in automobile deaths has by no means been arrested. It is our human failing not to foresee these evils and our human weakness to- close our eyes to their appalling growth until we awake to find in their elimination a huge national prob lem.
The center-of-gravity of accidental deaths in the United States was probably at one time situated in the industries, but since the inception of
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35
the Safety Movement it has been slowly transferring itself to the field of public accidents, in other words to our streets, our highways, our transportation systems and our public buildings. It is following, as I have already said, the advance of power, but whether, as we develop public protective measures and diminish thereby public accidents, it will transfer itself to our homes, remains to be seen--for today it is sufficient to realize that the focus of the disorder is moving into the public life of the community. Very recent data are not available, but for the year 1920 the figures developed by the Statistics Committee of our Public Safety Section show that -among a large group of insured industrial wage-earners, industrial hazards were responsible for little more than one-quarter of the accidental deaths, while the remaining three-quarters were caused by public and home accidents. This is significant and, in cidentally we wonder if the industrial manager today realizes that for every man killed at his work he loses three from accidents happening outside. It is the answer to his question, "Why should I be interested in public accident prevention?"
We have before us then two pictures: on the one hand, the industries where accident prevention has been undertaken, has been' successful and has been captioned "good business"--and on the other, public life, where the accidental death rate is increasing, where accident prevention is in its infancy, where few communities have been wholly .successful, and where the general public is -not yet awake to its moral responsibility. It is plain that to guide us in the development of public safety work we must draw our lessons from industrial experience. What are these lessons?
LEADERS OF PURPOSE ASD VISION NEEDED
First, we must have leaders, enthusiasts, men of vision, but practical and not dreamers--men who can measure the hazard and its growth, who can weigh the value of life aund who, in the spirit of self-sacrifice, will give their time to bring the vision closer to fulfillment. Such were the men who led the industrial safety movement a decade ago and formed the National Safety Council. Whence shall we draw these leaders tor the public safety enterprise if not from among those gathered here today and from those others not present but who can be brought into an or ganization such as this?
The greatest advances in public safety work' have come about through the activities of paid managers and I would go further and say that suc cessful public safety work cannot be successfully carried on in com munities of over 100,000 except when such men are employed.
Next, and indispensable, are "the sinews of war." We must have money --the more money the more results. How shall we obtain it?
In the beginning the industi-ial safety movement was financed to a great extent by those industries which were experiencing heavy indus trial accident losses and to a less extent by the insurance interests. Why did the industries assume the heavier share of the burden when they were after all, protected from their heavy losses by insurance coverage? It
36 Twelfth Safety Congress
was, I surmise, because of their acceptance o the fact that their own in dustrial process hazards were responsible for industrial accidents. Ap plying this lesson--if it is a lesson--to the field of public accident pre vention we should expect financial support not so much- from those who are liable to injury by public accident (the public) and not to a very large extent from the insurance companies, but rather from those in terests whose operations contribute to form the public hazards. Practical ly this is exactly what is under successful demonstration today by some of our larger local councils. The larger part of their revenue is not coming through popular subscription---that is, from the possible victims of pub lic accidents--but from the public utilities, from the operators of fleets of motor vehicles and in some cases from the individual car owners. All of these contribute to the public safety hazards. It is logical that they showed support to the public safety movement for it places the burden in the proper quarter--the public suffers enough as it is!
ORGANIZATION AS A FUNDAMENTAL BEQUISITE
There is one more fundamental requisite; it is organization. ,After the
safety idea was sold to the industrial manager he. proceeded to organize
his plant for safety. The earlier form of organization was for educational
purposes, to spread the gospel of safety--later he made safety an operating
requisite and his organization had fewer "safety rallies" but dug deeper
into the underlying causes of accidents and adopted more vigorous
methods of prevention. We must organize our communities for public
safety--first for propaganda and general education and later for deeper
research and more fundamental prevention.. We must organize for we
can no more rely upon the general public coming suddenly to its own
senses and preventing accidents than the industrial manager was able
to rely upon the mass of his workmen doing the same thing in the case
of industrial accidents. I ask you, if 100,000 automobile deaths have
failed to automatically galvanize the American public into concerted
action on the automobile hazard, what can we expect of it, unorganized
and unaided? Neither can we rely upon the elected or appointed officers
of the town, city, county, state or nation to undertake the work uniformly,
successfully and unaided anymore than the Industrial manager in the
earlier days found himself able to rely upon his body of foremen or other
assistants for the promulgation of the safety idea and the execution of
accident prevention work unaided. The solution of the industrial ac
cident problem lay in organization--the industrial manager called together
his employes and said to them' "accidents must stop--`their occurrence
is hurting us both," and he called in a few picked men and said to them
"you are a Safety Committee; when you meet, your sole object is prevent
accidents," and if he could afford it he employed a safety expert to devise,
advise and stimulate--in essence he orgamized his community to meet
the growing menace and meet it successfully.
,
We, too, must organize! We must have in our communities an or
ganization formed for the sole and specific purpose of combatting the
growing accident hazard. It cannot be any existing organization already
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37
formed for general welfare purposes or an association of such organiza
tions, because all such associations, societies and what-not have been
purposely formed to fulfill other needs and have natural limitations in
their field of activity. To be more specific we may point out by way of
example, that the Manufacturers Association finds itself handicapped in
handling problems touching the field of organized labor, the Y.M.C.A.
may have difficulty in gaining the interest of the Catholic schools, the
Automobile Club is usually called upon to bach up and to a certain ex
tent protect its individual members, and so on through the entire list.
The commercial, interests encounter similar embarrassments for we find
that the local traction company cannot criticize bus drivers or taxicab
operators without the imputation of attempting to curtail competition
and if a local insurance company's efforts to prevent public accidents
become too prominent they are discounted as a mere profit-enlarging
scheme. Further down the line at the grade crossing the railroad blames
the careless automobilist, but indignantly protests that elimination of grade crossings* is a financial impossibility, and at the street crossing
the auto'driver blames the pedestrian and the pedestrian blames the auto
driver. No, gentlemen, what we must have is a separate and independent
community organization standing for safety alone, free to act on its own
initiative and expand as fast as its strength permits, unhampered by social, commercial, religious or political limitations and able to go before
the mayor, governor, judge, or any person or group of persons in the
community and say "We do this thing for the protection of human life
and for no other purpose." Then, and not otherwise, its position becomes absolutely unassailable and no malicious individual, clique or organization
can upset or undermine it.
'
EFFECTIVENESS DEPENDS ON SYMPATHY OF PRESS
The rapidity with which public accident prevention can be made effective depends on the degree to which we can gain the sympathy and support of the local press and through it, and by the spolcen as well as the written word, reach the thinking people of the community. In the early stages of the. work especially much depends on well ' thought-out plans for work of permanent worth. Ill-arranged, hastily conceived schemes of spectacular value only, even though supported by endless enthusiasm, will not hold for long the interest either of the press or of the more substantial citizens--nor will they go far toward permanently decreasing the accidental death-rate. On the other hand the plan of a continuing, well-arranged campaign, itemized and budgeted can be laid before any intelligent business man with excellent chance of getting his endorsement. Whether his personal services can be secured depends upon his temperament, business engagements, and so forth. However, let me say that there is no man in this country too "big" to he approached and interested in public accident prevention. If he is shown a real reason for his personal interest and is convinced that the organization has a real value and is backed by practical, and not visionary men you will have at
38 Twelfth Safety Congress
least his moral support. To those who are already engaged in local council work I say go after the big men of the community--not merely those who head big undertakings, hold big offices or possess big bank accounts--but the men who are big because of what they are. Few of these can give time, not all will give money, but everyone of them can give moral support and upon a foundation of such moral support an enduring organization can be built.
The question Is often asked. "Why a voluntary organization to promote public safety when there are public officials of city, county and state already charged, in whole or in part, with such duties?" There are several answers: In the first place it is quite safe to say that some officials lack the necessary imagination to conceive the idea of accident prevention--like most people they still believe that accidents "happen" rather than are caused; other officials realize but do not know how to act. We must also understand the tremendous number of difficulties lying in the way of concerted official effort. There are physical difficulties--as for example the impossibility of maintaining a sufficient number of traffic officers to adequately control traffic at all points in a large industrial center; legal difficulties--ranging all the way from questions of constitu tional authority to mere technicalities, financial difficulties often due to appropriations which are insufficient or not accessible for the purpose.
MOK.\L REASON FOR INDEPENDENT SAFETY BODIES
But the most potent reason of all is the moral reason and it rests upon the basic fact that as a democratic nation we are governed as far and no farther than we desire to be governed. Practically, the mere enactment of a law is valueless if its enforcement is destined to become unpopular. Public officials, the police, and to a less extent the lower courts are dependent upon public support both in law enforcement and in general functioning. Electing or appointing a man to public or judicial office still leaves him a human being and, as such, he is to greater or less extent still swayed by what others think. His actions when in office are not so much influenced by desire for reappointment, for preference, for emolument as by the human wish to feel that the crowd is with him and not against him. And the man in public office if oftentimes terribly alone and must find alone the final answer to questions involving his entire future. If a representative organization such as a local safety council can show such a man first, the public demand for public action as reflected in the daily press; second, its willingness and ability to assist him in meeting this demand without thought of receiving credit for its efforts; and third. Its intention of morally supporting his actions--then results may be expected. We have many notable instances of conscien tious and effective safety work by motor vehicle commissioners, police department officials and other unaided by any citizens safety organization, but in most places where there is no civic organization such as a safety council expressing crystallized public opinion the approach towards public accident*elimination is heartrendingly slow and irregular.
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Progress toward the elimination of unnecessary death passes through successive stages of individual conception of prevention, discovery of cause, development of effective remedy and finally education of the public. Each year's experience of existing local councils and the addition of each newly organized council swells the reservoir of information at Chicago. No other organization, public or private, has such resources of informa tion at its command as has the National Safety Council and no other organization is better fitted to assist our communities in effective local organization. There is still much to be learned, there are still unexplored regions and unassailed obstacles, though at least there is no valid excuse for making the same blunders that other communities have made at the cost of time, money, and unarrested human suffering. Public accident statistics show that we are gaining ground and local experience proves that local council work can be successfully supported. Let us then resolve to stimulate everywhere local council organization that we may go for ward faster towards our goal of human safety.
ADJOURNMENT.
General Session
Joint Session of the American Association of Iadastmi
Surgeons and the National Safety Cwcil
October 1, 1923
aad
. DB. C. E. FORD, Chairman
President, American Association of Industrial Physicians and Surgeons
S. B. BOTSFORD, Chairman Attorney, Buffalo, N. Y_
RESIDENT DOW: It gives me a great deal of pleasure to introduce
Pto you the Chairman of this afternoon's meeting, who will now take
charge and I present to you Mr. S. B. Botsford, an attorney and a citizen of Buffalo, who will be your presiding officer.
Chairman Botsford: You are dealing, in these meetings, with the funda mentals of human life, with the very existence of people, with whether or- not people shall live or die, or, if they live, whether they shall be maimed or be halt, and under those circumstances I shall not introduce any humor or attempt to delay this meeting with any ill-timed remarks of my own. You have some fine speakers who will talk to the point and so I will proceed immediately to introduce the first of those speakers. With great pride I present to you the Honorable George Stewart Henry, of Toronto.
ACCIDENTS ON THE HIGHWAYS '
Hon. G. S. Hesev, Minister of Public Works and Highways. Toronto, Ontario
It is a great privilege and pleasure for one to come over and even for a short time address such a large and influential gathering as I see before me this afternoon. I appreciate the value of the work that you have been doing for the last ten or twelve years, and while I have not been actively engaged as a member of any Safety Council, I have been watching the results that have been obtained in the various areas that have been, work ing during these years.
As I am dealing more particularly with the accidents on the highways, I want to get you back into the early history of the highway. We are told that the original highway was the footpath, possibly the trail of the
41
42 Twelfth Safety Congress
Indian in this country; and under what we are pleased to call in British Dominions the precedent, the pedestrian has right of way because he was first on the highway. Those of you who have been identified with railway administration in any way know what I mean. The railroad first on the ground has possession, and possession we have always looked on as nine point of the law. I don't want to lay it down as an axiom that the pedestrian has possession of the highway because he was first there, but as I would deal more particularly with- accidents due to motors, I think that I am justified, in putting the situation in that light, not from the standpoint that legally the motorist has no right on the highway, but that for the sake of human progress and for safety of the individual it is better for us as motorists to recognize the pedestrian as having posession of the highway.
I would like to point out, in the first place, that the pedestrian walking along the highway, no matter how absent-minded or careless he .may be, is not apt to do anybody any harm. It is true he may run into somebody, but the results are not serious. Consequently, I think that from his stand point he may be excused if he does become absent-minded. But the motor ist, on the other hand, cannot afford to be absent-minded when driving a motor on the highway. He is in control of a dangerous machine, and in any case, if he shoud drive his machine into any obstacle he is apt to do damage to himself if not the obstacle he runs into. Consequently it behooves him to be ever alert in the operation of his machine that no in jury comes to himself or to others using the highway.
EQUIPMENT MUST BE FIRST CLASS
Of course, there are a good many ways in which the motorist can pro tect himself and those on the highway in the care of his machine as w-ell as in the driving of it. We all expect that his equipment must be in first class shape: he is negligent and sometimes' I think he is almost driven to be negligent when he doesn't keep his equipment in good shape.
Just here let me remark that we have recently developed a four wheel brake on motor cars. To me in some respects that looks as if it is only a more dangerous machine than ever, because we are told that a four wheel brake car will stop In a shorter distance than one with two brakes. One with two brakes, if they are in good shape, will stop soon enough, and we are going to develop a machine that if it is not in proper ad justment and working efficiently Is more dangerous than ever. I some times think that with the increase of motor cars, particularly on the American Continent. Providence has been somewhat behind us. How often have we heard the remark, "If the days of tweny-five, twenty or even fifteen years ago were with us when we had a greater supply of intoxicating liquors at our hand, what would have been the result?" So I say Providence must be behind us, more particularly where motor cars are in greater use per capita than in any other part of the world. We have greater restrictions along this line than they have almost anywhere else, and I think possibly restrictions that are needed.
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Over In nay own Province we have a new law coming in force the first of the new year. Those convicted of reckless driving or driving at exces sive speed are to he sent to prison. We are not going to allow the use of the motor on the highway in a reckless manner or with an utter disregard for any speed laws. Those who are convicted of a violation of this section of the Act are to be sent to prison, so that they can think over their situa tion and realize that they owe something to society and the country in which they live.
Recently I heard the remark passed by one who had been visiting a city that there seemed to be more reckless and careless driving of motors there than anywhere else he had been, and on inquiry it was found that the police had lost heart because it was found almost impossible to secure convictions for breaches of tbe law In that particular municipality. We have to look to the courts, to those who sit on the bench, for various jurisdictions with confidence that they will administer the law for the benefit of the people at large.
DIFFICUX-TT IN SECURING CONVICTIONS
In my own Province the tendency of late has been to take questions of accidents on the highway away from tbe jury and give them to a judge himself because it has been found in recent years that it is very difficult to secure conviction for one who has been guilty of gross carelessness or recklessness' on the highway. That wasn't always so. In my own Province a few years ago when we hadn't as many motors, when the motorists were in the minority, it was an easier matter to get conviction; now every man who sits on the 'jury is a motorist and he more or less feels that he is sitting in judgment on himself. Consequently, the tendency with us is to place the cases before a judge without a jury.
A great deal can' be done to assist in the reduction of the loss of life and serious injury on the highways by legislation. It was with that idea in view to a large extent that the Ontario legislature last year revised its motor laws, its road laws, to control the traffic that has been developed upon them during the last few years.
Just here I would like to speak a word to you on the necessity of uni form laws, laws uniform not only in the United States but uniform in the Dominion of Canada as well, because as we go forward from year to year there is bound to be an increase in interchange of traffic. In my own Province we are looking forward annually to have more and more tourists driving over our highways, enjoying our incomparable scenery, our invigorating climate and the wilder sections of the country, for all classes of sport are available for any one who cares to visit us.
We are expecting you from the United states to come more and more within our confines, particularly during the tourist season, and in return we in Ontario and the rest of Canada are touring more within your con fines every year, so that it is most essential that we as a people on the American Continent should lead to as uniform laws as practicable, uni formity in law in all its different phases, uniformity in signals, that is
44 Twelfth Safety Congress
signals from the motorists and signals or sign posts placed upon, the highway. A great deal can be done along this particular line. I under stand there is an organization in the United States studying this question at the present time, and it is awaiting the decision of those who have been particularly interested in it that we in the Province of Ontario have not in cluded in our laws any fixed form of signals, rather desiring that you will develop something of a uniform character that will in all likelihood suit our conditions, and then we will be pleased to adopt it and be one of your selves as far as that is concerned.
There are a good many different phases of the situation. I attempted last session, as a private member of the House, to secure a law that would require lights upon all vehicles upon the highway, but my farmer friends who were in large numbers in the House at the time couldn't see it eye to eye with me, particularly as we were approaching the general election and they didn't feel like going back and telling their constituents what had been done in the legislature in its last session. Consequently we did not have put on our Statute books any laws requiring lights on borsedrawn vehicles, except there is power given to the cities to pass by-laws requiring that within their own municipal boundaries.
LICENSING OF DBIVERS .
*
We have been discussing the licensing of all drivers. That has not
been made part of our law for the present time, but I am'satisfied it will
be the law. I think it is the law in some parts of the United States. It
is bound to come in the end, because in the administration of the law
and in the punishment of offenders it will be essential that the offenders'
records as motorists should be known. We look forward to having, and in
our present legislation we have, some forms of penalties that become
cumulative, that the first offense is not as serious as the second offense,
but as tbe offenses accumulate and pile up against tbe offender, the punish
ment increases. We-are looking forward to that in an endeavor to bring
our rash motorists to terms, and I am pleased to say that there are only
comparatively few, but they drive so fast and so recklessly that they
come in contact with a large population every day, and consequently they
are a great menace, and they will be bandied effectively as a consequence
of the law.
"
_
In the administration of our highways in the Province we are doing all
we can to eliminate the danger of accident on the highway, particularly
collision between motors and other vehicles. Our guard rails, which are
essential to the turn-pike where there are deep ditches on the sides, are
now equipped with a cable anchored at the end of the guard. We have
had innumerable cases in the last two or three years where serious acci
dents have been avoided because no matter with what force a motor
drives against a guard rail with a wire cable anchored to it, it is not
possible for the machine to get off the highway; it may break a portion
or a section, of tbe posts off, but the cable invariably throws the car back
on the road and avoids many serious accidents and sometimes fatalities.
We feel that this has done a great deal to protect our motorists on the
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45
highways during the last few years, and we have spent a lot of money on the elimination of sharp turns and the elimination of grade crossings, not only by separating grades, but often by deviating the road for a mile or two where a highway is proceeding largely in the same direction as the railroad. We have cut out two crossings in a great many cases, placing the highway along the railroad instead of crossing and recrossing.
We have trimmed trees and other obstacles that have spoiled the view, giving a clear vision of railroads and dangerous crossroads, and a great many other similar ideas are being developed with the idea of taking care of the motorists on the highway. Where reasonable care is exercised we feel that a great deal of loss in human life that has been all too apparent to the whole of America in recent years will be entirely overcome.
EDUOJlTIOK IS OBEA.IEST FIELD
I think possibly we all agree that the greatest field in all our safety
endeavors is that of education. In onr own Province we are doing, and
I suppose you are in the -United States, a great deal in the way of edu
cating the boys and the girls in the common schools, reaching them at an
early age, teaching them the value of thinking before they act, protecting
themselves no matter what they are doing. I like to think that this
educational field of endeavor is the greatest, not only because you are
reaching every boy and girl, hut because you will develop an idea among
society generally and it will go on from year to year and have a cumu
lative value in years to come. I am satisfied that a great deal will be done
by having the individual's mind, so trained that care will be taken, that
thought will be given before anything is undertaken, that the child will
look both ways on the street before he crosses over, that the motorist will
be constantly on guard to protect the pedestrian, and that we will all use
our minds which. have been given to us for that purpose to protect our
selves and to protect those around us.
.
KEEP WELL PEOPLE WELL
Robebt Cabothebs, M. IX, Cdtcihkati, Ohio
A committee of the New York Academy of Medicine recently made a thor ough physical examination of nearly 1,000 persons of all ages, wage earners of both sexes and all races. It resulted in finding only 2% per
cent perfectly normal and healthy. Twenty-five per cent needed hygienic
or social advice and 72 per cent were in actual need of medical or surgical treatment of some kind. None of these people were really, sick in the
true sense of the word. They thought themselves in good health and were
working, but doing so more or less handicapped.
'
If we are to take the above findings seriously, the slogan should be
"Get people well and keep them well," Check up the machine as we do
our automobiles and keep it in the best possible condition. Physical inventories, such as the above, are being made in factories,
advanced schools, gymnasiums and many places in this country with
about the same findings. Is it any wonder, then, that we are being aroused
to action and our interest in health Quickened?
46 Twelfth Safety Congress
Wiiat is.health? It is wealth, our greatest possession, the ability to keep well, the power to throw off disease--for the germs of disease are always with us^--the ability to recover quickly and completely from injuries or disease, the complete absence of physical defects. Health speaks for the best that is in man--energy, thrift, frugality and efficiency. The healthy man is sane and honest. He meets his responsibilities; he is a good citizen and a good friend.
We have no assurance that health will be perpetual. Disease, the enemy of health and the embodiment of the devil, is constantly with us in some form and demands the intelligent opposition of preventive medicine.
Intelligence, itself, smothers instinct and causes unhealthful disturb
ances. Instinct directs us in certain protective lines and our civilized
education desires differently. The working man eats quantities of rough
age, such as cabbage, potatoes and turnips. He works hard and is a
stranger to overweight and constipation. The office man prefers .easily
digested, fat producing carbohydrates; he avoid? walking when he can and
is habitually constipated.
-
THE FALLACY OF CARELESS PERSONAL. HYGIENE
Ignorance of or carelessness in personal hygiene Is probably one of the most potent causes of ill health. Sanitary surroundings with a clean body and a clean mind add greatly to one's health and happiness. This is being impressed upon the school child, the factory worker and the public gen
erally through magazine and newspaper articles.
Nutrition is one of the most interesting subjects of today. The bio chemist in animal experimentation has demonstrated many curious prob
lems and has proved the cause and effect of the good and the poor foods
that we eat. Manufactured breakfast foods with the beautiful pictures on
the billboards are excellent commercial possessions while old fashioned
oatmeal with brown sugar and real cow's cream helps to make big, strong
children.
Milk should be the basis of everyone's diet. Every man, woman and child should have the equivalent of one quart of cow's milk each day, an abundance of fruit and rough vegetables, a reasonable amount of meat and plenty of whole wheat bread, with appetizers and a few dainties, ail conducive to health and bodily efficiency.
Protection from heat and cold by suitable clothing, plenty of pure air and an abundance of the sun's rays, good water inside and out and real food is surely the short road to health. If we could only get away from the complex, artificial life we live and be real, and accept the biblical injunction "food and raiment to thy fancy.'"
Though eminently necessary, personal hygiene is not a cure-all nor is it clear sailing for everlasting health. The causes of disease have no respect for age, sex, race, previous condition or social position. The history
of humanity is filled with epidemics or the ravages of so-called com municable diseases, diseases conveyed directly or indirectly from one person to another through a definite germ of infection. We are all familiar
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with the terrible epidemics of influenza about the close of the war. What is more to the point, however, is how science has fought these diseases
and lessened their severity and in some cases, almost eradicated them.
One. hundred and fifty years ago the streets of London were peopled
with horrible deformities, the result of smallpox. Jenner's discovery of
vaccination has made such things unknown. Only a few years ago, tuber
culosis in some form was responsible for one death out of seven. Keck's
discovery of the tubercle bacillus with a careful study of the course of
the disease by many observers has lessened its detructive action, so that
we no longer hold it in horror and it is predicted that it will disappear
within the next 30 years.
.
Gonorrhea is probably responsible for more physical and mental unhap piness than any disease known. Blindness in children, sterility In both sexes and premature old age are only- a few. of its accomplishments. Neiser discovered the real cause, and, if the proper precautions are taken', there is no good reason for contracting this disease. In the years gone by we have filled our hospitals with' paretics and many more people, a little more fortunate though greatly incapacitated are made inefficient for life's struggles by the germ of syphilis. Probably no disease has been more thoroughly studied, with the result that a definite cause and a definite cure are known. It can be. made preventable with only a little precaution and we are fortunate in having the Wasserman test to check up during treatment and known exactly where we stand. It is to be feared that society is blind to the real value of this work and sees more clearly the disagreeable social side of the problem rather than the value of preventive medicine.
WIIAT PREVENTIVE MEDICINE HAS DONE
The stories of malaria and yellow fever are wonderful chapters in pre
ventive medicine. Science found the cause, which is carried by the
mosquito and easily prevented when known how. As a result of these
discoveries, marshes are now fertile fields with screened houses for the
inhabitant and it was made possible to complete the construction of the
Panama Canal.
There was a time when Fall and Winter brought its usual epidemic of typhoid fever. It was found that polluted drinking water carried the causative germ and after the sanitary engineer became active, the disease has become much less frequent, though not entirely eradicated.
The parent of 30 years ago looked aghast at the word diphtheria and the sadness and grief which that disease spread was beyond words. How well I remember the first authentic reports of the value of diphtheria antitoxin. It surely brought hope and sunshine to many homes.
There are quite a few localities in our bodies which are exposed to the air and thereby come in intimate contact with disease germs of many kinds, perhaps not so virulent as those just mentioned, but nevertheless capable of setting up a local infection. When picked up by the blood current, the germs are carried through the circulation to internal organs
48 Twelfth Safety Congress
and locations, causing diseased conditions there. The local infection, such as an ulcer on the tonsil or the root of a tooth, is called the focus of infection and in general terms, we refer to them as focal infections. The teeth, tonsils, nose, throat and ears, with their accessory sinuses, the urethra and the organs of generation in the female are most frequently affected. An infected break in the skin or mucous membrane can act as a focus for internal infection. So long as the blood current is moving, the germs are comparatively innocent, but when they get caught at the end of a so-called end artery (one without an outlet) there trouble may and often does appear. Another source of infection is the loaded and consti pated bowel where are stored millions of bacteria in fermentation from which many infectious germs are absorbed and circulated through the body In the blood stream.
The synorial membranes of our joints for functional reasons have end arteries that are also the habitat of the disease "rheumatism." Diseases of the heart and kidneys usually, and quite likely pneumonia and pul monary tuberculosis, originate in the same way. Neuritis, appendicitis and gall bladder diseases many times house the same germ found in a diseased tonsil and are surely caused in this manner. Billings has esti mated not less than nine' distinct diseases that are caused by focal infec tion. The great majority of these diseases can be avoided if care is exer cised in detecting and destroying the focus of infection causing them.
I once knew a woman who had sat in a chair for seven years, unable to do the least thing for herself. Upon examination it was found that shortly before her rheumatic condition had started, two teeth roots which were diseased had been crowned. Otherwise she was in good health. The removal of the crowns and roots, cleaning the diseased local condition of the jaw and a long course of treatment to the joints restored the woman to health and usefulness.
These cases can be reported by tbe thousands. Sometimes the trouble is with the joints; sometimes with the heart, lungs or kidneys. Diseased appendices and gall bladders are frequent; so also are focal infections. .
The human body contains certain ductless glands, the thyroid, pituitary and supra-renal being the principal ones although many smaller and per haps less important ones are also to be found. Each has its own important functions to perform but work best when acting in unison. They remind one of the carburetor, magneto, generator and starter in an automobile and are capable of giving us much anxiety and trouble when diseased. Disfunction of one of these glands gives rise to definite signs and is easily detected by one trained to do so. Too little thyroid action, for instance, causes inertia, loss of hair and over weight. Too much causes nervous ness, sweating, diarrhea and underweight.
It has been learned by experimentation that our environment, food and water are responsible for faulty function. Tbe thyroid gland manu factures iodine for the body which it derives from the food and water we inject. It is important, then, that we eat foods that contain these
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necessary ingredients--fruit and raw vegetables. A diseased gland is caused by pressure, malignancy or infectious germs, probably coming from a focus of infection or one of tbe infectious diseases.
These glands are called endocrines and the study of them endocrinology.
The healthy endocrines keep us young and prolong life. It bids fair to
become the next great adjunct to medical science, .such as anaesthesia,
asepsis and the s-ray have been in the past.
A MENABILITY OF CANCER TO CURE
The saddest chapter in all medical literature is cancer. Its onset is so insidious that it is on us with deathly force before we know it. We may carry a cancer for several years without realizing it. Persons in appa rently good health have by accident discovered a cancer of the stomach, or. if a woman, in the breast or womb when it is too late to effect a cure, yet no malady is more amenable to a positive cure when recognized and treated early. The cancer of the lower lip is seen and diagnosed at once and almost every one is permanently arrested. When neglected it is just as virulent as those found elsewhere and the deep seated cancers when treated early are as easily cured as those on the lip.
The cause of cancer is no better understood today than it was 50 years
ago. We do know that the cases are increasing in number and that many
thousands of persons are dying of that dreaded malady every year in this country, most of' whom could have been saved. Thorough medical
examinations from time to time will discover suspicious nodules, ulcers or scars, frequently the forerunners of cancer, which should be removed
surgically. Surgery is by far the best treatment for cancer and when
impossible, ar-ray and radium are best adjuncts.
'
Perhaps one of the most frequent unnatural conditions in middle life is high blood pressure, caused by high living and low grade infection of' the arteries themselves from some focal infection. It should not be allowed to exist and can be easily avoided if one is properly advised and treated in the earlier years.
These items could be continued ad infinitum, yet people" go on thinking they are in good health until one day they find they are really sick with a malady which could easily have been prevented, had it only been known. The only way to determine the status of an individual is by periodic health examinations when he thinks he is well. When sickness does come, the complaint overshadows many lesser defects which might be over looked.
Every one should select some time in the year when he can best spare the time and arrange by appointment with his family physician in advance. In the larger cities - there are medical offices which encourage this business and have the facilities for making competent examinations. In many industrial plants this work has been carried on for some time with great saving in human efficiency. Once a year has been thought sufficiently frequent and one's birthday is considered a good time.
50 Twelfth, Safety Congress
To make the examination complete, every phase of a man's life should
be investigated, including family history and physical and mental
tendencies, early environment, pleasures, childhood diseases and their
effects, present and past habits, how much sleep he requires and receives,
the kind of food he consumes, what exercise he takes and its effect.
Clothing, the bath and sanitary surroundings are very important.
.
The careful business man takes yearly inventories of his stock, has his machinery examined to see that it is in perfect running condition. All kinds of insurance are carried, personal and material, and every business safeguard is exercised. Why not, then, be just as solicitous of the working condition of the human machine from year to year?
Through a very active health campaign carried on by one of the large insurance companies at a cost of about two and one-half million dollars, almost twelve million dollars was saved in death claims.
One of the two strongest instincts we possess is self preservation. It is our desire to live to a ripe old age, especially if we are eomfortable in body and mind. Age is most desirable when its storehouse is loaded with peaceful and happy accomplishments. 'Peaceful solidity of well rounded years should be free from pain well past the three score and ten and still be useful. Such is the pinnacle of science through careful study of man and his best care in both health and sickness.
INTERNATIONAL ASPECTS OF THE SAFETY PROBLEM
Hon. Royal B. Meekee, Commissioner, Pennsylvania Department op Labor and Industry, Harrisburg, Pa.
Americans are prone to boast of the bigness and superiority of things American. We take pride in the biggest production and we are not afraid of comparisons as to quality of our output with that of any other country. We have developed our industrial information services far beyond any European country and we do not h.esitate to say so. Our industrial infor mation informed us that we were killing and maiming men in industry to an appalling extent. The Safety Movement and the National Safety Council are the result, and today we stand far in advance of any other country in the world in safety appliances, safety organizations, safety training, safety meetings and everything that has to do with the safe guarding of lives and limbs of workers. We spend more money for safety education and safety motion picture films than all the rest of the world combined. When the' International Labor Office set up a Safety Section, largely through my own personal efforts, it looked to the United States as a matter of course for the'latest and best practices along these lines. Had the United States been a member of the International Labor Organization an American would have been chosen to head the new Safety Section. The files of the National Safety Council contain the corre spondence which I carried on with the officers of this organization relating to the establishment of the Safety Section and its activities. Reference to those files will show that it was the desire of the International Labor Office to bring to Geneva Mr. C. W. Price, who was field organizer for the
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National Safety Council at .that time, for the purpose of teaching the fundamental ideas and practices of safety as employed in America to the members of the Industrial Safety and Industrial Hygiene Sections of the International Labor Offices. It was the further intention of the office to induce Mr. Price or someone else representing the National Safety Council to make a tour of Europe, or at least of Great Britain in order to preach the gospel of safety to dwellers in darkest Europe.
I refer to this long correspondence, which finally came to naught, in order to show the acknowledged leadership of America in the field of safeguarding, safety organization and training. We lead the world in all
this. We spend proportionately, immensely more time, effort and money, than any other country to prevent accidents and to care for the injured worker who gets injured despite all preventive measures. Is not this a record,--an achievement of which we might well be proud? Might not a little boasting of this record be permissible? Perhaps so; but before pointing with pride to our record and indulging our propensity for boasting, let us consider a little just what we have accomplished with our safety campaign. We lead the world by miles in accident prevention. We lead the world by leagues in accident occurrence, and the economic losses due to accidents.
We kill and maim more men per thousand full time workers and
per thousand tons of product than any other country. Unless we
regard safety work as an end in itself, our pride in. doing big things
in a big way will be tempered by humiliation when we compare
our achievements in the conservation of human life with that of European
countries. Alice in Wonderland, by running as fast as. she could,
just managed to stand still. We safety men and public officials, charged
with the obligation to reduce accidents and to eliminate them if possible, by running as fast as our safety first legs can carry us seem to be going
backward instead of forward. Pennsylvania has no accident rates, either
frequency or severity rates. It is therefore impossible to know accurately
whether or not accidents are more frequent and cause greater time
losses now than in 1916 when the Pennsylvania'~Workmen's compensation
Law went Into effect. The accident records .are most disquieting. Doubt
less more men. are employed in 1923 than were employed in 1915. To
offset the greater numbers of employees in part if not in whole is the
shorter working day. He would be a bold statistician who would inter
pret the industrial accident figures of Pennsylvania so as to give comfort
to the Safety man. If accident frequency and accident severity have de
creased since 1915 we cannot prove it, nor can we prove that they have
not increased.
..
FATAUTY RATES IN U. S.
We may console ourselves if we are of a cheerful disposition by figur ing out how many more workers we could have killed and maimed in industry if we had not started the safety movement. However, the experi ence of European countries rises up to mock us. These countries, except Germany and Great Britain, with little or no safety Instruction, -have
52 Twelfth Safety Congress -
much better accident experience than we. The accident statistics of no
two countries are strictly comparable,--for that matter the accident statis
tics of no two States of the United States are strictly comparable. Never
theless making all reasonable allowances for discrepancies due to the different methods used in gathering and compiling accident statistics and for the difference in the basic material, it seems probable that in 1920
coal mining in the United States killed about three and a quarter times
as many workers per thousand full time employees as coal mining in
Great Britain. More disturbing than the appallingly greater fatality rate is the fact that the relative fatality rates, though fluctuating rather widely, show on the whole a decided increase. The incomplete and
incomparable statistics of coal mine accidents issued by the United States
Bureau of Mines and the British Department of Mines are compared in
the International Labor Review for January 1922. The fatality rates per
1000 workers for the United States and for the United Kingdom are as follows:
FATALITY RATE PER 1000 WORKERS
Year
United States
United Kingdom
1913 1914 1915 1916 1917 1918 1919 1920
3.73 3,22 3.09 3.09 3.56 3.38 3.03 2.92
1.55 . 1.08
1.36 1.32 1.34 1.39
.94 .88
These figures, though not accurately comparable, do show beyond pos sibility of contradiction an appallingly higher fatality rate in the United
States as compared with the United Kingdom. When we make comparison on the basis of the tonnage output, the figures show a lower fatality
rate in the United States than in the United Kingdom per thousand tons
of coal mined. This is as would be expected because of the much greater
use of machinery in mining in our country and the generally much richer
and more accessible coal measures. We must not hastily assume that a low accident rate per thousand tons of output is a favorable accident rate. Quite the reverse is generally the case as it is in this example.
The low fatality rate per thousand tons is due to the fact that human lives
are sacrificed to the God of Big Output. Men are not merely machines to he worked to their limit with the object of producing the largest pos
sible output before the man-machine is worn out or smashed to atoms.
To measure deaths and disabilities'of workers on a tonnage basis is utterly erroneous and bad statistics. The only just and accurate basis of refer
ence is the man hours worked, during which time the workers were ex
posed to the hazard of industrial accidents. Throughout my connection
with the International Labor OflB.ce, I endeavored to promote the accept ance of this plan of presenting accident statistics among all members of the International Lahor Organization just as I labored to secure the
adoption of this plan in the United States and Canada while I was United
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States Commissioner of Labor Statistics. We can't know whether we are
progressing, retrogressing or merely digressing in our accident prevention
work until we get our statistical standard and bases of comparison uni
form and right.
.
It is greatly to be desired that the accident statistics of all countries should be much Improved and standardized so as to make it possible to compare the accident rates by industries and occupations. This Is one of the important jobs I started to work upon shortly after I took charge of the Research Division of the International Labor Office. It will take years to work out and establish standards for the compilation of accidents statistics and it will be many more years before the different countries will be able or willing to adopt the standards agreed upon. Nevertheless a beginning has been made. The first conference of labor statisticians which was ar ranged for at my insistence, will meet in Geneva the first part of November next, to discuss the problems connected with the collection, compilation and publication of the statistics of labor. Accident statistics is one of the items on the Agenda.
F UKPOSE OF INTEBHATIONAl LABOR OFFICE
The International Labor Office was created primarily for the purpose
of improving the conditions of labor in all countries and of equalizing
these conditions by bringing the labor standards in backward countries
up nearer to the level in the more advanced countries. Some American
opponents of the International Labor Organization have condemned the
organization as an attempt to destroy our American standards of labor and
living, by bringing them down to the level of European or even Asiatic and African countries. Part XIII of the Peace treaty, which is the Magna
Charta of the international labor organization, contains a special provision
against this very thing. It is provided that no country shall lower its
standards in order to conform with those adopted by the International
Labor Conference for the less highly developed countries. The Interna
tional Labor Office is constantly on the alert to discover whether any un
fair advantage is possessed by a backward country by reason of lower labor
standards which would enable that country to exploit woman and
child labor or other so-called "cheap" kinds of labor. The publication
by the office of information on industrial and labor conditions In all
the different countries is a powerful influence to bring about better and
more nearly equal standard conditions. .
In the field of industrial accidents it seems that the United States has nothing to fear for its high standards, for no country of the world has such high accident frequency and severity rates. What has been shown regarding our higher accident rates in coal mining holds true in all other industries and in street accidents. In no line do we outdistance Eurpoe more emphatically than in the killing and maiming of men in industry and on the public highways. It is a bit anomalous for the nations of Europe, through the International Labor Office, to appeal to America, the greatest industrial killer, to send over apostles of Safety
54 Twelfth Safety Congress
to teach them how to save lives and limbs in industry. America is how ever- a land of paradoxes. We do lead the world both, in accident pre vention and in accident production. Perhaps we excel in the art and science of telling others how to prevent accidents because we have so many accidents to give us practical studies in prevention. It is difficult to account for the higher accident experience in the United States- It is due partly to the emphasis placed on highest speed in production, partly to improper lay out and construction of plants, partly to the hetero geneous mixture of nationalities- and races in our industries, but most of all to a spirit of recklessness on the part of masters and men alike. This is, of course, in considerable part a result of the demand for tig production. We Americans are, however, by reason of our environment, chance takers and the workers in our industries manifest the gaml ling spirit in their work and in their play.
Europe has been greatly impressed with the practical work done in America in the prevention of accidents and the care of injured workers. Even India, Japan and China are taking note of what we are doing along these lines. The European industries desire to learn more of our methods and practices. If Europe with her lower accident rates, feels that she can reduce them still lower by learning and practicing our methods, American officials and safety men should feel encouraged to put forth greater efforts to bring our accident rates down so that a public official from an American State will not be suffered with blushes every time he is asked to explain why our accident rates are two or three times higher than the rates in Europe, while we are teaching European industrialists how to lower their rates still further. The efforts of the International Labor Office to make the best methods of accident prevention known throughout the world deserve the hearty support of every right thinking person. If the office did nothing further than to direct the efforts of citizens in all countries to the importance of accurate and complete acci dent statistics, and to the lessening of the number and severity of such accident's, it would be worth more than the total cost for maintaining the Office.
STUDIES OF INDUSTRIAL DISEASES
Accident statistics and accident prevention are, however, only two parts of the whole industrial health program of the International Lator Office. Studies on an international scale are being made by the office of industrial diseases and poisons and the best methods of prevention as shown by the experience in different countries. In the latest re organization of the International Labor Office, I am informed that the Safety Section and the Industrial Health Section have been combined. I had, from the beginning, pointed out the oneness and inadvisability of industrial health and safety and had opposed the creation o a separate Safety Section. I have always held that it is just as unhealthy for a blast furnace worker to fall one hundred feet from the top of a furnace and light on his head as it is for him to breathe carbon monoxide until his breath ceases. It makes no difference to the worker or his depend
General Session
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ents it he loses his band by means of an unguarded gear or loses the use of bis hand by means of mercury poisoning. The house painter who falls thirteen stories to a cement pavement suffers from imperfect in dustrial health Just as much as though he had followed the normal career of house painters and passed out by the slower and more usual routes of chronic lead poisoning and tuberculosis. I think the common practice in our larger and better organized plants of keeping industrial safety and health in a single department is the. only sound practice. I am glad to learn that the International Labor Office has recognized this and that in future we may expect better co-ordination in the international studies of both industrial accidents, diseases and poisons.
I wish to refer in passing to another piece of research and compilation which I started at Geneva. The industrial physicians present are of course familiar with the list of industrial poisons prepared by Doctor Sommerfeld in collaboration with Sir Thomas Oliver and Doctor Putzeys which was later revised by Doctor Sommerfeld and Doctor Fischer and published as Bulletin 100 by the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics. This list of poisons never was complete or entirely accurate and it has become antiquated almost to the point of obsolescence. I made many attempts zvhile United States Commissioner of Labor Statistics to revise this list by bringing it up to date, including industrial diseases, and arranging it by industries and occupations as .well as by the names of the poisons or diseases. I was never able to get very far in this much needed revision. I made another beginning while I was Chief of the Research Division of the International Labor Office. I do not know whether much progress has been made since I left Geneva, but at least the program has been submitted and accepted and it is now a question of funds and personnel to carry it into effect. It is highly fitting that this important work in the realm of international industrial health should be undertaken by the International Labor Office which was created for the very purpose of ameliorating the conditions of labor along all lines in all countries.
UNEMPLOYMENT
_
I cannot leave the consideration of the international aspects of the safety problem without some brief mention of the most important and the most destructive of all industrial hazards. The hazard of unemploy ment is not even considered an industrial hazard at all, although it is more truly an industrial hazard than any accident causing a physical wound or injury. One can break his finger putting up a shelf in the kitchen; he may break his leg while walking quietly along our peace infested streets and falling into the excavation for the new sewer; he may contract anthrax from an innocent looking shaving brush in the privacy of his own bathroom; he may be killed by carbon monoxide generated by his own private tin-Lizzie; he may be killed or in jured in a thousand different ways wholly unrelated in any way to industry, but he can be unemployed only by being industrially unem ployed. Unemployment then is the only true industrial hazard. It is
56 Twelfth Safety Congress
also far away the most prevalent and the most detrimental of all indus trial hazards. In periods of industrial crisis and depression, unemploy ment numbers its victims by millions whereas physical accidents affect only thousands. The demoralization of workers due to unemployment and, what is perhaps as bad, the fear of unemployment can scarcely be exaggerated.
The International Labor Office has, from the beginning of its -existence,
recognized the transcendent importance of unemployment as an indus
trial hazard, and has devoted much time and expense to the study of
the amount of unemployment, its incidence, the results, the causes and
the suggested means of ameliorating or preventing it. The serious study
of all the influences and forces related to the facts, the results, the
causes and the proposed cures for unemployment goes far beyond the
field of labor and Industry. It goes to the "very foundation of the existing
social, political and economic order in all countries. The questions of
currency, banking, credit and finance must be considered thoroughly in
such a study, as well as the problems of production, distribution and
marketing of raw materials and finished products, the migration of
populations, business methods, taxation and tariff systems, export duties
and every other matter concerning the economic organization and life
of nations and peoples. Such a study was, of course, far beyond the power and the limited resources of the International Labor Office. The League of Nations was, at the bottom, more nearly concerned with most
aspects of this study. The Economics and Financial Section of the League Secretariat sent out questionnaires to all governments asking-
for much of the information needed in this study. Both the Council of
the League and the Governing Body of the International Labor Office,
recognizing the importance of the study and the necessity for co-opera tion in carrying on the study, instructed these two international organiza tions to undertake the investigation in co-operation. This joint study
was begun by the Research Division, of the International Labor Office and the Economic and Financial Section of the League Secretariat about a year ago. No published report has yet been made so far as I know. However, an article entitled "The Controlling Factor in Trade Cycles'1
based upon information secured ih the course of his research has been
prepared for private publication by Mr. J. R. Bellerby, one of the young men of the International Labor Office who has been engaged upon this
study.
.
I do not expect a very important real contribution to the understanding of the causes of and remedies for unemployment will come out of the first preliminary attempt to study the problem internationally. I do rejoice, however, that there exists in the world today the League of Nations and the International Labor Organization,--official, public inter national agencies,--charged with the duty and vested with authority to make upon an international scale this investigation into unemployment as well as any other investigation having a bearing upon the forces which
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make for discontent, misunderstanding' and-war. I am proud that I had some small part in originating and organizing these indispensable inter national institutions which have been created for the benefit of employers, workers and the rest of the people of the whole round world.
' INDUSTRIAL SAFETY
R. L>. Redpath, Generai. Manages, American Radiator Co., Buffalo, N. Y.
In looking around for some sort of a motto or name that would express what we were looking for in our safety work, I came across this: "Our aim is that our workmen shall live to enjoy the fruits of their labor, that his mother shall have the comfort of his arm in her age, that his wife shall not be untimely a widow, that his children shall have a father, and that cripples and hopeless wrecks who were once strong men shall not longer be a by-product of industry."
I think that very well expresses the ideal that we are striving for in our safety work, and I think that will correspond very well with your ideas of this work. The safety movement is one of the greatest con structive movements of modern times. It is as wide as the world.
_ Very much has been said in recent times in regard to 'the elimination of waste in material, the elimination of waste of time. Great sums of money have been spent by corporations in recovery of waste from their dumps. How much more can be accomplished by recovering the waste that is going on continually through accidents in industry!
Using an automobile term we might say that the present civilization is going in high. The automobile, one of our most recent inventions, has been said by some to be the instrument that divides between the quick and the dead. Some of us who looked at these photographs that were shown on. the screen this afternoon can readily realize that in the con gestion of traffic we saw one would have to be rather nimble in order to get away.
In the handling of materials in our plants, in the handling of our processes of manufacture, we are using every mechanical means possible in order that we may speed up, in order that we may be able to pro duce as we wish to produce in the face of a shortage of labor. These machines are all more or less dangerous unless they are properly pro tected and unless the operators and the employees who work beneath these cranes and around these machines have had proper instructions as to being careful.
To my mind there are three fundamental reasons for the' National Safety Council. The first is that we have grown to be a nation of one hundred and ten or more millions of people. The second is that the workshops throughout the country are turning out machinery as fast as may be to take the place of labor or to' perform new operations that occur in industry. The third reason is that within the past twenty-five years or thirty years we have become an industrial nation rather than
58 Twelfth Safety Congress
an agricultural nation. Another reason is that we have become a nation on wheels, and it is said that even the farmer today will not buy any thing that he can't sit on. -
It seems to me that we are better able to control accidents In industry than perhaps in any other line, because we are more, or less of a law unto ourselves. We are able to definitely provide means for the reduc tion of accidents.
MORAL AND FINANCIAL. PHASE OF SAFETY WORK
I want to discuss this question in two phases. The first is the moral or the humanitarian phase, and the second is the financial. It seems to me in taking up the first phase of the question that if I were a preacher and wanted to preach a sermon on this subject, I would take for my text "Am I my brother's keeper?"
When I went into an industrial plant about thirty years ago, the first plant of which I ever had charge, there was a young man there whom I knew very well. He was working in the machinery department, and one day it happened to fall to his lot to put on a belt. Without shutting oft the power he went up a ladder and taking a hammer handle, as was usual in those days, attempted to throw on the belt. His arm was caught and. he was whirled several times around the shaft and finally landed on
the floor with his arm off. From that time I have become thoroughly
converted to the idea of safety work, and I have been working at it ever since.
The first thing in introducing safety work in a plant, I should say, would be to convert the proprietor. The next thing to do is to convert the manager of the works or the superintendent or the various superin tendents; and the next thing is to convert the foremen and lastly the workmen.
I want to say to you gentlemen that there is nothing on earth that will convert men to the safety movement so well as to some day go into the First Aid Department and see there a man' who has been seriously injured through perhaps an unguarded machine or something that could have been avoided, and then get into the ambulance and go with that man to the - hospital and wait there until the family come In, and witness not only the pain that that man is undergoing but the grief of the family. Do that and I say to you you will be converted to the safety movement.
Accidents, to my mind, divide themselves into two'classes; first, acci
dents that might have been prevented by proper safeguarding of ma
chinery, and second, accidents that might have been prevented had the
employee used proper care in his work.
Under the first heading, for example, an accident occurred in a plant where I was in charge one time when an unguarded emery wheel burst. The man suffered very severe internal injuries and lost his right arm. In another case an unguarded belt caused the loss of a life.
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Considering the second phase, the carelessness of the employee, there occurs to my mind a process where we were handling castings through the plant. Three hooks were provided for hooking these castings on to the crane. Two of the.hooks were engaged; the other was not. The castings were lifted up and fell and the man lost his life.
In another case of this kind where a saw had been properly guarded, the workmen had gone home and the foreman wanted to do some work on that saw. He removed the guard and pushed a piece of timber through that saw. It kicked back, struck him in- the abdomen, and he died in about five hours.
Another case was that of a man who should have known better' who was pouring molten metal on to a wet floor. The result was an explosion which caused him the loss of an eye.
One might go on with innumerable cases of this kind. One of the most distressing things that occurred lately was the case of a man who got a scratch on his finger. He paid no attention to it, disregarded the instructions that the foreman had given to all men to report to the First Aid Department immediately, and iu the course of about two days In flammation set on and we did not know where he was; we found out the second or third day afterwards, and' rushed him to the hospital. He died on account of that scratch because he didn't take care of it.
MUST CONVERT SELVES FIRST
If we can convert ourselves to the necessity of properly guarding the various operations, then we can tackle the larger task of converting the workmen to this proposition of safety, and it is going to be a large task and a long one. It takes a long time to instill into the minds of your workmen that they must cooperate with you in these matters. -
Just a word as to the financial side of this subject. The expense ot accidents must be passed on to the consumer. There is no other way. If an accident occurs in a bakery there is nothing to do but increase the cost of bread; if it is on a street car, it must come out- of the fares paid; if it is on a railway, perhaps it means an increased freight rate or passenger rate; if it is in a steel mill, it will certainly show up in the price that Is charged per pound of steel, which naturally makes this
question of safety one of tremendous public concern.
There are some local statistics that I have here in regard to Buffalo that I would like to read. Eleven Buffalo firms with 31,250 employees expended a total of $791,000 to cover accident insurance premiums, first aid, hospital expenses, outside hospitals, medical specialists' fees, and the cost of safety administration. There are about 160,000 employees in Niagara and Erie Counties, including Buffalo and the Niagara Frontier. The cost figure could be conservatively multiplied by five, making a
total of upwards of $3,000,000, the cost of these accidents. Not only
would the cost of accidents be prevented but the cost of all the misery
that goes with it could be prevented.
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There are three fundamental' lines that we are endeavoring to follow in our accident work. First is to guard all machines that can be guarded; second is the educational features; third is the medical work. I have not time to go into these subjects separately, but I just want to call your attention to the fact that if you take the first letters of each one of these subjects you get the word "G-E-M." You have guard, education and medical, and if you gentlemen can succeed in cutting down to ma terial extent if not entirely eliminating the accidents in your plants, it will be one of the brightest gems that you ever wore in your crown.
SHOWS BEDOCTION OF MORE THAK HALF IK ACCIDEKTS
Just a word in regard to our experience in accident work. As I said before, we have been engaged in this for a great many years. We did not keep actual records of our experience until the beginning of 1920, when we organized our Safety Bureau, hut the records for these three years of intensive work show that we have reduced accidents through our various plants an average of 21 per cent. Some plants, however, have reduced as high as 70 per cent.
We are not proud of our record at all; we are pleased that we have been able to make this reduction, but our work is going right on, we are becoming more interested in it all the time, and I believe the greatest result we are getting is from the education that we are able to carry through the manager, through the superintendent, through the foreman, and down to the workmen.
T believe that through their safety work we have been able to get a much better feeling among our employees, and we do know that we have reduced the moral obligation which we feel in the conduct of this institution. -
Incidentally, we have reduced our compensation costs. That is an item to take into consideration, too, and it is interesting to note it here. This Work has been done during times, as you all know, when the labor turnover has been very heavy, and when there is a heavy turnover of labor the accidents are very much more noticed.
Just a word as to the system which we are following. In beginning our work in 1920 we selected a first class safety man; second we started, out again with an intensive campaign to convert our organization. One of the principal things when you are taking on a new man, when you have a large labor turnover, is to teach the man his job. Don't just turn him loose on it, but teach him what he is to do and show him the dangers of his job.
We have organized committees. One of the worst things we expe rienced in getting our safety work across was the fact that if we had one committee in a plant they didn't have time to make an inspection of a plant. In order to get away from that objection we have appointed a separate committee of five men. These are superintendents and foremen. In each department, the plant being divided into zones, we have a number
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of inspectors, usually three. When the day for inspection comes along,
which Is every two weeks, one of the men from the central committee
goes to one of the departments and makes the inspection with the local
committee and brings back the report to the central committee. The central committee have their meeting with the managers, at which all
the reports are reviewed. Each accident that has occurred in the plant
during the two weeks preceding any meeting is reviewed by the manage ment with the Central Committee, and the management has to be assured that everything has been done to correct the situation that might have
caused snch an accident.
We have sent to our central office monthly reports from each of the
various plants showing the line of action, whether it is increasing or decreasing, these being compared with accident reports for previous
years. Together with this accident prevention work we carry along sani tation and ventilation as well as heating and good housekeeping. We believe that all these things go together.
I think one of the most important things in this safety work is a first class medical department. We all know that, do as much as we may
to prevent accidents, we do have accidents, and it becomes necessary
to take care of them. We must take care of them properly in the first
place and follow them up until a cure is effected.
`
CAREFUL CROSSING CAMPAIGN
. H. A. Rowe, Claim Attorney, Delaware, Lackawanna & Western
: Railroad Co., New York City The prevention of highway crossing accidents is recognized as part of a broad subject, but lends itself to special effort. That there was need for action and that effort has been made by the' xailroads of our country under the direction of the American Railway Association, to reduce railroad-highway crossing accidents, is manifest to all observers. In 1898, when the pedestrian, the cyclist and the horse drawn vehicle were the only users of our highways, there were but 657 fatalities and 1123 injuries at all of the railroad crossings in our country, and these were regarded as almost necessary evils attendant upon the conduct of our commerce. At that time we had about 16,000,000 horses and mules
and it may be drivers in those days had the advantage of horse sense. The advent of the motor car, however, has developed hazards of
travel in its wake so that fatalities at railroad-highway crossings in 1922 were ISIO and. the injuries. 5383. During the first tliree months o 1923
the fatalities increased 35 per. cent and the injuries 46 per cent over the
same period In 1922. If this be indicative o'f wbat may be expected as
the year's result, there will be approximately 2500 deaths and 8000
injuries during the present year.
On December 31, 1922, there were registered in Continental United
States, 12,357,376 automobiles and trucks and during the first eight
months of this year, 2,708,000 automobiles were manufactured so that
we have approximately 15,000,000 cars In use at the present time, or
one to every seven of our population.
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These figures are sufficient to indicate the situation and to impress
upon us the need ol action towards the curtailment of crossing accidents.
According to our individual bents we are interested in the prevention
or reduction of crossing accidents by various motives. Pew can escape
the sighs of sadness upon hearing or reading of those who' have been
unnecessarily sacrificed in such mishaps, nor can we escape the sym
pathetic touching of our heartstrings when we dwell upon the pain, the
anguish, and mutilation borne by those who may survive, but pay a
substantial penalty for someone's carelessness at the railroad. For
humane reasons alone, all well disposed persons should end their very
best efforts to a diminution of the risk of such accidents.
As citizens, cognizant of our duties to each other, we ought to demand competency and care from auto drivers equal to that which is' demanded from engine-drivers. No railroad company would for a moment permit a train containing passengers to be operated over its lines unless sure the engine-driver had substantial experience, was thoroughly qualified from the physical, mental and operating standpoints, and in addition the engineer is disciplined for infractions of stern rules, but no such safe guards are thrown around auto drivers, who also transport passengers.
Notwithstanding the fact that practically all crossing accidents in certain states become simply an assessment of damage by injuries, I know
from experience that railroad executives are actuated in their espousal of crossing accident prevention by a higher motive than the avoidance of the payment of money .
It is .time that we endeavor to curb these ever increasing mishaps or the annual toll of casualties in the next five or ten years may be a severe
arraignment of our lack of forethought or our indifference to the loss of
human life.
.
MEANS OP ATTACKING PROBLEM
There are several means by which ' we may attack the problem of
railroad-highway crossing accident prevention, one of which may be
called engineering. The elimination of the crossing by separation of
grade is the absolute solution of the problem. In considering it, however,
we are instantly confronted with two elements which are practically In
surmountable. One is the element of time.
On the 31st day of December, 1922, there were 256,362 grade level cross ings over Class I railroads operating within the United States, after deducting 705 crossings which - were removed that year. At the rate with which crossings have been eliminated in the last five years, it will take about 600 years to remove them and though the matter of elimina tion be speeded tremendously, we are safe in saying that generations of time are involved in their ultimate disposal.
It is, of course, proper that crossings in dangerously congested areas be first selected for removal, but the futility of. expecting a great- reduc tion of crossing accidents from such eliminations arises when we recog
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nize that most of our crossing accidents occur in rural communities where the travel upon both railroad and highway is comparatively light and frequently where the view of approaching train is most excellent.
There is the element of cost, which makes elimination by separation of grades prohibitive. Competent engineers say that taking the crossings of our country by and large, a reasonable estimate of the cost of re moval in rural and urban districts would approximate not less than $50,000 per crossing. Upon the road I have the honor to represent, we have just completed the elimination of fourteen crossings in the City of East Orange, N. J., at a total cost in excess of $3,280,000, or more than $230,000 for' each of the fourteen crossings. In ten years we have re moved 150 crossings at an average co3t of $96,600.
As there are over 250,000 of such railroad highway crossings in our country, it is a simple matter of arithmetic to ascertain that the cost of separation of grades, would be in excess of $12,500,000,000. ' What is $12,500,000,000? We speak of billions today as glibly as we spoke of millions before the war. Twelve billion five hundred million is more than one-half of the entire public debt of our country. It is two-thirds of the estimated value of all our railroad properties. It is almost twice the total' deposits in all our savings banks. It is $125 for every man, woman and child in our land. It is beyond our comprehension. Such a stu pendous amount would vastly increase the cost of transportation and would impose very substantial burdens upon tax .payers in their respec tive localities. It would be non-revenue producing and almost impossible of obtainment. Interest alone would call for $750,0.00,000 per annum.
THE PK.ACTICABII.ITT OF TURNOUTS
'
It is evident the problem in its immediate aspect must be approached from another angle. Possibly by considering engineering from different viewpoints we can see how an improvement could be attained. For in stance, by the establishment'or rearrangement of highways so that they are parallel with the railroads, instead of permitting such highways to cross and reeross the tracks. Many crossings can be removed thusly at a minimum of expense. `
Island turnouts are in use upon some highways requiring the driver to deliberately turn at right and left angles, reducing bis speed, and affording him opportunity for observation before passing over railroad tracks. This system is suited to specific situations only, requiring broad highways and light traffic, and is not free from other objections.
Your attention is directed to the plan of the American Railway Asso ciation of uniformly and clearly designating approach to a railroad cross ing. The average driver keeps his eye glued to the road and observes little at his right or left. This plan, therefore, consists in the marking of the highway itself at a point about 250 feet from the intersection with the railroad track with two broad, white, painted lines about five feet apart, with the letters "R. R." between the lines. This is definite notice to the driver that he is approaching a railroad crossing and gives him
64 Twelfth, Safety Congress
opportunity to exercise caution and care. At a point about 150 feet from the railroad crossing, there should he marked a single broad, white line across the highway, which is further notice to him of his approach to a danger zone. There is a third line either painted red or marked with a cross bar being approximately 25 feet from crossing, and gives him positive knowledge of his presence in a zone of danger, but still safe if precautions have been taken. This plan has been submitted to the Chairman of every State Highway Commission in the country and more than twenty of them have already signified their intention of adopt ing the system or of trying it out in specific places. It might well be considered by county and local authorities. Perhaps it will be helpful in accomplishing our end.
Engineering should include the removal of unnecessary obstructions to view--the maintenance of present crossings in good order for travel-- the construction and operation of mechanical barriers at crossings such as the standard, the flexible and the rigid crossing gate. You are famil iar with our standard gate^ It is a warning and not a barrier. The flexible gate is a collapsible affair which i3 supposed to hold in a "V" shaped vise-like grip anything which comes in contact with it. The rigid crossing gate is best exemplified by the illustrations upon the Long Island Railroad at Long Beach, where a pivoted telegraph pole has been utilized as a gate. It is said that the same automobile never collides with this gate twice.
There is also the installation of various forms of visual and audible signals including what is known as the automatic flagman, or wig-wag and the flashing lights. These systems of protection I regard as vastly superior to manual protection. They seldom fail and operate twenty-four
hours a day.
In their efforts to do their full duty in the crossing situation, railroads are paying particular attention to the equipment of their motive power
with efficient whistles, bell and headlight, extending the crossing whistle
to nearly eleven seconds, and we are watching employees carefully to be
sure these means of warning to drivers are being employed intelligently
and faithfully.
So much for that side of the crossing problem. Let us consider it for a moment from another angle, which we will call, education.
EDUCATION OF AUTO DRTVEES
It is believed that in the education of the automobile driver to the exercise of a high degree of care and the insistent demand on the part of his passengers, whether paid passengers or guests, that he no longer gamble with their lives, we have put our finger upon the spot where the immediate remedy lies. It ought not to take many such illustrations as were ours on that fateful Sunday, the 29th day of July, when ten cross ing accidents resulted in the death of 36 persons and on two occasions recently when nine persons were killed in single crossing mishaps;
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and one instance where 15 out of 19 persons were killed in a bus col
lision, to impress upon the driving: public the responsibility that is
theirs for the lives of others. In the same connection it might be men tioned that in 1922, 16 persons were killed and 125 injured while riding as passengers in trains, due to automobile collisions at crossings.
There should be strenuous and continuous effort made to impress the
wild, defiant, thoughtless or silly driver that regardless as he may be
of his own fate, the biblical injunction still stands against him, "Thou
shalt not kill."
-
I shall not go into a review of the plans pursued by the .Committee on Prevention of Highway Crossing Accidents, as you are all familiar with our conspicuous poster in its many forms and with the informa tion that has been put out from time to time, and which has been so generously and so broadly .heralded by the press of our country and by distinguished publicists. May they be encouraged to keep up the good work.
I have told you some of the things that the railroads and the auto
mobile drivers must do to reduce crossing accidents. The state has its
obligations, also.
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As our highways are in such common U3e today there should be es tablished as nearly uniform traffic regulations as possible and simplicity should be the dominant feature of such regulations. It must be recog nized that the intensive use of highways today presents modern prob lems and we must demand laws, rules and regulations suited to the present use and character of the traffic upon our highways.
Approach to a railroad crossing should be unmistakably indicated and it should be illegal to Interfere with, mutilate or represent for commercial purposes railroad crossing designations.
Positive qualifications to operate a car should be demanded and the mere possession of a twenty-second handed car ought not to qualify a person to drive. The license questionnaire should dwell deeply on the need of extreme care. The blind, the near blind, the seriously crippled or mentally deficient should, not be permitted to jeopardize. their own and- the lives of other people.
Authorities issuing licenses should be empowered and required to revoke the license, or deny renewal, for suitable, substantial period in cases of intoxication, recklessness and gross incompetency, etc.
RECOMMENDATIONS
'
State authorities should be empowered to require a report from a
driver, covering every automobile accident within the State. Insurance
carriers should also report in order to afford a check upon drivers. A
weeding out of the reckless and incompetent would result.
'
All motor vehicles carrying freight or passengers for hire should be required to come to a full stop between ten and fifty feet from a railroad crossing and not proceed until the way is known to be clear.
66 Twelfth Safety Congress
A system of police surveillance should be instituted so that efficient traffic regulation may be enforced at every railroad crossing or-at least at those highways traversed by more than 250 vehicles within the twenty-four hour period. This means expense but it must be done.
Investing crossing watchmen with police powers should be seriously considered, including the uniforming of such men.
There should be sincere cooperation between police and judicial offi cers. Reckless drivers should be dealt with harshly until it becomes well known that the safety of others must be respected.
Bach state should endeavor to co-ordinate state, county and munipical traffic regulations that plain rules may be established and understood and confusions avoided. As nearly as possible there should be adopted by neighboring states non-conflicting standards.
The automobile manufacturers can perform a valuable service to the driving and riding public by incorporating in the pamphlet of instruc tions for the operation of cars, clear and positive directions as to the conduct of the driver at railroad crossings, and there should be therein unmistakable warnings against recklessness. Automobile dealers, motor clubs and motor magazines should join in the preservation of the public at crossings. This is a duty owing to the public and it should be fairly met.
In the problem of prevention of railroad-highway crossing accidents,
there should be no "passing the buck." Every person and authority
charged with the construction, maintenance and operation of our rail roads--with the construction and maintenance of our highways--with
the enactment and enforcement of traffic regulations--with the manu
facture and sale of automobiles--with the training, licensing or employ
ment of drivers--with the ability and facilities to directly or indirectly mould public opinion--every person riding as passenger In an automobile
and every driver--should be cognizant of the obligations upon him and
should realize his opportunities of minimizing the tragedies of travel,
of doing work that is worth while, and of adding to the sum total of
human happiness.
Individually and collectively, let us "Cross Crossings Cautiously."
. PRESENTATION OF SAFETY FILM
Chairman Botsford: We have reached the conclusion of the spoken program and will proceed to the film.
Mr. David S. Beyer will explain to you for a few moments what the film is, and then the .new National Safety Council safety film will be shown.
Mr. David S. Beyer- (Liberty Mutual Insurance Co.): This picture that you are about to witness is the first one of three films that are being projected by, the Motion Picture Committee of the National Safety Council. It is the first picture that has been produced by the Council itself. The funds have been raised by contributions which members of
General Session
67
the Council, many of whom axe present, have given. A question devel oped as to what kind of a picture we should start with. There have been some very excellent industrial pictures produced already by our good President, Mr. Dow, and a number of other agencies, and while most of our members are interested primarily in the industrial hazard perhaps, we-felt there was more need for a film which would treat of the hazards of the home and the street, so the first picture, "Ask Daddy," is along that line. I believe, and I think the members of our Committee all felt, that the safety problem is so largely an educational problem that we ought to try to get the wives and the children on the safety squad, and this picture is an effort to enlist the interest of the wives and children, and we believe if we can make safety a topic at the dinner table and in the schools and in the home, it will react on our industrial problem and the public safety problem in which we are all interested.
The first, picture, which will now be shown, is along that line. We hope later to be able to produce one or two industrial pictures which will treat of the various hazards that are found in our industries.
The film "Ask Daddy" was shown.
The session adjourned at 5:45 o'clock.
ADJOURNMENT.
General Session
Joint Session of the American Association of Industrial Physicians and Surgeons and the National Safety Council
October 2, 1923
DR. RALPH ELLIOTT, Chairman
Health Service Section, National Safety Council.
.
DR. C. E. FORD, Chairman
'
President, American. Association of Industrial Physicians and Surgeons.
HAIRMAN ELLIOTT: The first number on the program this after
C noon is one that we look forward to from year to year, the address
of the president. I know of no one that is so well qualified to give us
real workable information on industrial medicine as our President, Dr.
C. E. Ford, of the General Chemical Company of New York City.
*
ANNUAL ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT OF THE
AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF INDUSTRIAL
.
PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS
'
C. E. Ford, M. D., General Chemical Company, New York City
So tremendous have been the recent advances in medicine that one can not grasp more than a small part of them; hence tbe general practitioner has become more or less dependent upon the skill and specialized training of physicians having adequate knowledge to treat the patient in accord ance with the best scientific procedure. Even the layman realizes the futility of individual effort to attain the knowledge necessary in treating the simplest and most common maladies, because of the many complica tions which experience has shown are adherent possibilities of any disease. Medical treatment has always been in advance of knowledge, and exact knowledge of disease has come later from the results of efforts to*palliate or cure the diseases of man. The medical profession has only of late recognized the great practical value of the labors of the physiologist, the physicist, and workers in other branches of science. The organization of departments of trained workers in special fields of medicine and allied sciences has aided greatly in obtaining information which permits an interpretation of all of the facts of the case by the diagnostician and brings knowledge closer to treatment.
69
rO Ttoelfth Safety Congress
lAdnsctrial medical practice has become a more or leas specialized field embr-actn* jj*rtieut*rly traumatic surgery and personal hygiene, or, col-
aantriiTioTT. commonly referred to as prerendTf medicine. These
rtztbyt+cx*, ux- t Meoadury importance In the average general practice. It
rnsU be mutually helpful and would rebound immeasurably to the advan tage of the community as a whole if the interrelationship existing between medicine and industrial life were more fully understood and acted upon by the whole medical profession. This fact is to no small degree the reason for the existence of the physician in industry. Admittedly it is difficult to define his real function because of the great variety of his duties, which are determined by the administrative policies or exigencies of the particular business with which he is associated.
DEFINITION OF INDUSTRIAL PHYSICIAN
Some tirue ago the Conference Board of Physicians in Industry promul gated a definition which, while stiltedly expressed, seems to cover the subject, and is comprehensive and intelligent:
The physician in industry is one who applies the principles of
modern medicine and surgery to the industrial worker, sick or
well, supplementing the remedial agencies of medicine by the sound application of hygiene, sanitation and accident prevention* and who, in addition, has an adequate and co-operative apprecia tion of the social, economic and administrative problems and responsibilities of Industry in its relation, to society.
'
This definition has been buffeted about by destructive criticism, but as yet there has not appeared a better one. Hence I, at least for the present, accept it.
We are amazed at the development and practical use of the automobile, wireless telephony and telegraphy, aeronautics and modern inventions, but nothing approaches the miraculous so nearly as do the fifteen years of added"life that have been given, to American citizens by the application of life-saving methods through discoveries in medicine, biology, bacteri ology, entomology, chemistry, and engineering In its various branches.
The great gain in life expectancy has occurred largely since 1870, at which time life expectancy was -11 years. In the sixteenth century the average length of human life was between IS and 20 years; at the close of the eighteenth century it was less than 25 years; at the close of the nineteenth century it was between 45 and 48 years; whereas today it varies in different countries from less than 25 in India, where the average
is only about 24 years, to 56 years in the United States, and 60 in New
Zealand. The general mortality rate in the registration area of the
United States has been reduced from 19.8 per thousand in 1880 to 11.6
in 1921. This means the saving of about 500,000 lives for the year 1921
alone. The death rate of the city of Buffalo, was 24.06 per thousand in
1882, and 12.SO in 1922; thus the saving in human lives for the year 1922
was 5,630.
.
General Session--Health
71
Consider for a moment, if you will, from the standpoint of present security, what would have been the situation if the death rate of the United States for last year had been that of the city of Buffalo for 1882; 1,309,000 more people would have died than did die. This, if expressed in terms of money value, would have meant a loss of $660,000,000 for the year. Notwithstanding the present seemingly satisfactory state, preven tive medicine is far from having attained its possibilities. If the public would apply the present knowledge of preventive medicine, the average length of life could readily be extended to. 65 years. Insurance statis ticians anticipate an average of 75 years in the not remote future.
THE THREE FACTORS OF LONGEVITY
What is responsible for this social Golconda? There are three major factors: preventive medicine or public health service, modern surgery, and the safety movement. I also wish to state with the utmost confidence, notwithstanding the opposition which is being encountered at the present time, that prohibition has contributed and will continue to contribute its share.
' The first of this group--public health service--includes the control or restriction of communicable diseases, the abatement of nuisances, the sanitary inspection of food supply, schools, public buildings, institutions and tenements, the collection and removal of refuse, the registration of vital statistics, the supervision of public and private water supplies, the collection and removal of sewage, the regulation of offensive trades, the control of infant mortality, and child hygiene. All of these subjects .have many subdivisions, interdependencies, and ramifications.
Surgery as a science exerted little influence on human affairs until about a century ago--this with all respect to the thorough scientific studies of Galen, Vesalius, Par6, Harvey, Haller and the Hunters; but with the advent of Bister and Morton and the modern contributors to surgical pathology, physiology, diagnosis and operative technic, it has made great progress. Operative mortality has been reduced from appal ling figures to 2 to 5 per cent, in general hospitals. Representative examples of procedures in which especial improvement has been made are the treatment of compound fractures and abdominal infections, of which appendicitis is an outstanding example, and the treatment of toxic goiter, a disease of major importance in the Great Lakes Basin, which formerly had an operative mortality of 15 to 20 per cent, but which now has a mortality of less than 1 per cent.
The problem of prolongation of life is a most engaging one, and has enlisted public interest from biblical times to the present day. Among the ancients search was made for some elixir of life, records of which appear throughout history. During the middle ages great value was attached to various concoctions and combinations of drugs, the employ ment of which was claimed to prolong life and prevent accidents. With the passing of centuries the tendency has been toward' the scientific. Scientific knowledge is from a decade to a century in advance of its
72 Twelfth, Safety Congress
adaptation and practical utilization. Therefore, in the course of time there will appear returns from the social disease crusade, mental hygiene will be better understood, and the diseases of middle life, the results of "wear and tear," will be dealt with in simple fashion--namely, by means
of the periodic health examination. There.is no more valuable measure at our command for the early detection of diseases, especially those
in which the onset is so insidious as to permit them to become well
established or even fairly advanced before the victims are aware of their presence. In any extensive series of examinations of persons who consider themselves in good health, it is amazing how many defects' which appear trivial in themselves but which are really potential morbidity producing
factors of most serious import, and how many definite indications of serious disease are disclosed.
The time to prepare for old age is early in middle life. It is at this period that the individual should be so guided and directed that the disease process may be corrected or checked to such an extent that it will not interfere with his productive capacity or cause disability.
It is most striking that old employees, those in middle life, laborers or mechanics, who have held their positions twenty or thirty years or longer, are always physically better than floaters or relatively small time em ployees. Almost invariably' there is a constant ratio between length of employment and physical soundness. These men are clean of mind and
body, and neater in attire, however much they may be exposed to the
grease and grime of manufacturing processes. They are provident or
want to be; they have at least a small bank account, an equity in a home
or a lot. Liberty Bonds or a small holding of sound securities. Their
children have had high school training, and the family resources are
strained to the limit in order that the children may have every available
advantage. AU this is, of course, to be expected of this fine group of
men. whose very fineness makes them a tragic spectacle when overcome
by premature disability.
.
It is and should be a large part of the responsibility of the physician in industry, if he discharges his duty to employed and employer alike, to see to it with the utmost militancy that the uninformed fellow-worker is directed to consult a specialist with regard to his ailments. I say this with a full recognition of the rights of the general practitioner.
SPECIALIZATION- IN* THE GREAT LAKES BASIN'
Let us take as an illustration toxic goitre. In the Great Lakes Basin, Colorado, and the northwest states where this malady is common, the surgeon gains experience in operation and judgment which has resulted in a perfected technic with a remarkably low death rate and almost no postoperative ailment or disability. In other, districts in which the opera tion is only an occasional occurrence, the results seem to be less satis factory than merely poor technic would warrant- It is therefore probable that there has been a neglect of certain details which have not impressed the occasional operator in this very important procedure. There are
General Session--Health
73
numerous details to be observed in preparing a patient for the surgical treatment of goitre. In order that the surgical risk may be reduced to the lowest point, it is well worth the additional outlay in money and time for a patient contemplating such procedure to be placed in contact with a clinic offering the minimum risk.
The medical charlatan, the pure quack, the advertising faker, the osteo path, and the chiropractor find among wage-earners as fruitful a field as among any other financial or social group. Happily the wage-earner is not the ready victim of Christian Science for, as Dr. Mayo has 'said, 'Not all persons have sufficient imagination to accept the Christian Science jumble. It takes real imagination to reach a hand in the air, bring It down empty and say `See what I have In my empty hand'/'
As was admirably expressed by Dr. George Vincent, the scope of modern medicine is as wide as the range of influences, whether physical, bio logical, mental or social. Social problems from their very nature compel the serious attention of the industrial physician. The only solution of social pathology as of physical pathology is an intelligent search for the cause and, when found, its eradication, and thus prevention.
It is trite for the doctor to say that the public must be educated when
his own education is incomplete. Until recently, at least, organized
medicine has made very little concerted effort to give the public guidance
in its thought relating to socio-medical problems. Most of the study of
recent years has been made and reported by lay organizations or by
those promoted by laymen. To a large extent we lack the facts, which
are obtained only as a- result of careful analytical study by trained
individuals.
POVERTY CAUSED BY SICKXESS AND DISABILITY
At the International Congress of Social "Workers which was held in Washington during the current year, it was disclosed that three-fourths of the poverty on this continent was traceable to physical and mental incapacity. Various commissions have been studying the problem of sickness and their findings show that in the United States three persons of every one hundred are constantly ill. This means:
1. In the United States and Canada 3,500,000 persons are ill ' practically every day in the year.
2. Twenty per cent, of the population suffer a week or more of illness during the course of one year. In' other words, one person
in every five should anticipate at least seven days of sickness
every year.
.
3. On the basis of time lost every year by working people, each person in the United States and Canada loses seven days annually through illness, which means a total of 770,770,000 days every twelve months.
4. The average duration of illness is slightly more than thirty-
five days.
'
74 Twelfth Safety Congress
5. Families of wage-earners in industrial centers spend $32 to
$53 a. year on account of sickness in addition to gratuitous care in public and private hospitals. Some small conception of this ex penditure for hospital service may be had from the records of the city of New York, where it is estimated that $22,000,000. are expended annually on the care of the indigent.
These figures in their national application assume stupendous propor tions. It was further found that sickness was a problem in from 36 to 49 per cent, of the families under the care of the United Charities of Chicago. The Social Insurance Commission of California found sickness to be the primary cause of dependency in 50 per cent, of the families studied. The New Jersey Commission reported that it was the cause of dependency in 42 per cent, of a total of 1,412 families. Sickness was present in two-thirds Of 3,000 families assisted by the Charities Organiza tion Society of New York City in 1916, and in 42 per cent, of the families under the care of the Philadelphia Society for Organized Charities during 1916.
Obviously, then, sickness and disability, which are in a large measure preventable, play the most important role in the production of poverty. This fact emphasizes the necessity for medical men and public health workers to keep in mind the significance of cause and effect.
A few years ago an investigation was made by the United States Public Health Service covering certain industries of the South. It was found
that when the monthly income averaged less than $12 per person in the family, the sickness rate was 70 per thousand. When the income was $14
per individual in the home, the sickness rate dropped to 48.2 per
thousand. When the income was $16 to $20 per person, the sickness rate dropped to 34.4 per thousand; and with an income of $20 or more per
individual, the sickness rate dropped to 18.5 per thousand. Thus it
appears that the health of the family is in a measure at least governed
by the revenue of the home.
.
That the industrial physician occupies a strategic position in the solu
tion of the intricate problem of poverty requires no elaboration. When
we speak of poverty, wre mean the condition in which is found a lack
of some of the necessaries of life--the goods, materials, and service neces
sary for wholesome living. Energy is one of the most valuable assets of man, yet this cannot be had without wholesome living. Again it is obvious that sickness and poverty are intimately woven into the social
fabric as cause and effect; consequently the effective solution of our social
problems in the home rests in no small measure upon the foundation of
the prevention of disease. Insufficient revenue means under-nutrition, improper housing, lowered resistance, increased susceptibility to disease,
and oftentimes, physically subnormal children.
It is not Utopian for the industrial physician to include within his purview the matter of Infant welfare, prenatal care, etc., as these sub jects are inextricably bound to the industrial future of the nation. In one industrial center of the country composed of mixed peoples, it was
General Session--Health
75
found that the infant death rate in the districts of better-housed Amer ican workmen was 90.6 per thousand births; in congested, foreign-born districts the rate was 141.2. An increase in infant mortality was noted with a fall in the earnings of the bread-winners. When the chief bread winner's earnings amounted to $1,850, the infant death rate was 89.4; when the earnings were between $1,050 and $1,850, the rate increased to 127.1; and when the earnings fell below $1,050, the rate rose to 137.8.
I think it unquestionably proper for. the industrial physician to make
clear to his fellows the facts concerning therapeutic measures that have
a bearing on the public health and are controlled to no little extent by
political or legislative action. k
, VALUE OF VACCINE AND ANTITOXINS
One is moved to a sense of profound sympathy for persons who in this enlightened age adhere to the early inconclusive views surrounding the effects' and value of vaccine and antitoxins administered for immunization and curative purposes. With the vast and preponderant evidence of experience to establish definitely levels of value, there is no longer rational ground for opposition. Antitoxins and vaccines are nature's own remedy. When one is attacked by the germ of diphtheria, for example, one begins to develop antitoxin within the blood stream. But there is danger that the diphtheria germ may be developing its toxin faster than* the victim is developing antitoxin; hence the necessity of reinforcing nature.
Diphtheria antitoxin is manufactured in a simple manner; a healthy and well-nourished horse is gradually and painlessly immunized with relatively small doses of diphtheria toxins which are progressively in creased, producing a high degree of resistance, which means a plentiful supply of antitoxin. A small part of the horse's blood is then withdrawn and refined until only the fluid elements, or serum, remain. This serumis then standardized, placed in appropriate containers, and distributed for use. When required, the serum is injected beneath the skin of the patient, in small doses for prevention and in doses about ten times as large for the cure of the disease. More recently, it has 'become the practice to
inject serum directly into the circulating blood stream by opening a superficial vein. This procedure serves to reinforce nature in her efforts to resist the disease, and, when administered early enough, so fortifies nature that danger is averted and the chance of recovery is tremendously enhanced.
In autocratic Germany before the war, by reason of strict enforcement of the vaccination laws smallpox was almost unknown. In the United States the disease is widely diffused; in some districts it is constantly prevalent, and from time to time a considerable number of cases appear
in the larger cities, usually because of official laxity in the enforcement of the vaccination laws. In this country it is not uncommon for in
dividuals and specifically organized groups to defy the law. by resisting authorized health officials. The Anti-Vaccination Societies carry on a
76 Twelfth Safety Congress
fanatical campaign of misrepresentation by citing falsified statistics, halftold experiences of discredited physicians, and unauthenticated cases, and by appealing to emotion, hysteria, and pathetic ignorance.
A discussion of immunization leads one naturally to a consideration of animal experimentation, a fundamental necessity in medical research, and suggests the relation of public opinion to scientific progress. If the anti-vaccinationists and the anti-vivisectionists could have their way, they would legislate against procedures which have saved and will save untold millions of human lives by making possible modern surgery and our present knowledge of such diseases as smallpox, tuberculosis, diphtheria, cerebrospinal meningitis, tetanus, puerperal fever, syphilis, rabies, bu bonic plague, cholera, yellow fever andj more recently, diabetes.
The only protection which medical science and social welfare have lies in the public opinion, which legislators clearly recognize, and the strength of which they are constantly alert to sense. If leaders of thought, edu cational institutions, the press and platform, and other disseminators of sound opinion, together with people who recognize and admit that two and two make four, would secure the facts, trust experts, and take a positive, militant stand based on conviction, the common welfare would be inestimably promoted. There is no serious doubt of the outcome, be cause, in spite of a noisy minority, informed public opinion is reliable and will ultimately prevail.
` STATE AND PHYSICIANS Ml'ST CO-OPEBATB
The conspicuous and immediate need of medicine is cooperation between the state with its subdivisions and the physician. How will this be accomplished? If conditions are studied as they exist in Europe, the tendency appears to be toward so-called health legislation. In Germany it was believed that health legislation would lead to earlier recognition of disease and better care of the sick workman and his family. Injuries and disease were to be lessened In incidence and lost time was to be re duced. but the results were wholly disappointing. The scheme did not lead to better care for the sick. They were cared for as badly as before. Doctors who could not make a living in any other way were obtained largely to fill the places created. As there was a certain element of free choice of physicians by the beneficiary,' the doctor had, of course, to please the patient to hold his post. The system led to malingering, which the honest physician could not check if he tried, and the result was that he lost his patients to an unscrupulous competitor. This form of dis honesty became so prevalent as to be a public scandal. Time lost from sickness was not reduced, but rather increased. The man with an in jured finger, who could have been a part-time producer within a week, did nothing until the finger was entirely well. There was no general co operation.
In England the same plan was in use with the same result. Patients who were previously treated by physicians without charge were treated as badly at the expense of the taxpayer. It is very evident that health insurance, which may be sound in theory, has omitted serious con sideration of that mystifying factor--human nature.
General Sess-i&n--Health
77
The early organization of our hospitals shows a similar tendency. The model of American hospital organization had its origin in Europe. In the early days a hospital was a place where homeless persons and charity patients could go when sich. This ancient conception of hospital ization failed to anticipate modern requirements. The continuance of this outgrown practice resulted in denying hospital care to the honest, but poor, taxpayer, and we had the extraordinary spectacle of premium on inefficiency and laziness--special hospital privilege for the unproduc tive person Who was a liability rather than an asset to the community. The worthless obtained all the benefits of modern practice which could be ob tained by the average man at a cost which he probably was unable to bear.
There is one phase in the relationships of the industrial physician specifically covered by the code of ethics, to which I wish to draw your attention--namely, that which deprives the employer of the right to socalled privileged information regarding the physical condition of the em ployee. With this I am not In sympathy, for medical service In industry should function for the mutual benefit of the employer and the employee. There are, of course, certain confidences which must be held sacred, but when facts are disclosed that may alfect the interest of the public, or the employer, or the fellow workman, they must in all justice be made avail able to the proper authority in order to safeguard the interests of many against the individual.
The future of the nation rests on the physical, mental and moral health of its units. National supremacy cannot exist without the solid, unwaver ing support of this triad. Cause, prevention, and result must engage our best thought, with a view to lengthening the life span, maintaining the human power necessary to do the world's work, and preserving mental
integrity. The future presents an enchanting vista. A new freedom is
available to this nation through medicine--freedom from the infections from acquired diseases, from the charlatan, and from the menace of
feeble-mindedness. With open minds, courage, and a growing appreciation
of all human values, let us face the days ahead ready to give to our people that service which it is our honorable pleasure to render.
HEAT HAZARDS IN INDUSTRY
G. H. McKikbxky, M.D., Pittsburgh:, Pa.
The heat cramps of workmen in the steel industry where my observa tions have been carried out are all known to you. These workers come to the mill dispensary or are carried in on a stretcher doubled up with cramps, muscular and abdominal, severe enough to require a full dose of morphia for relief of pain. .
On close questioning, a great percentage of these cases give a history of excesses in diet, alcohol and daily routine.
In the hot months of the year and especially days of high humidity, dehydration cases are numerous. The regular furnace workers in the
pipe mill, where the heat reactions were observed, do not cause us any
anxiety with the exception of the socket welding department. Here the
78 Twelfth Safety Congress
workers are on a piece basis, and naturally work much faster to increase their pay envelope. The eyes are protected by goggles and masks, and eye changes, such as cataract have not been observed.
I have talked to a number of old puddlers who worked at the furnace for many years, and find cataracts only in proportion to the age as one
finds it among those who are not workers in heat.
All furnace workers are cooled by so-called man-cooler fans and cold, blast air system. The furnace doors are water-cooled and a steam spray from the bottom of the furnace door checks heat flames as much as possible.
I had hoped through laboratory investigation to study these men on the job during the liot weather.
However, our laboratory was not completed until last-week. A study of excretions, blood, and basal metabolism should bring forth something interesting. The race and nationality of the worker and his daily habits certainly enter into the question.
In steel and iron manufacture here in the North it has been necessary to introduce the Mexican or Spaniard and negroes,--people who stand excessive heat better than the Northern types, but I have found more heat cases, including exhaustion and cramps, among these men than with other natives, probably due to living conditions and diet. Figueras, of Guinea, declares that negroes can do the same manual labor as white men exposed to much external beat with one half the amount of food calories.
I have talked to a number of safety men in various plants of glass and iron manufacture, and they do not recognize heat as a hazard.
I offer nothing in the way of treatment for heat cases as the subject relates only to the safety side.
DISCUSSION Dr. Murat (American Rolling Mills Company) :
One of the biggest
bugaboos that we have in the American Rolling Mills during the summer
months, especially on humid days, is with the new men who go into the
plant who drink too much cold water, go out into the air and cool off too
quickly and have the so-called muscular cramps. When we get those,
fellows into the hospital we do not give them opium unless we know
the secretions are open, the bowels are open and the stomach is empty.
We do not believe in giving opium to lock up the secretions. We want to open them up and get the man to sweating freely, and this we do- by
surrounding him with hot towels around the. lumbar region. I have seen
very severe cases of cramps relieved in a very few minutes' time by the
application of a hot towel over the lumbar region.
RELATION OF INDUSTRIAL SURGEON TO FAMILY PHYSICIAN
Harold G. Giddixgs, M. D-. Boston, Mass.
The observations in this paper are the result of six years' intensive work in Boston as a member of the surgical staff of one of the first to offer,
and, at present, one of the largest of the insurance companies, dealing with
General Session--Health
79
Workmen's Compensation insurance; and of two years as surgeon to a plant engaged in the production of starting and lighting equipment of automobiles.' During this experience there have been abundant oppor
tunities to meet, to confer with, and to get the points of view of a great many general practitioners toward industrial surgery. In general, their attitude has been one of passive acceptance of the industrial surgical situation as it affects them personally, but occasionally there has been outspoken hostility; not necessarily toward the industrial surgeon him self, but toward the system which he represents. This is. of course, an unfortunate and unwholesome condition, for the correction of which this association should stand sponsor.
ANALYSIS OF HISTORY OF WORKMEN'S COMPENSATION
Since the adoption of Workmen's Compensation In Massachusetts In 1912,--and the same must be true wherever such a law has become operative,--there has been going on a very definite change in the relation of the general practitioner to employees who are the victims of industrial accidents, even though those same employees remain deeply loyal to the family physician and call him, as in the past, for- ordinary ailments. This changed relationship is due to a variety of causes. No sooner
had the compensation law become operative than there appeared in the field numerous insurance companies prepared to provide protection for the employer, and to furnish surgical aid to the injured worker, as well as to take care of his compensation. Prior to the passage of the
law, the injured employee had sought aid wherever he chose and en tirely upon his own. responsibility. The result was that in accidents
of any consequence, with lengthy disability, the worker had no funds with which to pay for his treatments and the employer declined the responsibility; while in lesser injuries} the workmen frequently evaded
their financial obligations. was the loser.
In the great majority of cases the doctor
With the coming of Workmen's Compensation all this was changed. The insurer became responsible for the doctors' bills over a stated legal period,--and "in unusual cases," that is the Massachusetts law,--over whatever period the Injured employee required treatment. The great
majority of the profession accepted and acted upon this provision in good faith, but a small minority saw in it an opportunity to fatten their exchequers at the expense of the insurance companies, oftentimes render ing bills entirely out of proportion to the nature of the injuries. The immediate result was that the insurers became suspicious of the pro fession as a whole and soon, adopted a policy of questioning practically all medical bills, whether rendered justly or not. This attitude in turn very naturally offended those physicians who were manifestly trying to be fair as well as rebuking those who obviously were not. Another cause of friction, because it' was not understood, was the fact that the companies refused, as they must under the law,, to assume the bills of cases which investigation had shown to be non-industrial. . Because of
80 Twelfth Safety Congress
the vast number of bills thus questioned, the profession at large re
ceived the impression, from which it has by no means recovered, that the insurer's policy is to question every medical bill rendered.
Still another factor entering into the matter of medical fees in Massa chusetts is that under the terms of the act the bills are subject to review by the Industrial Accident Board; and the board has 'fixed a more or less arbitrary scale not commensurate oftentimes with the fees that many of the doctors are accustomed to receive in their private practice and to which they are rightfully entitled. This fact, in itself, has been a source of irritation. It is only fair to say, however, that there are probably a good many practitioners, who, not aware of this fee-fixing by the board, blame the insurance companies for it. As an Instance of this practice, the board allows to be made a charge of only ?50 for a single inguinal hernia and $75 for a double, which fees cover both the operation and after care.
E31 l-I.OYME.>T OK IMIYSICIANS BEGINS
One of the early and logical results of the situation was for the various companies to employ more and more certain physicians who manifested an interest in the work, who learned by experience what was required, and on whom the companies felt they could depend. These men, or groups of them, were called upon to respond to emergency calls at various plants, to visit when necessary injured employees in their homes, to submit reports as to the nature of the accidents, and to estimate disability.
Unfortunately, in the early days of the act, the type of doctors, as a group, going into this work was quite different from what it is at present. Whereas today the specialty attracts many high grade, well equipped men. just the opposite was true a decade or so ago. The type referred to could be obtained by the insurance companies for a low figure and in many instances had no scruples about' their work, often conducting it in a slipshod and unethical manner. The companies soon found, however, that this did not pay and gradually replaced this type of men by one of distinctly superior calibre. But the first type has left its mark which can he eradicated only through the maintenance by the companies of high, grade staffs and by the placing of the specialty on a plane thoroughly in keeping with the best traditions of our profession.
The establishment of industrial clinics came as the next and logical step. To conduct these, clinics,--we are speaking now only of the in surance, the plant, and not the private clinic,--the companies employ their own staff doctors, who. doing intensive work, and seeing literally hundreds of accident cases every month of all conceivable sorts, become experts, not only in the field of industrial surgery itself, but also in its Closely related legal aspect. Thus the large Insurance companies have built up their own staffs on whom they naturally depend and upon whom they rightfully look as trained men and as a valuable part of their equipment.
General Session--Health,
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As the act proved Its worth and as employers and employees alike came to appreciate the value of proper and prompt surgical aid as an economic factor in cutting down lost time, many factories introduced their own plant hospitals, employing, according to their needs, either part or whole time surgeons, in many instances furnished by the insurance companies. This was but another opportunity for these men to become specialists. At the same time the safety engineering and social service movements were being developed, the doctor playing an important role in each, and thereby, further increasing his value to the plant and to the insurer.
ixnrsTBrAL pnvsiciAX holds responsible position
Once the industrial surgeon has obtained the confidence of the In surance company or the manufacturer by whom he is employed, he is in a position where he may be of influence in directing the policy of his. company and In winning for it the good will of the profession at large. The insurer and the employer of labor are in business for the primary purpose of making money and are not especially concerned with
the ethics of the medical profession. But, since the laws in most of
the states are, perforce, bringing the insurer, the employer, the em ployees and the medical profession together, those concerned should meet on the common ground of friendliness, and, with a desire to be mu tually helpful and considerate of the other fellow's rights. The industrial
surgeon occupies a peculiarly strategic relationship, being in a position
to view both the economic and the professional aspects of the situation, and, in the role of mediator, to soften many of the differences between industry and the profession which may arise. He may, for instance, be asked by the company to pass upon the fairness of medical bills; or by a physician, not familiar with compensation work, .just what sort of a bill to present. Let him advise, in the first instance, payment of a fee commensurate with the doctor's standing, and in the second, the rendering of a bill to conform to the industrial standards for the type of services given. It is surprising how much this will do to bring about good feeling. Not frequently the family doctor may send a patient to an industrial clinic for examination, opinion and advice. We have known of such patients not finding their way back to the doctor who has riy--
ferred them. Such procedure ou the part of an industrial clinic is to" be condemned. The advice sought should be freely given, transmitted to the doctor, and the patient returned to him for further treatment, provided this arrangement be mutually agreeable.
Many patients, whether under their own doctor's care, or that of the clinic, require treatment longer than the designated legal period. Very often these cases are not recognized by the board as "unusual." In many instances such patients, for personal reasons, prefer to continue with their family physician. Although legally the insurer is not liable for such overtime treatment, he has the option, at least in Massachusetts, of providing for it. The clinic surgeon, under such circumstances, merely
82 Twelfth Safety Congress
by suggestion to the medical department that the patient be allowed to continue with his doctor and that the company assume the overtime bill, may be able to bring- this about, providing, of course, the case is being properly handled. Such courtesy is de< ly appreciated both by the patient and the doctor and surely wins good will fpr the company.
Again, disabled ambulatory patients living a considerable distance from the clinic often find the journey there either actually painful or financially burdensome. In these instances should the employee request that he be allowed to treat with his own doctor consent should readily be given. But better still, let the clinic surgeon sense such a situation and fore stall the request by recommending to the medical department that the case be handled as above, assuming, of course, that the attending phy sician is competent.
TREATING NON-INDUSTRIAL CASES BY COMPANY IS UNFAIR TO FAMILY' PHYSICIAN
Very often at industrial clinics one sees both medical and surgical cases obviously not of industrial origin. The insurer is not expected, of course, to treat these patients. Many of them do so, however, in order to keep the good will of their policy holders, some of-whom take offense if the insurer declines to give treatment, and also as an accom modation to the employee. This, in our judgment, is wrong to the patient's physician for it deprives him of work which legitimately be longs to him. "Whenever one of these cases appears at the clinic the situation should be explained to the employee and "he should be advised to consult his regular doctor, and certainly no reasonable employer, the situation having been explained to him, would possibly take offense at this way of treating these patients. Incidentally, these non-industrial cases may act as boomerangs for once treatment has been given, the board is apt to regard this fact as an admission of liability on the part of the insurer and should serious complications arise the insurer may find himself in an unpleasant situation.
Industrial surgeons are not infrequently asked to see an injured em ployee in consultation with the latter's own physician. The request may come either from the insurer or the doctor, and for a variety of reasons which need not he detailed here. If. he will but approach the consultation in the same spirit that h.e would a. private one, the consultant goes far in winning the good will of a physician for his company. Should the case require operation and the attendant be qualified to perform it, why not give him the privilege of doing .so, the consultant being present if such be the physician's wish, to share responsibility?
Very rarely the consultant may observe as a result of his wide ex perience that the physician is not applying adequate or proper treatment. It is a very easy matter gracefully to point out wherein a change might be helpful. Suggestions of this sort, given in the right way, are usually welcomed and seldom cause offense, even though the consultant be present at the company's request, for the physician feels that he is receiving the benefit of trained advice. In making reports on these cases it is a simple matter to incorporate a good work on behalf of the physician.
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Such kindly courtesies go a long way in cementing friendship between
the physician and the company; and, certainly, unless he feels that the
case is actually being mishandled, the consultant should refrain from any adverse comment.
EDUCATIONAL ASPECT OF INDUSTRIAL SURGERY
The industrial surgeon, through the use of the industrial clinic may become a great factor in education. The'insurance companies and man ufacturing plants maintaining clinics should be encouraged to make them available to the medical schools in their vicinity for teaching purposes.
Up. to tb. present time, so far as we know, this has been done in only
one or two instances, because of the feeling on the part of the insurers that it would be poor business to do so and would meet with the dis approval of their subscribers. Very likely they are right, but personally we believe that by offering this vast amount of material for instruction purposes, the Insurance people would be distinctly the gainers. By open ing the clinics, perhaps limiting them to graduates in medicine, or men particularly interested in industrial surgery, the companies would take a great step forward in winning the good will of the profession which would very soon sense this attitude of friendliness arid be quick to
respond in kind. The reaction could not be otherwise than favorable.
Men taking courses in industrial surgery at these clinics, under com petent instruction, would have the opportunity to familiarize themselves with the details of treatment, more or less standardized and efficiently simplified, to become conversant with the legal phases of the work and to acquire the art of handling and keeping satisfied the different sorts of workers one meets at these .hospitals. Thus equipped they would be well qualified to take up the work themselves and! serve not only industry in their own towns, but very likely the very company at whose clinic they had studied. They would be real assets to their communities and to their employers. Furthermore, students working in the clinics could; help in running off the cases, always, of course, under supervision of the men on duty. In return for these privileges, the medical schools might appoint as instructors in industrial surgery certain of the staff men at the clinics. Arrangements of this sort would prove mutually helpful to all concerned and would undoubtedly attract to industrial surgery a great many more first-class men^than are drawn to it at present.
There is one other simple expedient by which the profession at large
can be made to feel more kindly toward the industrial clinic; that is,
by the issuing of a general invitation to the doctors of the community to visit the clinics, giving them the opportunity to observe and to ask questions about the conduct of work Make them feel that they are as welcome here as they are at any of the large general hospitals. But, especially, let the companies invite those men who, though not regular staff members, are doing for them more or less work in the surrounding towns. And, finally, we recommend that the staffs of these clinics* with
84 Twelfth Safety Congress
their tremendous opportunities for observation of industrial accidents, give the medical profession in timely articles the benefit of their ex perience.
Without doubt compensation insurance and its convenient, industrial surgery, have come to stay. They have both proven their worth in this intense period of industrialism and their scope, as times goes on, is likely to become greater rather than less. We are fully aware that many of the foregoing suggestions are diametrically opposed to the policies of most industrial clinics and that they are likely to meet with opposition from the Insurance companies. However, we, who are members of this organization and who are engaged in doing industrial surgery, must not forget that we are in the first place physicians and owe a duty to the profession at large which we are in a unique position to render. May we not, then, by using our good offices, both as individuals and as a body, do much to improve the relationship between industry and the profession and to place it on a plane where. Instead of the misunderstanding, dis trust. and occasional actual antagonism which exists today, there may come a feeling of good will and mutual understanding?
THE RELATION OF INDUSTRIAL MEDICINE TO GENERAL PRACTICE
Hakbv Meyers, M.D.. Person-net. Superintendent, Ohio Brass Company-, Mansfield, Ohio
Ten or twelve years ago industrial medicine had really no definite status. The medical profession was inclined to look askance at it, and industry itself used, it in a very primitive way. Now some of the best men in the profession are attracted to it, and industry generally recognizes it as good manufacturing policy, to the extent that large, wellequipped dispensaries are installed, with medical and nursing attendants in charge.
Every great movement starts with long swings of the pendulum, and it seems that it is inevitable that the pendulum must swing too far. ~~I feel that this has been true with industrial medicine. The work has been carried so far, in- fact, that many concerns have had to curtail it most drastically, and some have had to discontinue it entirely. That such action has been necessary, simply attests the fact thp.t the medical service had reached the point where it was no longer good manufacturing pro cedure, I feel also that in some places the work has been carried to the extent that it is considered by some as a menace to the general medical profession, and this, of course, means failure in the end. in time, in dustrial medicine will find its true place, and then it will exert its greatest usefulness. Of this I am convinced, that if the industrial physician in any wUy does otherwise than to help preserve the integrity of the general medical profession, his work will in the end be of question able value. For in the last analysis, industrial physicians constitute only a small part of that great body which represents medical science-- namely, the medical profession.
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In the manufacturing business we have certain attachments, certain moorings. In a financial way we look to our banking connections, for metals we connect with certain metal companies, for coal with certain coal companies, and so on through the list. We know that the more we use these connections the better is the relation established between them and us, and that it is better for us to use a certain few all the. time than to use many only occasionally. Likewise in the business of living, everyone must have certain definite attachments. He should have established relations with a good grocer, a good clothier, a satis factory bank, and agreeable place to work, a few personal friends, etc. For the sake of emphasis I have left one of the most important con nections for the last--he must also have his doctor.
PRESENT PRACTICE IS SO IN I)
.
I have heard many arguments advanced to prove the ineffectiveness of the medical profession, as it operates in this country. We have many enthusiasts who wish to see a general reformation and to have us adopt certain types of governmental medical practice which are in vogue in various European countries. I have tried to follow these discussions from an unbiased viewpoint, but the only thought that I have to offer after-
long and earnest consideration is that the methods proposed offer no
benefits to compare with those of the procedure now established in this
country.
.
'
We must in all fairness, however, be willing to recognize the frailities
of our profession. We must be broad enough to admit that the medical
profession is no better than any other group of men. Like all groups it
has to contend with dark forces of weakness, selfishness and ignorance,
but its weakness is more than compensated for by its strength; its
selfishness is far outweighed by its unselfishness, and its wisdom is much greater than its ignorance. Moreover--and this can be set down as an established fact--the general medical profession, with the support
of various specialists, is the best Instrument by which we can consistently
inform the people with regard to medical science, and the industrial
physician must recognize this. He must see that all that industry does in a medical way is small in comparison with the work of the medical profession at large, and that he is only an assistant to medical endeavor as worked out by the general profession.
The longer I live and the more I work with people, the more I am convinced that nothing can take the place of the family physician, either in the profession or In the hearts of his patients. A short time ago
I was discussing the general status of medicine with one of my over organized friends.' He pictured to me the growing tendency toward group medicine, toward Industrial medicine* and toward state medicine, and the final disappearance of the family physician. His arguments told me in a most certain way that he really did not know people, for a basic knowledge of people themselves would have upset all of his argu ments. Look over your own life, if you will, and you will see a few
friends who stand out apart from all the rest; among these Is your family
86 Twelfth Safety Congress
physician. Indeed, if you take-a census of those assembled at this meeting, you will be surprised to find how many took up the study of medicine in order to follow in the footsteps of their family physicians, so great was their personal influence. Can any. type of organized effort divorce you from your friends? Can any organization, industrial, state or otherwise induce you to leave your trusty family physician?
I think that we maintain a very good dispensary at the Ohio Brass Company. All of us who are associated with it are proud of the equipment, and we try to give good professional care and considerate service. Yet, with all our facilities, it is very rarely that a patient offers any objection when we suggest calling his family physician; in fact, it is rarely that a patient does not prefer his own physician, in any type of serious accident or illness. It always gives me the keenest joy to see a man's faith in his own physician for I know that he has definitely worked out his attach ment in this particular direction, and' it is this attachment that will mean most to him throughout his life, more than industrial medicine could ever mean to him. I feel many times that physicians are close to their work and to the profession that they lose sight of the intimate re lation that exists between themselves and their patients. I am sure that it is easy to get so close to a thing that one cannot see it. Regain your judgment by trying to remember your notion of your own physician when you were a layman, and those of you who fear the effectiveness of state medicine or any type of organized medicine will find your fears vanishing.
RAISING HEALTH STANDARD IS GOAL OF INDUSTRIAL MBDICIME
Industrial medicine will find its greatest opportunity in helping to raise the standard of health generally. If it sees this real opportunity it can perform a signal service to civilization. The elevation of any of our standards presents some very interesting phases. When labor-saving devices were first introduced, the labor unions said that because one machine was going to do the work of ten men, the laboring man was about to be robbed of his very existence. They had failed miserably in their reasoning. They had not taken into consideration the following facts: namely, that by the use of machinery, the products could be made so much more cheaply, that more people could buy them; that the demand for these products would therefore be so much greater that the amount of labor would be increased; and that by the use of these products the whole standard of living would be raised.
By much the same type of reasoning, when medical inspection was introduced in the schools, certain members of the profession entered a protest contending that it was robbing the doctor of some of his work. All who so argued soon found that the opposite was true, for the examiner aroused interest in health matters and called attention to many phys ical defects and many chronic diseases which had to be taken care of by the medical profession at large, and medical work instead of being
General Session--Health
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curtailed was increased. This is exactly what happens in. the wellregulated industrial dispensary. In fact, I know that I personally have referred much more work to the doctors of Mansfield than I have kept from them by taking care of certain acute ills at the plant.
But this is only one side of the question. It is also an established fact that anything that adds to a man's productivity benefits the world at large and particularly all those who have any relations with the man. One of the most important functions of the industrial physician is to help create a wholesome and agreeable place in which to work, by exer cising such supervision of working conditions that the hazards of indus trial disease are eliminated, and by installing proper- safety devices to minimize the hazards of accidents. Statistics give us appalling figures for the time lost to workmen each year from sickness and accidents. This time represents not only a loss of real money to every man in volved, but also a loss of real money to the world in diminished produc tion. A plant dispensary enables the injured man to receive prompt and proper treatment for all minor accidents and many acute ills, and makes It possible for him in a few minutes to be back again on his job. No one can estimate the amount of time and money that is saved to the worker by these measures which make of him a better man, and which make of both him and his family better patients when they consult their own physician. These are some of the indirect but nevertheless most important benefits that accrue to the general medical profession through the ele vation of the general standard of health.
GENEBAL PHYSICIAN AND INDUSTRIAL SPECIALIST MUST COOPERATE
The subject of this discussion is "The Relation of Industrial Medicine
to General Practice." I have purposely used the word relation? because
it always presupposes a two-sided affair. Whatever blood relation I sustain to you, you of necessity sustain to me. If I am your brother, you are also my brother. A relation can never be a one-sided affair, and if general medicine has a right to expect certain relations with industrial medicine, surely the industrial physician has. a right to expect certain things from the general physician. The recognition of this principle is absolutely fundamental In ail human relations. And what are some of the things industrial physicians can reasonably expect from the general physician? First, that he practise the fundamental teachings of the best medical thought, and that he use rational therapeutics instead of the irrational prescriptions so often sold by the commercial pharmaceutical houses and so often accepted by many members of the profession.
In his book, "Heart Affections and Their Treatment." Dr. Mackenzie in a most eloquent way gives us this warning:
"If the most enlightened members of our profession were to inquire into the grounds of their beliefs, even those most dearly cherished, how often would they be surprised to find on what fallacies their beliefs are based. Medicine is being evolved out of the ages of tradition, and the bonds of tradition are dif-
8 Twelfth Safety Congress
ficult to shake off. It is not only the superstitious beliefs of by
gone ages that hamper us, but also the spirit of tradition which
is ever present; for the tendency to believe without reason is
ever recurring, while reverence for authority makes us accept
statements without proof.
"I could illustrate this in almost every field of medicine, but
the most notorious example is to be found in our methods .of
treatment."
.
I know that every thoughtful physician believes that Dr. MacKenzie's varning is most urgent and I ask you, "Can the general practitioner ixpect support from the industrial physician if he gives a commercial prescription containing *4 grain of sodium salicylate for tonsilitis, or if i most irritating cough caused the patient to lose whole nights of sleep is treated with a nauseating cough syrup containing c*.r grain of diacetyl morphine to the dose; if salves are used on infected fingers; and if infections are going to be scattered or brought to a head, as the case may be, by the use of flaxseed poultices?" These are hypothetical cases but are few of the many therapeutic absurdities which have actually come under my observation recently.
The general practitioner should be most willing to cooperate with the
industrial physician when he feels that he must advise his patient to
give up a particular job. I was in the general practice for more than
five years.
'mew what it was to be overworked, with little sleep, and
to be profoundly tired, and I fear that more than once when I really
did not know what was wrong with the patient, and yet felt that I had
to say something, I asked him where he worked, and then without going
into the subject to know what he really was doing, or under what
conditions he was doing it, I thoughtlessly said, "'Well, you must change
your job." I am sure that I did not weigh my words. I am sure that I
did not know what it meant to that man when I said that he should
change his work. I did not realize that it meant severing his business
relations which to him probably were the most vital ties in all the world.
I am sure that if I had, I would have investigated his work to see for
myself just what he was doing. If the plant had had a doctor, I know
that I would have discussed the matter fully with him. I feel that this
is of so great importance that I am forced to say, "No doctor has a right
to give such advice unless he is willing to go to the plant and personally
see just what his patient is doing and under just what conditions he
is doing it."
It is my firm conviction that this is the kind of relation that must exist between the industrial physician and the general physicians if both are going to exert their greatest usefulness: both must recognize their limitations; both must be willing to recognize the sphere of the other. If they do, and if they are willing to obey the laws which are fundamental to all well-ordered human relations, they will se that they are not at war with each other but are allies in the truest sense.
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DISCUSSION
Chairman Elliott: This is not as technical a subject as we have often listened to Dr. Hopkins speak about, but I wish that he would tell us, if he will, how we might help the public and ourselves and the general wel fare by getting the public utilities' standpoint. Dr. Hopkins is the chief surgeon of the Chicago & North Western Railroad.
Dr. C. N. Hopkins: We carry, all the time, 70,000 employees, with a large turnover each year, and 500 surgeons who report everything to my office including their bills, which is most important to them. I have had many problems to face, many things to fight. I have become not only a lawyer but a claim agent and a diplomat, and I am a surgeon and execu tive and a member of the Central Safety Committee.
During the 20 years I have been with the railroad I have come in contact with many problems that have been hard to settle. There is the problem of the local surgeon with the small town man with whom he works or with whom he comes in contact. They seem to lose sight of the fact that they are all working for the general public good, working for the safety and the health of the public. The doctor who is not a local surgeon is so jealous of the surgeon who has been appointed and vice versa that they are busy fighting each other and let the osteopath and the chiropractor and a few others run off with the cream. I have said time and again that I wouldn't practice in a small town if they gave me $50,000 a year and my rent free. I wouldn't live in such an atmosphere. I have said, "If you men would get down to brass tacks and think more of your patient and less of your own little selfish ideas, if you would get down to the fundamentals of the public welfare, you would be way ahead of the game and would deserve and command the respect of your patients
and all labor that comes in contact with you so much more than you do
now. You talk too much, you fight too much."
There have been times when some of our surgeons have been called on
the carpet by the county society for doing contract practice. We know
now, as the doctor says, that we are all recognizing the place and the
importance of the industrial surgeon. I don't care how good a general
surgeon a man is, there are eases where lie falls down and falls down
so hard that the industrial surgeon who has had the training and the ex
perience can hold cards and spades against him. Dr. Will Mayo has told
me more than once, "You have more of this stuff in a month than we have
up here in ten years. What do we know about it? You have the real stuff
on the ground as it happens. It comes to us after it is years or months old.
We have to work out something where some local man has fallen down or
neglected the case." Therefore, the industrial surgeon has created for
himself a place, a specialty, that we have got to recognize. He has learned
the mechanics of fractures. He has learned the best way to get the man
back into service quickest and with the least danger to the man. He has
also got to remember that his employer, the corporation for which he
works, is looking to him to cut down the days lost, the permanent total
disability or the partial total disability, all of which costs money, all of
which comes down to an economic standpoint.
.
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OFTHE TELFASE
THE WOKKMAX IS GOAL OF INDUSTRIAL TUYSiPIAN
Leaving the economic standpoint alone, there is the welfare of th? man
himself. How easy it is for a doctor to slam off a leg or an arm without
proper consideration. He may force a young man who has a family to
support and with a long expectancy to go through life with one leg or one
arm where a proper knowledge which has been learned by the industrial
surgeon will save that leg by proper methods. I think we all recognize
that there is a very important relationship that should exist (I am happy
to say, in many instances, does exist) between the family doctor and the
industrial surgeon.
"
What I was going to say in regard to. the local man being called upon
the carpet by the county society because he is doing contract practice was
this, and it has happened more than once: There have been times when the man who has been called upon the carpet has either resigned or had to move away on account of the health of his family or has died, and I have afterwards learned that the man who telegraphed in for the job before the doctor was buried was the man who was instrumental in bring ing the fellow on the carpet. It all depends upon where you sit, whether
you are on the outside looking in or the inside looking out, and they are all after that annual job, which, of course, they take great pleasure in flaunting to the general public.
I think the industrial surgeon is the most liberal sort of*fellow that
we have in the profession. He is willing to tell this patient, "You had
better go to your own family doctor. You have every confidence in him.
he takes care of your family, you listen to him. You don't know me
except in a business way. You go to him and I'll do anything I can to
help in consulting or making a diagnosis or in the laboratory work.*'
Many times the patient himself will gain confidence right away in that
industrial surgeon and say, "Well, doctor. I believe' I'd rather stay just
where I am. I'm satisfied." But nevertheless he will tell his own family
doctor, "I was advised to go to you. Our company doctor said I had
better go to you." That, in itself, will instill a feeling of cooperation
and friendship which so many times does not exist. I am sorry to see
the hair-pulling and the fighting, the scrapping, that goes on with such
petty jealousies. I sometimes think that the smallest being on God's
green earth can he a small doctor. On the other hand, some of the
biggest men, men who would be at the head of affairs no matter what
they went into, are doctors also. But we have the -two extremes, and we
have to deal with the ones in between as well.
.
I have been most happy to hear those two papers, because they have struck a chord that gets a great rise and thrill out of me; they are both excellent, they have hit the nail on the head, they have touched the point, and I think all of you who are laymen here as well as you who are doctors can see that we industrial surgeons are not selfish, egotistical pups, but at the same time are men of big, broad-minded scope, willing to help and work for humanity and humanity's sake as well as for our corporation, which, necessarily, comes second.. In every bad case we have.
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our patient conies first; his -will power and recovery and getting him back to work come first. Our corporation comes second. We have to tell the truth to the corporation no matter where it hurts, how badly it hurts, whom it hurts or how much it costs.
Chairman Elliott: In calling on the next man whom I have picked to discuss the papers, I am going to call on a layman, a man interested just as you and I are in his fellowmen, who is associated with industrial medicine from a little different angle than you and I are. Mr. Curtis, the vice-president of the New York Federation of Labor is in the room, and I want very much to have him give his view-point as to how we can help labor in some of their problems, and see if he has from these papers this afternoon gotten our slant on some of our problems that we have to face and solve in the industrial medicine field.
Mr. Thomas Curtis: There is one difficulty that I find with the new
industrial physician. They forget they are treating the Injured man,
and a number of them become lawyers instead of doctors; they try
to make little of the injury.
.
We have institutions in the city of New York that are called industrial clinics. Last week we presented three cases before the commission where one man treated the other. They didn't see a doctor at all in the in dustrial clinic. They put the man in the oven and they didn't know whether they were baking his leg off or on, and they called that "treat ment." I believe it is up to you doctors as well as to the public in general to help remedy these conditions, so that industrial clinics will he real clinics where a man will receive proper treatment. In New York, one must be out of work 49 days or more before he gets the first two weeks' compensation. That is where our industrial doctors come in; they see that he gets back, if there is any possible way, or discharge him before the forty-nine days are up so those two weeks are saved. That is the kind of doctor that we have to contend with. The working men of this state are opposed to that system. If we don't find a remedy we are going to use our power to legislate these clinics out of business, because the working men of this state are waking up -to the fact that they must receive proper treatment, that they' are not to be discharged and thrown on the mercies of the state when they have a condition that doesn't warrant that.
So many doctors become specialists over night. They testify as to the condition of a man when they don't know the first thing about his condition; they see him once and know all about him and all about his family. A man comes In for his compensation and he is confronted with one of those physicians, and he says, "Is this the kind of doctors we have in this state?*' He loses confidence right away and he believes every doctor he meets is the same as the doctor who testified against him.
I believe we can make conditions better than they are, that we can have a better understanding with the family physician and with the plant physician, and I agree thoroughly with the doctor when he states that before he sends a man back to his job he ought to find, out what
92 Twelfth Safety Congress
kind of a job he is going back to. It is the easiest thing in the world now to say light work for the man with a fractured leg or a fractured wrist. If the physician states light work he ought to be able to say what kind of light work that should be. That light work question is one of the' things that the working men of this state can't understand. What does it mean? It means that under the New York act it gives the insurance company the right to pay the man only $3500; that is what it means, and that is what the company's physician is trying to do--to get that one phrase, "light work," into the record; then he doesn't care what happens to the man after that. That is the reason you have the great dissatisfaction that you have today.
To the honest, sincere doctor we say we are with you 100 per cent, we want to help develop medicine because I know from my own experi ence that it is a dangerous thing for a man with an infection to get into the hands of a doctor who doesn't understand the treating of that infection, and the men are trained in some of those industrial clinics to take care of the infection. We want our men to get to that kind of doctor, but we don't want a man to get into the hands of a baking machine and a "violent" ray treater administered by his fellow worker.
DISCUSSION OF PAPERS BY DKS. MEYERS AND GIDDIXGS
Dr. Otto P. Geier: I think the last speaker, Mr. Curtis, has thrown a
challenge to Dr. Giddings and the casualty surgeon, (and I think that
is a better name until he gets over on the other side and acquaints himself
with industrial processes).
What I hope these meetings will finally mean in the end is that the
layman, the safety man, the man representing the employee, the man
representing the management, and the medical profession will come
to realize what a terrific economic loss is involved in mismanagement
of surgery in connection with industry, what it means to the country at
large and the loss of production when a wrong view-point is taken as
to how these problems in industry shall be worked out, and that as a
result of these conferences we may come year by year closer together,
getting such men as Mr. Curtis representing labor and the management
here in our groups and using every energy that we have to raise still
further the high plane'of right thinking in medicine and surgery.
-
SHOULD THE PHYSICIAN GO OUT INTO.THE PLANT?
C. F. N. Shram. M.D., Chief Surgeon, Fairbanks, Morse & Co., Beeoit, Wis.
An industrial physician must understand men; he must understand the mental processes, the viewpoint of the specific group or groups with which he is working, whether they he miners, clerks, department heads, machinists, executives or a combination of any group of these. He must think their thoughts, and he must speak their language; I do not refer to Italian, Greek, Polish or any other foreign tongue, but I refer to shop talk. He should be able to explain a medical or surgical question in shop language; selecting his illustrations from the employees work and his message will get across.
G-eneral Session-----Health.
93
This does not refer to all physicians, nor do all physicians serving ndustry have these qualifications. I know plant executives who are eal human beings with a sympathetic attitude toward the viewpoints > their employees. I know foremen whom I consider just "bosses." Per haps you all know of superintendents of departments to whom the man running the lathe or the man working in the stables cannot go with i question and get a sympathetic or even a civil answer. If some of our executives, department superintendents and foremen have not the right viewpoint of the relations which should exist in modern industry, can we reasonably expect all physicians to have it?
I have .met a few physicians in industry who are just "bosses"; who speak to applicants for work during the physical examination with abrupt sharp commands and in a sharp tone of voice; who scold the man who got hurt because the injury was possibly due to the latter's carelessness. The employee may need to be censured, but that is not in the province of the medical department, and just after a man has received an injury is not the proper time to "step on" him because of his carelessness.
Perhaps my ideal of an industrial physician and surgeon is high: I want it to he, and I know that I do not measure up to it, but I am sure that those present have the same high ideals in industry that I have, and I am sure that you want your doctor to be a real human being with all the sympathy and kindliness of nature that it is possible for him to have.
You deal with your doctor when something is wrong with you or your family and you wish his personal interest. The employees in every mine, in every store, in every shop of each and every industry do the same. They go to the physician with a cut finger, a bruised foot, a burn, a head ache, a cold or whatever their trouble or complaint is, and they want what you want when you go to your family physician. They want per
sonal service of the same kind that you expect. They want him to speak the universal language of the sympathetic understanding smile.
PHYSICIAN MUST KNOW PATIENT WELL
In order for any physician to be able to give that sort of service, he
must know his patient and know him well. The closer that they can
meet as man to man, the better acquainted they are, the nearer to our
high ideal will be the meeting of that patient and that doctor.
Let us look for a moment at the opportunities for close acquaintanceship
that there are in the average industry employing a physician who is
putting on a fairly complete medical and surgical program. First, the
man meets the physician as a new employee at the physical examination.
(Let us Imagine that they both slept well the night before and that the
applicant for employment is in good physical condition and therefore con
fident that he will pass the examination.) Do you, from personal ex
perience, know just how much at a disadvantage a man feels when he is
partially or wholly undressed before another who is wholly dressed'
Then also, you must remember that they are meeting in the doctor's office
Be the physician as pleasant as he may and as considerate as possible
these two men are not meeting on an equal footing,' even though it b<
94 Twelfth Safety Congress
an executive of excellent education that is being examined; and very few patients that the industrial physician meets have had the educational advantages that the physician must of necessity have and this actually places the applicant for employment at a further disadvantage. Add to this any uncertainty of passing the examination and obtaining work and we find that these two men are not together at all. ' .
Probably the next time they meet is following an injury or a minor illness to the workman and this meeting is in the shop, hospital. Again, they are not on the home grounds of the patient. The treatment of the illness or injury may require that the patient be partially stripped, with possibly the nurse present to assist the doctor; the patient .is in his working clothes. He-is, quite often, dirty because of the nature' of his work and the hospital or first aid room is spotlessly white. The physi cian's specific knowledge here puts the patient to a greater disadvantage, especially if the former be at all technical in his language.
A dry teno-synovitis, or a traumatic myositis means nothing in the language of the shop. One man in our shop this past year thought that Angina Pectoris was a girl.
If all meetings between these two men--the plant physician and the employee--are at the shop, I wish to submit that these two fellow work men are not going to establish the contact that your physician, establishes when he visits your home to call upon you, your wife or your child.
INDUSTRY WANTS "HUMAN MEN"
It is true that the strictly office practice of a physician and the office practice of the industrial physician are partially comparable. But ac cording to our premise, we want an industrial physician who is going to be a real human being to his patients. Let me add that the reason there is trouble between employer and employee, between management and workmen today, is that we have not had enough of these real human "guys" in industry.
Jones' boss did not know that Jones' wife was sick, and that he was up most of the night before he spoiled the crankshaft, and Smith's boss did not know that Smith's little child had to have an operation and that Smith did not have the faintest idea as to where the money was coming from to pay the hospital and doctor's fees. But when the management does know Bill as Bill, and sees him, not as an employee, but as a man who has three children, who Is paying for a home, who goes to this church, or that, and when Bill knows the "old man'* in the same way, well enough so that he can ask how the chief's boy is getting along in school, or well enough so that he can laugh at a joke on the "G.M." in the "G.M's" presence; then, and then only, will the trouble, imagined or real, fade in industry. I care not what wages are paid, how few hours men work, nor what the ideal conditions are, under which they put in these few hours for high wages, if there is not a real friendly relation between fellow workmen, and by fellow workmen, I mean the "G.M." and the yard sweeper, the lathe hand and the foundry superintendent.
General Session--Health
95
the office man. and the miner, if there is not this friendly relation, there is going to be trouble and the better the understanding there is between employees, managements and men, the less trouble there is going to be.
Let me cite the case of the Midvale Steel during the big steel strike.
The "old man" knew the boys and the boys knew him, and they knew he was playing fair and he knew they were and so they were true to each other. There was no lockout or strike.
The industrial physician in industry must do more than be pleasant and he must do more than do a technical job well. He must know his patients and if he learns to know his fellow workmen who are his potential or actual patients, and if my reasoning has been good, he will, of necessity, have to meet them on their own grounds, possibly where the doctor- is at a disadvantage. I know I have often felt embarrassed when the mechanic was trying to explain something to me about his machine and I knew that he knew that I was a dub and did not know what
he was talking about.
.
The miner is at home in the mine, the mechanic at the bench or machine, the salesman at the counter or office. At his job your fellow workman is dressed for his work, and you, in looking around for some place that is clean enough to stand or sit down or lay down your coat or hat, appear just as much out of place as the workman did when he, in your hospital, was looking for a place dirty enough on which to sit down or lay his hat or coat. The workmen's technical education here effsets
yours and he is more suitably dressed than you are. You are both clothed and, therefore, can meet somewhere on an equal footing, and you can get acquainted. You cannot get close enough to a man you do not know to see things as he sees them.- In order to get the other fellow's view point, you must now and then, stand where he stands and look through
his eyes.
-
THE INSPIRATION OF COMMON GROUND MEETINGS
. While getting acquainted so that you can treat this man better, this fellow workman, you will at the same time have a chance to see whether he has to work in a cramped 'position, or whether his work is dusty and many other things about his job. He will tell you about a toilet that Is not right, about the wash room and lockers that have not been cleaned out in some time and you begin to realize that in sitting over in the office and doing a strictly dignified practice you have been doing about half the job that is expected of you.
In what condition are the drinking fountains?
What is the source' of this?
Have the men who work before the forge fires or in the foundry or in the mines a wash room and lockers so that they are not overly exposed by having to wear cold, sweaty clothes home?
Are there drafts that can be prevented?
Is the lighting system proper?.
96 Twelfth Safety Congress
Papers could be -written on what a physician could do out in the shop in preventive medicine, and there is no more laudable calling than that of preventive medicine. Sickness is Causing fifteen times as much lost time as that of accidents, and the only place that a physician is going to learn to cope efficiently with disease in a preventive way to get to the place where it possibly originates and where it surely spreads. Yellow fever was not licked by office practicing physicians.
"When the men with whom you are working see you out in the shop working so that they may have better conditions, so that they may have clean drinking water from an appetizing place, so that they may have showers, they will have confidence enough in you to come to you with the medical problems of their family and your opportunity for service will be increased many fold.
Do you believe that the National Cash Register Company made that wonderful record last year of a loss of 13 hours per employee fay sitting in the office and being dignified?
A man. in order to do a Job, must go where that Job Is. A physician
deals with men and their surroundings and he must see" them and learn to know them and their habitat in order to know how to treat their ailments and he must know how to so improve their surroundings in order to prevent their, having as many ailments.
As has been defined, "the physician in industry Is one who applies the principles of modern medicine and surgery to the industrial worker, sick or well, supplementing the remedial agencies of medicine by sound applica tion of hygiene, sanitation, and accident prevention; and who, in addition, has an adequate and co-operative appreciation of the social, economic and administrative problems."
I do not believe that this definition is applicable to a strictly dignified office practice.
DISCUSSION
Mr. John A. Dickinson (Mechanical Engineer, Bureau of Standards, Washington, D. C.) : I was in charge of the safety work of a number of large plants during the war and I had the chance of contrasting the work of a number of industrial physicians at that time. I think the most successful industrial physician that I ever saw was a Little Virginian who was working with, me on one of the large smeltering plants In Virginia. That man made a practice of going through the plant at least twice a week. In the chemical industry, of course, the checking up of the health conditions of the men, preventive medicine was vitally important. Dr. Cottreil was a little fellow who weighed perhaps 115 pounds and stood five feet two or three. There wasn't a man who had been in the plant any length of time who didn't love him. He would go around and say to one fellow, "Bill, you're looking a little blue around the lips. Guess we'll ship you out for outside labor a little while." In contrast to that I was in an other plant where the physician never did. go into the plant; he claimed he
didn't have the time nor the technical knowledge. He had no sympathy
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97
for the men; they were cattle, more or less. In some, cases it cost us a great deal of money to settle his mistakes. I know of one case where a crushed foot with four broken bones was treated as a sprain, was never X-rayed, and the man was crippled, probably for life.
I believe 90 per cent of our industrial poisoning cases and our indus trial diseases can and should be' caught by the industrial physician, and the only way for him to do it is to get out in the plant and look the men over before they come to him in such serious condition that they must go to the hospital dispensary for treatment.
INDUSTBIAI. SURGERY IK UTAH
Mr. Johnson (U. S. Smelting Co., Salt Lake City) : Utah is a small state, and doesn't have very many strictly speaking industrial physicians. The Industrial Commission of the State of Utah prohibits industrial surgery to this extent; that no one except the self-insurer is allowed to contract the medical work. In the ordinary, average industry, the employee chooses his own physician; he goes to any physician he pleases. The Industrial Commission of the state sets the medical fee and the insurance carrier or the employer must pay it.
The Industrial Commission meets with a medical board composed of
30 or 40 or more physicians appointed by the State Medical Society and
they pass upon the qualifications of the doctors that render service and
upon so-called specialists that have been referred to here this after
noon, and upon the disability of the man. If an employer believes that
a man is faking or putting over something, he is referred to the medical
examining board and they are final in their discussion as to the dis
ability of the man, whether it is partial, permanent, or whether there
is no disability at all. We have found that that works very well, in fact
wonderfully well.
.
Throughout the West we have a compulsory medical contribution from the men, which has been the cause of strikes and other griefs from time immemorial. The medical profession has been referred to generally by the workers throughout the West as "pill do.ctors." Those conditions are being eliminated by the coming of Industrial Commissions through out the West, and the men are realizing that they are getting their money's worth. The companies realize that the best is none too good and is the cheapest in the long run. We can hire any number of doctors there in Salt Lake a good deal cheaper than we can hire our present doctor, but we can't hire as good a doctor, and we don't have to pay more money for lost time and bungled up cases.
TREATMENT OF THE INJUBY SHOULD BE THE ATM OF DOCTOR
Dr. Hopkins: One of the things that I have to do most on the North Western Railroad line is to tell the doctor, "Keep your hand out of the claim department, you are not a claim agent, the money doesn't come out of your pocket, it is none of your business! Take care of your pa tient and give him the benefit of the doubt, even If you do feel he is
98 Twelfth Safety Congress
running over two. or three weeks. Treat him right, spare no money, spare no expense. Don't put him in a ward it you know he ought to be in a room to himself with a private night nurse." I have four patients in St. Luke's Hospital right now with a day and night nurse in private rooms. They are not the president nor the vice-presidents; they are men working on the line digging ditches, working on the right of way. They are just as important to us as far as the human standpoint goes as the president of the road.
Don't get the impression that we are all of the same stripe, that we are all trying to cut down expenses and give you laboring men the worst of it. We are not. Go away with the right idea.
SPEAKERS' FINAL REMARKS
Dr. Giddings: Dr. Hopkins, in the remarks he just closed, has ex pressed very much what I myself would have liked to say. I believe that the men who are earnestly doing this sort of work and who are honestly doing this sort of work have absolutely the workers' welfare at heart. I think their one object is to get the man well. We want to get him well naturally as soon as we can for his own sake and for the sake of the company who has to pay him compensation. The company
which I represent, the insurance company, gives its doctors very par
ticular directions as to how we shall conduct our cases. We are instructed to spare no expense whatsoever in getting those men well and in giving them the very best surgical service which the City of Boston can provide. They retain on their staff a list of the very best specialists in the city. If there is the slightest question or doubt in our minds as to whether a man who comes in with an emery burn of his eye is going to do well,
we send him to a competent eye specialist immediately, and if we didn't
do that we would be severely censured for it. If that case needs hospital treatment we send him to a private hospital- He is not sent to a public hospital. If he needs a private room, he is put in a private room and
kept there just as long as it is necessary to keep him there to get well.
That is the spirit of the company by whom I am retained. Chairman Elliott: Dr. Meyers, will you close your discussion? Dr. Meyers: I know we will all agree that everybody has an inalienable
right to be well and that medical science exists to guarantee that right. I believe every industrial physician, when it comes to a show-down of what is best to do for the patient, is going to turn that patient over to the family physician any time he thinks the family physician can do better for that patient or that he should handle it, because if we believe that medical science exists to guarantee the right that everybody shall be well, then we must try to work out something which will consistently get medical science over to the people, and I profoundly believe that that is up to general medical profession. I believe industrial medicine should be a help to the medical profession at large.
I believe if industrial medicine is a particular art; if we do know some thing that the general profession doesn't know, we should get that idea over to the medical profession.
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Chairman Elliott: Dr. Schram, will you close your discussion? Dr. Schram: I took up industrial medicine and surgery because I wanted to deal with men who are doing things. I have no neurasthenic cases. Every man who comes into the shop to see me is a real he-individual, and he is working and doing things, and if I can't win him as a friend of mine he is not going to have confidence enough in me to let me be his doctor. The whole thing is summed up in our just being human individuals with each other. They are my fellow employees.
DISCUSSION' OF DB. BASSIK'S PAPER
Chairman Elliott: This morning, in order to give them the opportunity to use the room for other purposes and because of the hour and the crowding of our program, we were prevented from opening the discussion of Dr. Bass in's paper on the subject of sprained back. I am sure that those of you who were fortunate enough to hear that paper felt that it was a very masterly effort and that you would perhaps like to discuss it. I will now open this subject , for discussion.
Dr. E. C. McCulloch (Mansfield Sheet & Tin Plate Co.. Mansfield, Ohio) : I am sure that all of us who are practically engaged in industrial work, especially work of the kind where men lift heavy loads, were im pressed this morning by the statement that the sacro-iliac sprain didn't exist scientifically. I may have misunderstood the statement, but that is what I believe the speaker said.
I see about one of these cases a week on the average. About two weeks ago a man came into our hospital and said he had hurt his back. I said, "How did you hurt It?"
He said, "I was lifting a heavy piece of steel and I was going to throw it over on the pile this way, and I felt as if Had been shot in the back."
I said, " Where is your pain?"
..
He put his hand,on his back and showed, me where the pain was. He didn't know he had a sacro-iliac joint, but he located the right sacro iliac joint very accurately. We all know that those sprains do occur. Call them a sprain or something else, if you. like, but they happen, and they have to be treated, and they always happen in the same way, they always happen when a man bends over arid lifts with a twisting motion. One of the sacro-iliac joints becomes the line of stress and there is a twist at the same time, and there is no question about the diagnosis. You can get it if the man Is good at describing what he was doing and how he felt. You know what is the matter with him before you have him remove his clothes; you know you have a sacro-iliac sprain to treat.
The orthopedic surgeons don't see very many of those cases--that is, the acute cases. The reason they don't see them Is because they are treated by the men In the field, the men in the shop, and ninety-nine out of every hundred at least get well. The orthopedic surgeons see the chronic cases, they see the cases that have persisted in ordinary forms of treatment and that finally come to them, and they often find with careful examinations and arrays that they have congenital anomalies that
100
Twelfth Safety Congress
have developed, but it seems to me that must he rare in the practice of the average individual with a large number of referred cases; the per centage would probably be pretty high. I think it would be a mistake if this section went on record as admiting that there is no such thing as a sacro-iliac sprain. I know it is by far the commonest back injury that I have in my plants.
TREATMENT OF SACMO-1LUC SPBAISS
How do we treat these cases? I imagine we all treat them the same way. The books on orthopedic surgery say the patient ought to be put to bed for two or three weeks. Probably they ought, but the only place to do that would be in the hospital; they won't stay in bed anywhere else. What do we do? We strap them for a few days and have them come back perhaps to renew the strapping. Perhaps we prescribe some massage and liniments, perhaps a belt in obstinate cases. But I believe that the great majority of them go ahead and get well with or' without treatment, practically speaking. Diathermy is very useful, I believe, in a limited number of cases.
Chairman Elliott: Not being engaged in a very hazardous or heavy industry, I have seen some rather curious cases of sprained back from trivial injuries, all of them in women, and they invariably consisted of fracture of the transverse processes of one or two vertebrae about the third or fourth lumbar region, with practically no displacement, and I suppose in the old days they would have been overlooked because of the slight degree of trauma--practically no trauma--that had caused them; purely muscular in origin, every one of them. We have had. possibly a series of eight or ten in the last few months.
Dr. Bassin: As to the sacro-iliac sprain, an involvement of the region does occur. On several occasions when I attempted to do the SmithPeterson operation, I found that there was a luxation and I could move one joint anyway, hut I found that the cartilages themselves were not involved, but a separation of the cartilaginous and fibrous and bony aspect of the tissue. I don't know just what the results of the operation will be.
Orthopedic surgeons do see these cases, and it happens that industrial surgeons .are orthopedic surgeons in many instances, especially those who do bone and joint work.
At the Long Island College Hospital we have a. department, so to speak, of industrial orthopedics. Cases which come under bone and joint surgery involving these regions are turned over to the orthopedic division, and we do not see these cases very early. They are not all com pensable cases.
Comparing notes, I think you can draw a pretty fair conclusion that there is an involvement.
ADJOURNMENT.
General Session
With the New York State Department of Labor
October 3, 1923
RICHARD J. CULLEN, Chairman
Deputy Industrial Commissioner, New York State Department of Labor
HAIRMAN CULLEN: In opening this session of the Twelfth Annual
C Congress of the National Safety Council, I wish to express my
appreciation of the honor of presiding over this session, which is really the
seventh annual Industrial Safety Congress held under the auspices of
the New York State Department of Labor.
.
THE NEW YORK STATE DEPARTMENT OF LABOR'S PROPOSED INTENSIVE STUDY OF INDUSTRIAL DISEASES AND ACCIDENTS
Ler-ASTD E. Cover, M.D., Director, Division of Industrial Hygiene,
New York: State
I think nearly everyone realizes,, that since the Great War our Country is becoming more and more an industrial nation, with all that that
statement implies, and in consequence certain changes- in our incomes,
living, manners, customs and ideals are everywhere evident. Certain
it is that those who do not adjust themselves to the new order of things are likely- to awaken, to say the very least, to the realization that they
are not keeping up with the .times.
-
It seems to be an accepted fact that little or no change has occurred
In the general structure of human beings since the human race came
into existence. Nor is there evidence that much change has taken place
in what might be termed our fundamental human nature. But when the question arises as to the modifications which the race has under
gone as the result of changes in environment there is another story to
tell. For during the one hundred years just past changes have taken
place far greater in extent than in the whole period intervening between
the beginning of historic times and the present.
Many and1 various are the reasons given for these changes--too mapy by far to recount here, but it seems reasonably- certain that one of the
principal underlying influences is the gradual replacement of the man
power of the old times by the machine power of the new. Which is in
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Twelfth Safety Congress
effect saying that the changes are due to the gradual but steady broad
ening of the scope of industry, and its development in turn into groups of
highly organized specialists or sciences, requiring, paying for and ob taining the best talent in the land in order to produce the best com
modity for the lowest cost. Somewhat recently during this period of
evolution, labor has been organized, labor legislation has been passed,
especially with respect to child labor.
Then another set of collateral changes have pervaded industry such as artificial light, chilled air or heated air, dry air or moist air, arti ficial ventilation, quick transportation, special kinds of clothes for certain workers, newspapers, amusements, etc.; then changes In food such as the introduction of tea, coffee, sugar, alcohol and tobacco. Then during the past fifteen or twenty years the development of industrial hygiene as a recognized branch of sanitary science. It is easy to see how these
changes, taken as a whole, have reacted all along and are now reacting upon, the mental and. physical characteristics of every one, especially those engaged in industrial pursuits. These reactions are even now
producing changes day by day, probably changes for the better, but it is only natural that one should ask what and where are the good and bad changes? What diseases are being conquered by the application of the present findings in the field of industrial hygiene, or what diseases are being eliminated by changes in industrial methods? In short, what is the present status of the diseases of industry?
The present relative limitations to intensive study of the disease caused by industry on the part of the New York State Department of Labor are realized, especially when one considers the magnitude of the field,
which comprises the whole state of New York with its industrial popu
lation of over 1,400,000 people, working in over 61,000 industrial estab lishments.
On the other hand the Labor Department is at present regularly using the Division of Industrial Hygiene in carrying out certain provisions of the Labor Law. The Division of Industrial Hygiene is a part of the Bu reau of Research and Codes, to which it contributes expert assistance on
matters relating to mechanical appliances for the removal of Stealth haz
ards in industry -resulting from injurious dusts and fames, also assistance in lighting, heating, ventilating, hygienic and medical problems. In addi
tion this Division acts in conjunction with the Bureau
Inspection in con
ducting scientific tests to determine the propriety Of orders issued. Dur ing the past year the Division of Industrial Hygleoe has pass el opinions or given expert assistance on over five hundred cases arising in connec
tion with industrial disease or accident hazards in as away factories. I
mention this to show that the Division is this minute already at work
in the vast field to which I have just referred, and wfll be able to take proper advantage of the number and variety of it* industrial contacts for intensive study just in proportion as it can eSrecdtreSy co-ordinate the small working force which it possesses with the property directed
efforts of the employers and their employees.
General Session^--Neia York Department of Labor
103
WHAT PROGRAM CALLS FOB
Until the present force can be augmented it is thought best to conduct
the Division under the following three sections:
First--Section of Expert Inspection.
Second--Section of Special Research. Third--Section of Accident Prevention.
,
Fourth--Section of Education.
There should be added to the Division of Industrial Hygiene a person
especially trained to have immediate supervision of the section of public
education in industrial disease and accident prevention but until this
can he provided for, our available talent and resources must be used
to their full capacity.
-
The Section of Expert Inspection will give expert assistance to the
Bureau of Research and Codes in matters relating to the character and
design of the various devices for removing noxious fumes and dusts
from work rooms, and also give assistance relative to accident prevention
devices. It will also give assistance on projects concerning the heating, lighting and ventilation of factory buildings. Under this section special
medical examination will he made of persons employed in factories or mercantile establishments who are suffering from any disease associated with industry. Also, physical examinations of children between 14 and 16 years of age employed in factories or mercantile establishments as
required by Paragraph 145 of the Labor Law.
The Section of Special Research will endeavor to work under the
following program:
Inquiry into the morbidity of diseases caused by industry.
Research in relatively unexplored fields, both with respect to
disease and mechanical devices for their prevention.
In order to proceed with the inquiry into the morbidity of industrial diseases in the state, it will be necessary to enlist the interest and help of those members of the medical profession who are associated with industry for this knowledge does not seem to be procurable in any other way. If industrial clinics could be established at large hospitals much definite and valuable information could also be obtained, and it would seem that more could be done than is being done in this direction.
Naturally, this information can only be obtained by degrees from the medical profession at large as the individual physician comes to the realization of the important assistance he can render by looking for and
recording the industrial factor when present in certain cases coming under his observation. The reporting of cases will not interfere with the physicians' practice. On the contrary.it should develop a new line of research and opportunity.
If this information could be obtained and tabulated it would enable, the study of two sets of "standards." One set covering the status of the
worker who has been eliminated from industry on account of disease or injury and who can only be found either in his home or in some institution; and the other set, the worker who is somewhat ill, but who continues at his occupation. Extremes in severity- and mildness of
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Twelfth Safety Canyress
disease could be tabulated when found even though, they might not be classified as "standards." A study of the standards of industrial disease would include research into the effect of the improvement or of the variations of environment upon the workers, and also the effect of the elimination from, certain industries of disease producing chemicals; or in other words the alleged or actual benefit of the teachings of industrial hygiene through the application of the sciences of medicine and mechanics. Now there is an important field.
In this connection it is proper to invite the attention of the physicians in the state to the following paragraph from the Labor Law:
"Par. 206--Every physician attending any person whom he be
lieves to be suffering from poisoning by lead, phosphorus, arsenic,
brass, alcohol, mercury or other compounds, or from anthrax,
or compressed air illness, contracted as the result of the nature
of such persons employment, shall send to the Commissioner
a report stating the name and address and place of the em
ployment of such person and the disease from which he is
suffering, with such further information as may be required by
the Commissioner."
'
It is confidentially expected that in time the majority of the medical
profession in the state will not only report the diseases covered by the above mentioned statute but will further co-operate by sending full
particulars as to any other diseases caused by occupation treated by
them. It would be of great assistance if the medical journals and the
lay press would give this matter enough publicity to remind the physi
cians of the existence of this law--also of their opportunity to lend
valuable aid in this work.
'
"Research in unexplored fields" can originate from problems arising '
in connection with the work of expert inspection.
`
.
While there is an abundance of most valuable literature available, it has been developed exhaustively along some lines and to a very limited
degree in others. Then too some of the literature is out of date in
that It deals mainly with conditions in industry which existed before
the investigation was made, the findings of which caused the said con
ditions to be Improved. What it is desirable to do is to make a careful
intensive examination of the workers in one or more of the hazardous
trades and study the effects of certain environments upon the body from
a physiological standpoint. For example, to study the blood changes
incident to exposure to high temperature and humidity as in the ease of laundry workers.
In regard to research into the matter of mechanical devices for the
prevention of industrial diseases, the Department of Labor has already
contributed much work of a very valuable nature. The result of this
can be seen in the New York State Labor Code which is being referred
to constantly and adopted more or less as a model. This work should be increased in its scope, and expert assistance should be rendered along
General Session--New York Department of Dab or 105
the lines of suggesting after proper experiment devices to remove the
of example Ihealth hazards
industry. For
saw an exhaust device for
removing granite dust in operation a few days ago. The designer, the
stone cutter himself claimed it removed 60 per cent of the dust. The
Industrial Hygiene Division will soon have as a part of its personnel a
well qualified mechanical engineer. It will be part of his duty to attempt
to improve if not to protect this and other devices of a similar import.
THE SECTION' OF ACCIDENT PREVENTION
.
More and more attention is being paid to industrial accidents, their relative occurrences, their causes, mortality and prevention. A close study of the available statistics will show that accidents occur with remarkable regularity by month and by year. The causes and even the parts of the body affected show a similar uniformity. It is held by some that about 20 per cent of accidents are unavoidable in the sense that no amount of foresight could have prevented them. This would leave say 80 per cent as avoidable or commonly considered as due to "neglect" on the part of someone. When, however, the prevalence of accidents is considered with respect to environment, such factors as fatigue, physical condition, temperature and light come in for great considera tion. For example, the relation of temperature to accidents should be studied in this state, also the relation of accidents to output. The re lation of new workers to accidents would be an interesting study.
Some of our most active, alert and responsible citizens whom no one would accuse of being careless or of wishing to be injured are the vic tims of occasionally "not being alert" in this complex age in which we are living. It is extremely difficult to be "on the job" every moment and it is probably impossible without good health and the natural alertness which goes with good health.
The so-called predisposition to accidents might be studied.
It is possible to calculate the number of accidents which are likely
to occur among a certain group of workers, if the number which occurred
to individual members of the group is known for a period immediately
preceding.
.
A campaign against accidents might include efforts to improve the general health of the workers, thereby producing in them the quality of being able to sustain for as long a time as possible a state of alert ness; second, the workers could be made familiar with the dangers con nected with their work, and the fact as well that safety devices are only safe when in working order; for example, a boiler may burst if the safety valve is out of order; and. third, see that accident pre vention devices are generally and consistently installed.
Mr. Bernard B. Shientag, the Industrial Commissioner has planned a very comprehensive educational campaign for the state with respect to safety devices, and there is no doubt that bringing the subject directly to the notice of the people at large by means of models, posters, lantern slides, moving pictures and lectures will be followed by good results.
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Twelfth Safety Congress
SECTION OF EDUCATION
If all diseases met with in industry were strictly occupational, they
could be eliminated either by mechanical devices or perhaps by regula tion, but a large percentage of the diseases are only partly occupational.
They are due to a repeated subjection of persons to unfavorable influ ences of medium intensity and of brief or varying lengths of time. There fore, this group of diseases can only be handled by education. This group must be taught to work, how to lift heavy objects, how to sit, how to stand, or In other words how to keep one's self in good condi tion. Education must be given appropriate to occupations--should be put in form for special distribution to the workers in various trades and' occupations. It is claimed that education by such methods as posters, lectures, etc., is not followed by success; that the workers are bored by what they term "uplift methods." I do not believe that the old and: ordi nary methods of education will fail in the case of woikers. They are successful with school children; that is when common sense is used in putting forth the information. In every group of persons to whom instruction is being given some will think of other things and fail to listen, some will go to sleep and some will even scoff, hut there is always that percentage, perhaps small, who are "on the job" and who not only listen but who absorb, assimulate and tell of what they hear. I believe that the success of education in this respect differs in no way from success in other fields. It is a matter of the right man in the right place. For those who cannot be taught by methods appealing to their intelligence, other methods must be devised.
As stated above, the division should te provided with a person especi
ally qualified to direct an educational campaign against industrial dis
eases and accidents hut in the meanwhile every one of the present
staff will be used where practicable for this purpose.
.
The program above outlined contemplates the development of this
Division of Industrial Hygiene into an efficient and worthy organization
to fulfill the special needs of the Department of Labor in carrying out
the provisions of the Labor Law. It will approach persons and problems
as the physician approaches the patient, without bias from outside con
siderations or influences. When conditions are found to he as nearly as
practicable as they should be, the facts will be heralded that others may
be able to profit by the good results. When conditions are such that
change or improvement is necessary the fact will be pointed out and all
possible aid given for proper adjustment. It is not the desire of the
Division to inflate itself in size unless the necessity becomes apparent.
It is not intended to overlap or parallel the activities of existing State
or Municipal Institutions. It will not go out of its natural sphere to do
intensive work, nor engage in research simply for the sake of competi
tion or public notice.
It rather aspires to the position of dignity and trust which is held
by the general practitioner of medicine who, while not a highly developed
specialist in any one sense, is possessed of sufficient ability for the
General Session--New York Department of Labor
107
case at hand together with the acuteness to avail himself of the best all the specialists have to offer, against whom no one is ever jealous or antagonistic and whom every one is glad to have around.
Now that the program has been suggested, can it be carried out? Yes! provided the co-operation of the public health, business, labor arid wel fare organizations can be obtained, and also that some additional per sonnel be provided.
HOW INSURANCE COMPANIES CAN ASSIST STATE DEPARTMENTS TO STIMULATE ACCIDENT PREVENTION
Marti?? H. Christofiiekson, Director of Service, New York State Insur
ance Board
This general subject of accident prevention is so colossal and the oppor tunities for accomplishment so great, that it was difficult for me to re frain from some mention of its possibilities before confining myself to the particular branch of this complex problem on which I intended to speak; that of reducing the number of accidents to the industrial worker.
Industrial Commissioner Shientag of this State, in his talks and through newspaper articles has urged a more complete co-operation on the part of employers and employees for the purpose of reducing accidents and has promised that the State Department of Labor will do its full share to bring about the desired result. At a recent meeting called by the com missioner, to formulate a Governor's Committee on Safety he again urged the insurance carriers and others to energetically work together in the accident prevention movement.
The insurance companies, through their well organized National Coun cil on Compensation Insurance are eminently fitted to take the leadership in accident prevention, not only in this state but also in practically every state in the Union. Among other activities of this Council It is its object to develop systems that will not only measure the hazard of each risk but that also will produce the greatest possible accident pre vention effect, although this phase of accident prevention was doubtless intended to be developed in connection with the making of rates for workmen's compensation insurance, the organization has also the making of a wonderful power in the prevention of industrial accidents. On account of its intimate knowledge of this subject, its fully developed organization of experienced officers and office and field force, it would seem that they might now assume the same position in the industrial field comparatively, as the outstanding medical specialist of today, whose main object is to prevent illness rather than cure It. Industry can afford to pay larger fees for accident prevention than they can for workmen's accident compensation.
I am convinced that there is no employer or manager in our country who today does not shudder, when informed that a serious accident has occurred in his plant and that it is the ambition of most industrial leaders
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Twelfth Safety Congress
to prevent In every way possible the enormous loss due to accidents.
However, they are in need o able leaders in the Safety Movement and I
reiterate that the well developed plans of the National Council supported
by all the Insurance Companies who handle workmen's compensation
risks, is needed and they should take the lead.
.
In New York State there is paid for workmen's compensation insur ance premiums more than twenty-five times the amount It costs to main tain the Department of Labor exclusive of compensation costs, but In cluding: ail activities in accident prevention, so industry pays In money one way or another. Why not pay more for preventative measures and less in accident and time losses and thus also avoid the sufferings of many workers and their dependents.
ANAT.VSIS AND EEMEDY ASKED
What a wonderful aid it would be to the Department of Labor and to industry, if the National Council would in their systematic way analyze the cause and provide a remedy by education, for industrial accidents often caused by the mental attitude of the worker and those accidents which are caused by unskilled labor in the handling' of material; acci dents that cannot be prevented by mechanical safe guards but must be accomplished by training the worker to use safe and efficient methodd.
It is evident that a worker with ability to concentrate on each duty he has to perform, is in himself the most effective guard for the pro tection of his own and his fellow worker's safety. Rules prepared by an engineering society can hardly cover this phase of safety.
To prevent accidents by mechanical means so far as such methods are effective, it is well to learn from past experience the numter of such accidents, their severity and how they occurred.
The insurance companies and the Departments of Labor co-operating with the American Engineering Standards Committee, by providing for them actuarial, data on various accidents, will enable the sectional com mittees of the American Engineering Standards Committee, comprising representatives from all Interests, to prepare codes for suitable mechan ical protection against accidents, for all equipment and tools where mechanical gruards are effective. Standards thus prepared, when adopted by the departments of labor and by the National Council on Compensa tion Insurance will result in co-ordinating the differences now existing, between the state codes and the insurance standards, which for many years has been the, source of confusion and additional expense to the employer.
The present methods of code making by the committees working in con junction with the code referees, who prepare code rules for the depart ments of labor, and the engineering committees of the National Council and the rating boards, who prepare rules for standards used by the in spection division of the National Council, could in part be discontinued and if American Standard codes are adopted, it would promote efficiency, accuracy and standardization.
General Session--New Yor7c Department of Labor - 109
In one detail of inspection work the departments of labor and the National Council can well co-operate, as it will insure correcting manyunsafe factory conditions in a most effective and economical manner and will avoid the visit of department inspectors to places, where safe con ditions are maintained and where the past experience performance. Is within fixed standards.
The Compensation Inspection Rating Board which is affiliated with
the National Council, inspects manufacturing risks where the annual pay
roll is ten thousand dollars or over, producing insurance premiums of
one hundred dollars or over. There are a great number of such manu
facturing plants in New York State which are inspected annually by the
rating board inspectors, to determine if dangerous moving parts of
equipment and machine tools, including their points of operation are guarded, and to determine if the hazardous parts of elevators are prop
erly protected. The inspector also examines the reports made by the
plant safety organizations and makes note of the manner in which their
work is done. These safety organizations for the prevention of accidents,
are charged with making regular and careful examination of the general
work shop hazards, such as: conditions of floors,- stairs, elevated run ways and platforms, travelling cranes, boilers, electrical equipment, ex
plosive liquids, acids and caustics, fire hazards, safety bulletins, etc.
The plant inspector is. required to make weekly inspections and the
safety committee must make monthly inspections, a written report of the
results of such inspections and the Committee Meetings must be kept
on file.
The rating board inspector's report is tabulated and computations are made in the offices of the board to determine if the physical- conditions of the plant and the employees or plant safety organization work, is above or below the average in established standards. From this com putation there is then established for the policy- year, the adjusted rates for each classification of the manual rates, downward in proportion as conditions approach the established standards or the rates are increased proportionately as the conditions fall below the average conditions.
An actuarial analysis of past accident experience is also used to com plete the allowable credits or charges against the premium, as past experience also reflects the results of safety organization work, through the number and severity of accidents over a long period, so the pro tection against accidents by guarding hazardous conditions and the re sults of educational work of plant safety organizations, are the means of materially reducing the premium for coverage. The results of each adjustment are printed on a 3 x 5 card which, in turn, is sent to all the insurance carriers.
I believe it goes, without saying that the work of the rating board
and its inspectors must be maintained to a high degree of accuracy,
otherwise the assured and the insurance carrier who respectively pay
and collect premiums on the basis of the rating board's determination
would register strenuous complaints.
-
110:
.
Tivelfth Safety Congress
SUMMARY
The proposition which I have been leading up to summarizes some thing like this:
First--That the rating board through their so-called "blue card'' the 3x5 card I have previously mentioned, gives to all the insurance com panies soon after an inspection is made, a summary in figures of the assured's good or bad safety conditions and I think you will agree with me that the use of such information by the departments of labor to analyze and determine on the need for such plant being inspected by the labor department inspectors would be of inestimable value, as it would introduce a scientific and practical method for determining on the need for such inspection. For instance if the credits indicate safe condi tions, the department would not make an inspection, on the other hand when charges indicated an unsafe condition, an. inspection by the De partment can be expedited in proportion to the extent of the hazardous conditions indicated by the charges.
The following year the department would receive another blue card,
showing the conditions at that time and a comparison, with the previous
year's card would again indicate if the plant required an inspection by
the department.
If the insurance carrier was furnished a copy of the orders issued
to its client, it would enable the carrier to give service to the assured
by recommending safeguard standards, that would not only reduce acci
dents but for which the employer would thereafter also receive credits
on his premium.
--
Second--The manufacturer who has maintained safe "conditions in his plant will, under this plan, have his plant inspected only by a rating
board inspector and the labor department inspector will visit only the
plants of those concerns who are lax in their safety regulations.
Third--The department of labor under this plan will be benefited by having their attention directed to those places where there is the great est need for their supervision. It will also assist the department in effi ciently carrying on their work and enable their limited organizations being used to best advantage.
Fourth--The engineering societies who are interested in securing standards practices will in this plan expedite the adoption of their stand ard requirements, as this co-ordination of work between the insurance interest and the labor department will require uniformity in providing for safe methods and in guarding moving parts of machinery.
Fifth--The proposed method is sound and if adopted in general as planned, with modifications to suit the varying conditions in different states it will doubtless result in elimination of many existing unsafe conditions in the most prompt and economical manner and in the main tenance of improved conditions for the industrial worker.
In New York State during the past year there has been quite a sharp upward trend in the number of accidents reported and in compensations claims filed, although there are no records that indicate if accidents are
General Session--New NorJc Department of Labor
111
more or less per hundred employed so it cannot be determined iff the
increase in accidents is due to a greater number off persons employed
or to an increased percentage.
-
Although much time, effort and expense, has been put into safeguards for industrial workers for some years past, the compensation payments
in the state will be well over fifteen millions for the year.
The much desired drop in the number and severity in industrial acci
dents has not been reached, except in individual industries or plants where the entire organization is being constantly trained to think and
practice safety and where this feature is analyzed and systematized in
the same careful manner, as the manufacturing processes of the goods
which they sell. Well directed co-operative work has solved many problems and let
us work together so great progress on this problem will also be made,
so I leave this thought with you for your consideration feeling assured
that in some way the various organizations and employers will find
a way to accomplish the best results and may our meeting next year
reflect the effects of co-operative work.
. DISCUSSION
Mr. C. H. Thompson (Eastman Kodak Company): Mr. Chairman, I simply want to indorse Mr. Christopherson's plan for concentrating the
inspections of the labor department on those industries where no safety
conditions are shown to exist. I think it will conserve the work of the
inspectors of labor department, and it will tend to simplify some of the
codes. In connection with the subject I would like to bring in Just one factor
that we have taken np in Rochester. That is the inter-plant visits that
have been established by the Rochester Safety Council. A safety man
from one plant goes through another plant and the inspectors exchange ideas that are being carried out, and I think that plan, if continued, will
work for better results. I would suggest that the reports of the factory safety engineer be sub
mitted to his manager and copies also be submitted to the department of labor. They could then check them up and if-they saw the safety engineer was going wrong they could correct him. In that way they could help
us out lots of times by pointing out our errors.
Mr. Christopherson: I think there might be two great bugs in our bonnets: one to avoid accidents, that is by employees, who must be taught to avoid accidents to himself; the other to the employer of the safety organization and those who are elected to prevent accidents. There are
many accidents that occur that cannot be charged to the lack of mechan
ical safeguards. There is a great deal to be done, as you all know, in the
educational way, and it is with that thought that I brought this out in
an effort to reduce accidents, provide statistics, and if need be take in any
other plan that might be efficiently worked out for accident prevention. Mr. J. L. Gernoa (Director of Inspection Bureau, Labor Department) :
In the state of New York it has been utterly impossible to bring to gether standards used by the insurance carriers and .the code rules for
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Twelfth Safety Congress
the reason, that it creates this situation: that any employer in the state falling to comply with such a rule can be prosecuted and that rule must be such that it is practicable and can be complied with. That is not true with all standards of the insurance carriers. All of those standards cannot be carried out. For instance, the insurance carriers require the elevator gate to come to the floor. Now, there are many conditions where it is impossible to do that, and if that became a code rule in the insurance carrier's standards that man would never be indicted in the courts if he could prove that it was impossible to carry out that rule.
Mr. Gabriel: With reference to the point brought up by Mr. Gemon, Mr. Christopherson's paper will show us just exactly how that point is taken care of. Mr. Christopherson brought out the point that the figures on the inspection report show a certain risk, and an analysis will be made of them and whatever is shown by these figures will be taken as a basis to determine whether it is necessary to make inspections or not.
STATE AND XNSURA3TCE COMPANY INSPECTION STXNDABDS
Mr. J. Li. Thompson (Travelers Insurance Company) : I never could see any reason for any disagreement between th.e standards of the insurance company inspectors and the state inspectors. If you allow that the state standards are made the same as the insurance standards, and the state inspectors go in with the same understanding of this interpretation that the machines are not guarded, and see to it that they are guarded in ac cordance with the standards, why do they need an insurance rating? As X understand it the state inspectors can go into these plants and are equally as competent to tell when a machine is unguarded as the in surance inspectors. Their job is to see that it is guarded; it is for them to work together, allowing that all men are equal as regards an accident, and to work out standards; get the job done; get the guards put on. The insurance company has not the authority (except the authority of can celation) to enforce placing of guards. We do the best we can to per suade a man to take these precautions.
Mr. Christopherson: There is no question but what the state departments have the authority, police power and everything that is necessary to en force their orders and that the insurance companies have no such au thority. Their inspectors go there and conditions are recorded and through a matter of credits and charges they endeavor to bring their client's conditions to a better standard, but the fact is that there are entirely too many accidents after the number of years that we have all been trying to eliminate them. We need to go a step further. We need the way through their inspections, the blue card indicating a summary of inspectors, and the department of labor, the rating board inspectors paving the way through their inspections, the blue card indicating a summary of the conditions of that plant, and the department of labor, if it finds the conditions poor through that summary, immediately gets busy. That is where we need them. If the conditions as shown by that card are good, why inspect that place to death? The insurance companies have more
Gen<mi Session--Ifetc York T>epitrt me, w-t of Ijxlxrr
113
data than ft f* p<wftt< foe tbo department of labor to> get from the massfactBrm. TTtrerj- do not need to give this date to the deportment of labor except in a percentage tray, showing how accidents occur. They need not Sire the name of the client; that goes to the rating board and is Just a matter of so many figures, so many accidents of a certain case, happening in a certain way where a certain number of people were exposed. "jir. Gernon; In 1913 it was tried to bring abouc one standard, bnt tbat was not very favorably received by the Insurance companies. In some instances the department of labor standards are not as high as the in surance companies. The insurance companies realize that the standards should be higher than the law for the matter of safety.
EMPLOVER ESTlTIJfO TO PROMPT IXFORMATION
Mr. H. A. Rowlands (T. H. Symington Co., Rochester, X. Y.) : I would
like to endorse Mr. Christopherson's paper most thoroughly. I would also like to endorse Mr. Thompson's remarks. I am able to testify about the inspections by men of other plants. During the present year we were visited by a committee representing different plants in Rochester who came to inspect my plant. We have monthly inspections by the workmen. The following month the recommendations we have made are carried out. In the last four years the regulations that have been made number about ten thousand, and at the present time over sixty-two hundred of them are not complied with. Now I believe this plan of ours will conserve the time of the safety engineer in the plant. It is a good day's work for a safety engineer to go through an ordinary plant and inspect it. It also saves a day's time to the commissioner and you know he is a busy man.
Mr. John Lundrigan (International Paper Company): I notice that everybody has been pretty well taken care of and sympathized with but the employer. I would like to inquire of Mr. Christopherson whether he would object to send it to the employer as well as the insurance carrier?
Mr. Christopherson: The employer does get a report of the rating board's inspections. He gets the details of that report. For each report made by the rating board for inspectors there are compiled cards indicating in a percentage way to the insurance carriers, a condition which reflects the report that is sent to the owners of the plant, and the Labor Department of course, issues an order for correcting those conditions, and that order goes directly to the owner of the plant; so the owner of the plant primar ily gets all this information. The owner is not let out of it at all.
Mr. Lundrigan: I do not believe the employer gets the information he should have In a reasonable length of time after it is known to the in spector. The state labor department issues a great number of orders against our plant. In. the present year we got perhaps four hundred per cent, or perhaps one thousand per cent would he better, of the questions from the resume made by the state inspectors. Our safety organization reported and corrected probably two thousand per cent more separate
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Twelfth. Safety Congress
items than the state, or rating board presented. Therefore we believe-
that the employer is entitled to most prompt and correct information.
The states should show some initiative in this matter of statistical in
formation.
.
THE TREATMENT OP INDUSTRIAL INJURIES
Raphael Lewv, M.D., Chief Medical Examiner, Bureau of "Workmen's Compensation, New York State Department of Labor
Does the title of this paper imply that there is any special surgical
treatment in industrial surgery which differs from the daily surgical treatment for the usual pathological condition? X shall answer this and
not refer to this question again hy saying that in addition to the ordinary
surgical treatment, from which the treatment in industrial surgery does
not differ, there is an additional important and predominating treatment--
namely, the rehabilitation of the injured by restoring the defective func
tion to as near the normal as is possible. This latter part of the treat
ment was not in vogue until this law of "Workmen's Compensation was
created. To give an example of those days X request the older surgeons
assembled here today, to recall the treatment of fractures of the lower
extremity which consisted in immobilization of the fractured limb, the
changing of casts at certain intervals, and the discharge of the patient
from the institution after union of the fractured fragments had taken
place. The patient was told to return to the outdoor department or
dispensary, and there he received the well known ABC linaments nntil
after having been discouraged in one clinic, he would.wander from one to another, until the patient was lost sight of and remained a cripple.
There is a very important difference in our treatment at this date and
especially so of fractures, to which I will refer later.
In discussing the treatment of industrial surgery we must have a con
ception of the accident injuries, and, therefore, be able by our training
to institute the adequate treatment. I shall refer to the treatment of
injuries of the skull and spinal column, those of the back, those which
cause infections, with special reference to those of the upper extremities,
and fractures of the long bones near their epiphysis.
The symptomatic treatment of industrial injuries is subdivided into:
(1) The Immediate, 'and urgent treatment where the indlvidn-
al's life Is jeopardized.
(2) The indicative surgical, technical procedure.
(3) The post-operative or recuperative treatment. (4) The rehabilitation or refnnctlonlng treatment which con
sists in various therapeutic measures from the original applica
tion of heat and cold to the application of various mechanical
apparatus.
INJURIES to skcll
I shall first refer to the injuries of the skull and I will call your atten tion to the fact that the special posture of the workman predisposes to special injuries. That class of workmen who labor above the ground and
General Session--New York Department of Labor
llo
who represent the various structural building trades are predisposed to the most severe injuries, such as falls from great heights or, in conse quence of handling very heavy objects, crushing or mutilation by virtue of impact with those objects. The treatment in such cases demands thorough equipment under the guidance of a very competent surgeon who is thoroughly familiar with the very first indication of jeopardy of life, and who knows how to administer any necessary aid. The immediate or waiting period for surgical interference in injuries to the skull with or without compression and with or without indicative focal lesions requires the attention of a very thorough, mature physician; therefore, the injured workman, especially in injuries involving the skull and upper part of the spinal column, is best taken care, of by immediate removal to a well-equipped hospital. Considering that such cases require operative interference in consequence of symptoms and indicative signs of compression, we must consider that the after-treatment in these cases is of very long duration. By after-treatment I do not mean the postsurgical treatment, for such, if not complicated by any infection, is equivalent to the ordinary, surgical interference for trephining. By long duration of after-treatment I mean the adequate rehabilitation treatment for the so-called post-traumatic neurological sequelae which need not necessarily be an organic nerve lesion, but can often he of sufficient functional neurological disturbance, to require treatment of long dura tion; and which in my large experience is very unsatisfactory as to the ultimate result. Among these cases we find, the various neuroses which
cause a permanent partial or permanent total disability.
It is impossible to speak on every phase of post-traumatic complica tions following injuries to the head and to the intra-cranial contents; but I simply wish to call your attention, and such is borne out by the observation of a very large material, that it is astonishing how often we have the most serious post-traumatic neurological sequelae after apparently slight injuries to the skull, and vice versa.
Among these classes of cases . I also wish to refer you to the various
psychoses, some based upon distinct previous acquired Infections which
have remained dormant, but were activated by th6 injury and require
special attention. I know of no more serious and continuous post-
traumatic complications after head injury than the so-called headache
and vertigo, which most often cannot be confirmed by any physical
examination, as there is no organic nerve lesion, and which is so little
amenable to the most up-to-date treatment.
It is suggested that
neurologists possibly specialize in the careful study of post-traumatic
headache and vertigo, and be some day able to differentiate those of actual
existence and those which may possibly be attributed to simulation, as
there is no exact demonstrable proof for diagnosis, and also be able to
have a better treatment for these enumerated conditions than we have
up to the present date. In conclusion, concerning head injuries I wish
116
Twelfth Safety Canyress
to state that no injury to the head, however slight, however extensive the manifestations may be, should be permitted to be treated without a thorough, repeated stereoscopic X-ray examination.
1XJUBJES TO RACK
In speaking of injuries to the back, we are compelled to separate those which are a sequence of heavy objects falling upon the individual's back, from those where, during certain posture of the individual while in the act of stooping or lifting, an undue physical exertion may cause an involvement of the soft tissues covering the spinal column and either side of it. I might call your attention to the fact that workmen exposed to these injuries most often work beneath the ground and in their voca tion stand in a semi-flexed posture thus exposing the surface of their back to the impact of force and falling objects from above. The severe injuries to the back which result in fractures of the spinal column with or without involvement of the cord, or its coverings are serious injuries and require immediate adequate hospital treatment. Every injury to the spinal column requires an immediate and often repeated X-ray examination in various positions. To show how important a thorough X-ray examination of the spinal column is for diagnosis, I will call your attention to the fact that there is one fracture of the spinal column which no clinician can diagnose or suspect-without a thorough X-ray examina tion; namely, a fracture of the transverse process of the vertebrae. There is not one distinct subjective or objective symptom which is specifically indicative of such a lesion. The condition clinically resembles an ordinary contusion of the spinal column.
As I have to limit myself only to the description of the treatment, I shall first take up the treatment of contusions of the spinal column and its overlying tissue. All injuries to the spinal column with or without external manifestations with a predominating symptom of pain on mobil ity of the spinal column, whether such is forward, backward, rotary or lateral, or whether such is increased while the individual is in a recum bent or sitting posture, and also is complaining of pain during the manipu lation of the lower extremity, requires, at first, absolute rest in a recum bent posture. This very acute painful condition requires early immobiliza tion by the various orthopedic appliances. Those painful conditions which, in addition to the subjective symptoms, show X-ray findings indicative of an osteo-arthritis or inter-vertebral spur formation, require immobiliza tion and sometimes, even surgical interference to really immobilize that part of the spinal column. There are other injuries to the soft tissues of the spinal column classified under contusions ,and strains which do not elicit one corroborative sign to confirm the subjective pain of which claimant complains. It is very difficult to state whether such lesions actually exist, and to prove such being the case, I need only refer to our extensive material which has been examined by a number of clinicians, who markedly differ from each other in their opinion. These cases require a disability of long duration, and do not seem to return to work until the case is disposed of by some pecuniary settlement. Any number
General Session^-Ne-w York Department of Labor 117
of cases where there is no external manifestation of an injury, and where the pain is localized and increased on deep pressure, and increased on mobility of the spinal column, although some of them, and I may say a good many among the claimants above 45 years of age, are predisposed by constitutional conditions, such as the various rheumatic affections, are amenable to the treatment of massage and baiting, if properly applied, but such treatment and such disability are also of long duration. Injuries of the spinal column, such as fractures of the parts of the vertebrae with compression which causes immediate focal signs of pressure require immediate surgical treatment, namely, lamenectomies, removal of the compressed fractured fragments and, if such are accompanied by a cord lesion due to pressure upon the cord which has lasted for any length of time, the consequent defects are to some extent permanent. Where, however, a cord lesion is due to hemorrhage, either extra-dural or in the subdural space, although the early clinical picture resembles that of a compression fracture, the prognosis as to ultimate recovery is better if the hemorrhage absorbs, and the objective signs which were indicative of a focal paralysis disappear in time. I have observed cases of either type and my opinion is based upon the observation of a large material. In all cases of spinal column injuries, If such involves workmen more than 60 years of age, the period of disability is of very long duration, and all the treatments at our disposal are not very effective.
THEATMEWT OF INFECTION'S
I shall now take up the treatment of infections with special reference to those involving the upper extremities. The smaller the wound, the more serious the infection. A wound punctured by some pointed imple ment causes the most serious infection. However trivial a wound may be, it should te surgically treated immediately, either by the immediate application of tincture of iodine or by the application of some other antiseptic dressing. It is this very early treatment that sometimes pre vents the formation, or consequent spread of an infection, for during the first 24 to 48 hours, there may be no local reaction indicative that an infection exists or may develop. To speak of the indicative treatment of every possible infection is not the scope of this paper. I wish, how ever, to make a statement here which will possibly meet with some antagonism, but I have no intention of changing it, as it is based upon an extensive and mature hospital and clinical experience, and the observa tion of a very large material and its post-operative results in our state service. Early incisions where there is no detectable pus focus, although having been advised by a number of surgeons, give ultimate results, as to the future anatomical and functional defects, which are very bad. Where, however, the acute infection Is of the infiltration type with or without any accompanying lymphangitis or cellulitis, and where there Is no detectable focus of pus, I haye in a large material during the last 15 years applied the application of heat or the adequate Bier's hyperaemlc treatment, and have been able to convert these infiltrations into pus foci; then, immediate adequate incision and drainage have resulted In
118
Ttrrifth Sa.U-t'jf Congress
less tissue destruction *d better functional rehabilitation of the parts, than in those cases adhere earty free incisions have been used. The
Infections In consequence of punctured or small lacerated wounds Involving
the flexor surface of the index, second and third fingers, are not as serious as the infections which involve the flexor surface of the thumb and little fingers. The cause for this differential severity in the infection lies in the distribution of the tendon sheath of those tendons in their relationship to the bursa at the flexor surface of the annular ligament. In spite of all the so-called' adequate treatment at our disposal as rendered by our competent surgeons, and rendered immediately after the injury, these infections cause, in my large material, the most destructive permanent anatomical and irrepairabSe functional defects and I believe, as stated before, that these defects are due to the very early incisions where there is no detectable pus focus, and which disseminate the infections along the tendon sheaths. In all infections, however, where surgical treatment has been rendered, it is advisable as soon as the acute infection is over, the discharge of the infected area is lessened, and the acute painful symptoms have disappeared, to start adequate careful, not brutal, passive manipulation. The prolonged immobilization of infected extremities have predisposed to permanent Irreparable functional defects.
The question now arises whether the defective functional deformity of the upper extremities following the infection can be remedied by tendoplastic work. During observation of my extensive material during 10 years. I have seen after plastic surgery in some cases good cosmetic defects, but functionally as to their vocations, absolutely useless rehabili tation. Where the infection does not involve the interphalangeal joints, but has localized itself to the soft tissues, tendon sheaths, and tendons, and where, after careful examination, the mobility of the joint is found intact, but where the functional immobility is due to indurated adherent scars to the underlying tissue, undermining of the scar or excision of these scars is indicated, and has resulted in a number of cases In fairly good rehabilitated function.
ADJOURNMENT.
ABC Session
October 3, 1923
C- B. AUEIi, Chairman
Manager, Employees' Service Department, Westinghouse Electric &
Manufacturing Company, East Pittsburg. Pa.
HAIRMAN 5lUEL: I take pleasure in introducing, or rather in an
C nouncing Dr. Risteen, of the Travelers' Insurance Co., perhaps even
better known as the editor of that most excellent paper, "The Travelers'
Standard."
THE ESSENTIALS OF SAFEGUARDING
A. D. Risteen, Pet. D., Director of Technical Research, The Travelers Insurance Company
A given safeguard may he essential from anyone of several points of view. In the first place, there may be some definite law which requires that it be used. In any case of this kind the specified safeguard is "essential" in the most absolute sense, and the only thing to do is to install it without question.
Secondly, there may be some local practice or decision which has not precisely the force of law, but which nevertheless should be respected and followed. Anything of this kind should be regarded as essential, because we should not limit our interpretation of that word to regulations the Violation of which would actually land us in Jail, or oblige us to pay a fine.
There are also various codes put forth by recognized authorities along different lin^s, and these codes, while they may not (and usually do not) have the authority of law, are nevertheless entitled to respectful at tention, because they presumably reflect the opinions of men who have studied the question carefully, and who have determined the principal dangers of the industry or other activity to which the codes relate. Con formity with such codes, at least in all important respects, should there fore be regarded as almost essential, if not quite so.
Then again, the insurance question is well worthy of consideration. The insurance premium may depend to a large extent upon the physical and moral conditions that prevail in the insured plant, and if the owner of the plant wishes to obtain the lowest insurance rate for a given cover age, he must , conform with certain requirements which are explained to
119
118
Twelfth Safety Congress
less tissue destruction and better functional rehabilitation of the parts, than in those cases where early free incisions have been used. The infections in consequence of punctured or small lacerated wounds involving the flexor surface of the index, second and third fingers, are not as serious as the infections which involve the flexor surface of the thumb and little fingers. The cause for this differential severity in the infection lies in the distribution of the tendon sheath of those tendons in their relationship to the bursa at the flexor surface of the annular ligament. In spite of all the so-called' adequate treatment at our disposal as rendered by our competent surgeons, and rendered immediately after the injury, these infections cause, in my large material, the most destructive permanent anatomical and irrepairable functional defects and I believe, as stated before, that these defects are due to the very early incisions where there is no detectable pus focus, and which disseminate the infections along the tendon sheaths- In all infections, however, where surgical treatment has been rendered, it is advisable as soon as the acute infection is over, the discharge of the infected area is lessened, and the acute painful symptoms have disappeared, to start adequate careful, not brutal, passive
manipulation. The prolonged immobilization of infected extremities have
predisposed to permanent irreparable functional defects.
The question now arises whether the defective functional deformity
of the upper extremities following the infection can be remedied by
tendoplastic work. During observation of my extensive material during
10 years. I have seen after plastic surgery in some cases good cosmetic
defects, but functionally as to their vocations, absolutely useless rehabili
tation. Where the infection does not involve the interphalangeal joints,
but has localized itself to the soft tissues, tendon sheaths, and tendons,
and where, after careful examination, the mobility of the joint is found
intact, but where the functional immobility is due to indurated adherent
scars to the underlying tiss.ue, undermining of the scar or excision of
these scars is indicated, and has resulted in a number of cases in fairly
good rehabilitated function.
.
ADJOURNMENT.
ABC Session
October 3, 1923
C. B. AUEIi, Chairman
Manager, Employees' Service Department, Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Company, East Pittsburg. Pa.
HAIRMAN &.UEL: I take pleasure in introducing, or rather in an
C nouncing Dr." Risteen, of the Travelers' Insurance Co., perhaps even
better known as the editor of that most excellent paper, "The Travelers' Standard."
THE ESSENTIALS OF SAFEGUARDING
A. D. Risteen, Pir. D., Director of Technical Research. The Travelers Insurance Company
A given safeguard may be essential from anyone of several points of view. In the first place, there may be some definite law which requires that it he used. In any case of this kind the specified safeguard is "essential" in the most absolute sense, and the only thing to do is to install it without question.
Secondly, there may be some local practice or decision which has not
precisely the force of law, but which nevertheless should be respected
and followed. Anything of this kind should be regarded as essential,
because we should not limit our interpretation of that word to regulations
the violation of which would actually land us in jail, or oblige us to
pay a fine.
There are also various codes put forth by recognized authorities along
different lines, and these codes, while they may not (and usually do not) have the authority of law, are nevertheless entitled to respectful at tention, because they presumably reflect the opinions of men who have
studied the question carefully, and who have determined the principal dangers of the industry or other activity to which the codes relate. Con formity with such codes, at least in all important respects, should there
fore be regarded as almost essential, if not quite so.
Then again, the insurance question is well worthy of consideration. The insurance premium may depend to a large extent upon the physical
and moral conditions that prevail in the insured plant, and If the owner of the plant wishes to obtain the lowest Insurance rate for a given cover age, he must conform with certain requirements which are explained to
119
120
Twelfth Safely Congress
him by the insurance company, either through its inspectors or other
wise. In a general way it is possible to make a simple statement
with regard to this aspect of the safeguard problem. The premium
rate is affected to a certain extent by Quite a werifaniW* Biaafcer of
items, but the principal things to attend to fa order to
a reducOec
In. rate, are three In number.
safeit MEASoms mtum r
m ewya'*w-
First, there must be an approved M
aWFoty oggatfryMEeton
within the plant. The plan in aooordwww w*j eSMI 5*8% ergBiwiwMOon. la
established will naturally vary acewrdt&tf to
end ftattw* C the
plant, and of coarse 1 cannot tso two tfct* qftuiftta'h.. ItWHtmi R *e too
far removed from my Immediate wttfKt. fcR t oaawe
-pdCnff emt that
it is idle to have a safety organbrartort unless the fwWB'iiaiBtiffiwM that
it makes are adopted and followed. Qrefle a ttntwnsr Of thwiie recom
mendations will relate, naturally, to the estafaTtentag of
safe
guards at points where the safety Inspector or oomfieSOee recognises the existence of special dangers; and therefore, X should vcmatl the recom mendations that the safety committee makes, among the eostntlalj that
are to be respected and followed.
Secondly, so far as general insurance requirements are concerned, reduction of rate depends largely upon safeguarding the point of operas tion of each machine. It is not easy to give a satisfactory definition of the expression "point of operation." but in most cases its meaning is sufficiently clear. According to the Industrial Compensation Rating Schedule of 1923, as issued by the Xationai Council on Compensation Insurance, the "point of operation" of a machine is "that part of the machine where stock is actually inserted and maintained during any process of forming, shaping, or other necessary operation." All powerdriven machines are considered to have a point of operation, and also cer tain hand-power and foot-power machines, which are specifically listed in the schedule from which this definition is taken. It is impossible to discuss here, the particular forms of guards that should he applied to protect the workmen at the point of operation, because they are ex ceedingly varied in nature, according to the type of machine on which they are to he used; but the company with which I am associated pub lishes an illustrated booklet called "Industrial Standards," Which covers the more important points in a general way, and copies of it may he had without charge by those who are interested to go into the subject more fully.
Finally, the insurance rate depends to a significant extent upon the safeguarding of the mechanism by which power is transmitted to the machines in a plant. This covers the safeguarding of shafting and belting, especially near the machines, and it also covers the proper pro tection of set-screws, and other projections that might catch in the clothing.
A. B C Session
121
vaxic xs ax vnat-nxgsxxr u-*xaH
It is surely fair and proper to ceogiiier, am WBgciBLtliafcv swe& pwcaotfons
as may suggest themselves t*e t3*r
m fflN? at&*w mama of
workers in a plant, against Tnwfftmffw
ft&iwgAfoerf JWwf gVerpfiwwttt type,
and especially against those tfttat tMr je'Wgwre
For
example, there is always a gasw&pr or rannir aatiewsor of Upw. >C t paste
following an alarm o< few r WIMfirr flgWfe rwdfrr wPBvF mwfcgg. So I
should say. that the first BBms &# yFS^ngs, a*
war eg taftty. f as
effective means of escape QPbffl fSe
Fw- ssiiBWM11MTey
this
Idea, the safety man ishoeM- sow fflKwt
tore niffguptfiBBe fire asmpes.
and that they are instt&ei lBrpg#OwwWTy arts wMS-
fWot It sitt be
possible for a fear-crazes* ersowl- *e isoe MBeeX i.Ob'A>sr'yji ja*C esebtwt to*>
much congestion. He shnwalff- Oteo sow iffaft te nCB'irwinas re property lighted, and that they a* #n*PWbIE Wffff ettffftfft* Wgartaa^
But just by way of ifiwpafiiit # gwFW * * **-
9N> essentials
really are, I wouM call your aCTetaffMB- so fits fwsf tffwe fffe after* jKwUiou
of exits of a rational boosts **Wf- or wflesfOOi^e sss*- iffoes net assure that
things will work out tat vgoaiT
<m fffc* *v** of a tiro. SCotay il
lustrations could be given. C aiffft>yee H < ewmoifWTt
with fear,
so that terrible consequences
whoa they all tried to crowd
into the stairways or ont upon the Ifitv ewfpin.i at ooce. It Is not the thing itself that is needed, so much as a eat&feiaatSoa of the thing, and of training in using the thing. And so say that although the physical means of escape are to be counted prominently among our essentials, they may not be of much benefit unless the employees are organized
and trained with due regard to the possibility or lire, nor unless intel
ligent fire-drills are held from time to time,--often enough to insure that every person present will know just what to do when the emergency
*arises, and will be sane enough and clear-headed enough to actually do it.
I spoke, a moment ago, of the lighting of stairways. Of course, that
is not the only place where attention should be paid to proper illumina
tion, from the accident-prevention, standpoint. Many of the accidents
of industry, that are usually assigned to totally different causes, are
probably due, at the bottom, to improper illumination. Hence you should
give special attention to this matter, and should, see not only that there
is enough light, but also that the lighting units are properly placed and
properly provided with shades and reflectors, wherever these things
may be needed.
.
Prominent among the essentials of safeguarding I should, include the provision of suitable railings and toe-boards along the margins of elevated platforms from which men might fall, or from which tools or other small objects might be knocked off upon the heads of those below. I would advise you to look over your plants carefully, and see where you can put in some more of these things to advantage. You will probably find several places that are really in need of them, the first time you look.
122
Twelfth, Safety Congress
Hoistway openings in floors are exceedingly common, and they are
prolific causes of serious and often fatal accidents. Attend to these
openings with care, and have them made safe in whatever way the
exigencies of the plant may allow.
'
niPOBTASCB OF EtEVATOB SAFEGUARDS
The elevator problem concerns most of the employees, and for that reason it is specially important; but I despair of saying anything use ful and intelligent about it in so short a time. It is a subject for a book, rather than for a minute. Have your elevator hoistway enclosed by a suitable housing, and provide gates or doors on the cars or cages as well as in the hoistway enclosure. Have an interlocking system, that will make it impossible to start the elevator until the gate on the car, and all of those on the hoistway are closed.
Provide suitable automatic limit-stops that will prevent the car or cage from traveling too far, by automatically shutting off the power.
Have the inside of the shaftway as free from projections as possible, so that men or loads in the cage or car cannot be caught between the platform and any such projections.
Limit the power of your hoisting motor '(whatever it may be) with clue reference to the load for which the elevator is judged to be safe. Don't provide a motor powerful enough to pull the cage apart, in case it catches somewhere or is grossly overloaded. It is better to install your motive power than to have a bad accident.
Provide an effective safety device of some sort, to catch the cage and hold it securely, in case the hoisting cables fail.
I cannot take up all the features of the plant in this way, but these illustrations will show the kind of thought that should he given to
the safety problem. You ought to cultivate a sort of sixth* sense, which we may call the safety sense. Consider every machine and every situation, and think what could go wrong with it; and then, when you have determined what the most likely causes of serious trouble may be, do your best to devise ways of preventing those troubles so far as you can, or of minimizing the consequences in case an accident should occur at any such point.
RECIPROCATING STEAM ENGINES
In the case of an ordinary reciprocating steam engine, for example, the
things that are most likely to lead to serious trouble are (1) men coming
in contact with moving parts, (2) overspeeding of the engine and pos-^ sible bursting of the flywheel, (3) the breaking of the main drive belt, and (4) the fracture of some part of the machine in consequence of water getting into the cylinder.
To prevent men from coming' into contact with the moving parts of an engine, provide good strong guards for the flywheel and its shaft, and for the main drive-belt, and for the connecting rod (unless it is already sufficiently enclosed), and for the governor balls, if the governor is of the stationary, centrifugal type.
A. JB C Session
123
To prevent the engine from running away, you will look sharply to the governor. If it is belt-driven, you will see that suitable means are provided for maintaining a proper tension on the belt, and you will also assure yourself that the governor is so designed that If the balls fail below a pro-determined point (in consequence, for example, of the breakage of the governor belt), the steam will be wholly shut off from the engine.
You will naturally ask yourself what would be likely to happen if the governor failed' to operate properly, and you would probably have a vision of extensive possible destruction of life and property, and so you would be led to Install an entirely separate speed-limit stop of approved design,--something that would act quite independently of the ordinary governor, and would cut off the steam supply from the engine, quickly and positively, in case the speed should exceed some predeter mined limit, a little higher than the maximum speed at which the engine may have to run in its regular operation. Moreover, you will see that the speed-limiting device and Its connections are installed in such a way that they cannot be struck and rendered inoperative In case the main drive belt breaks, or in consequence of any other accident that is likely to occur. The speed-limit stop and its connections must be guarded against anything of this kind with the most scrupulous care.
Engine designers commonly place the stop-valve of the engine in
or near the plane of the flywheel, and if an engine so designed runs
away, the engineer is put in needless peril of his life when he goes to the Valve to shut the engine down. If your engine has this defect, it is advisable to extend the stem of the main throttle-valve, or to provide
sprocket and chain connections or something of that sort, so that the
engineer will not have to subject himself to needless hazard, in order
to shut things down.
-
When you contemplate the possibility of a breakage of the main drive belt, you will consider - what would be likely to happen if it did break, and it may be that you would feel that a strong and heavy barrier guard should be erected at some point or points Hear the en gine, to hold the broken belt' and prevent it from killing or injuring .men, or from doing heavy damage.
Finally, to forestall serious consequences from the accumulation of water in the engine cylinders, you will see that suitable relief valves are provided, and if the surroundings are such that the failure of a cylinder would be likely to imperil life or limb, you will doubtless want to erect a stout barrier guard a little way from the cylinder head, to intercept it if it blows off.
GUARDING OF BELTS, l'ULLEYS AND SHAFTING
Closely associated with the generation of power by an engine is the problem of distributing it to the points at which it is to he used. All belts, pulleys and shafting, which serve to transmit the power, should be safeguarded wherever they come near to any place from which a man
124
Twelfth Safety Ctmgress
could reach them; and special attention should be paid, in this respect, to projecting set-screws, and to couplings and clutches. It is hardly pos sible to over-emphasize the importance of this part of my counsel, because experience proves that the transmission and distribution of power are responsible for a great number of exceedingly serious accidents.
I have considered the familiar steam engine in this detailed way, to show how you ought to go about things, in making up your mind about the guards that are to be installed. It seems to me that there Is no other way in which we can determine what the real essentials are. Plants and workplaces differ in many ways, not only in their physical condition
and in. the nature of the hazards, but also in the readiness of the em
ployees to do things in a safe and sane way; and even if we could make out a complete list of things that are truly essential in some one plant, it does not follow, at all, that the same list would be satisfactory when applied to another plant of the same type.
Look over every part' of your plant, and consider what kind of an accident may happen there, and what the consequences of such an accident might be. Then you will be able to say, better than anybody else, what points it is essential to guard; and after that you will merely have to determine the form that the guard should take. In many cases the answer to this is quite easy, but in others it is unfortunately not so easy, and you will have to supplement your own inventive and con structive talent by reading safety literature, and by taking counsel with other men who have had similar problems to solve.
COMPILING AND USING ACCIDENT RECORDS
R, Gk Adair, Supervisor op Safets, American Rolling Mill Company,
Middletown, O.
The use of accurate accident records is a vital factor in the prevention of accidents. However, the collection of figures which have no practical value is a waste of time and effort, no matter how interesting such
figures may be.
In preparing accident records, it is necessary to have complete in formation on each individual case from the time the accident occurs until the injured worker has completed the necessary medical treatment. Usually, these individual reports are accumulated for one month and the data is then transferred to the monthly accident report. From the monthly reports information is. readily available to compile records for any desired period.
The collection of accident information is greatly simplified when some system of report blank is adopted. This also insures that all departments concerned will know what other departments are doing. There are many good report forms in use which meet the requirements of the safety de partment. Those shown in the accompanying illustrations are used by the American Rolling Mill Company and with slight modification can be adapted to the needs of nearly any company.
A. B C Session
125
-
Fig. 1
.
The form (Fig. 1) known as the Individual. Accident Report is used throughout the several works of our company. It originates in the medical department, when medical treatment is first given to the injured individual. It is made out in triplicate; one copy for the medical depart ment, one copy for the safety department and one copy for the foreman of the department in which the injured man is employed. This report Is kept on the live file until the case is closed so that any subsequent in formation can he added. At the end of the month the information con tained is transferred to the Monthly Accident Report.
MONTHLY ACCIDENT EEPOBT
The front page of the Monthly Accident Report (Fig. 2) is a summary by departments of the accident experience for the entire month. This report is compiled in the safety department and is sent out to all execu-
126
Twelfth Safety Congress
tives, superintendents, foremen and safety committeemen. From it, any department may compare its records with that of other departments as well as with its own previous record. This stimulates a friendly rivalry between departments and shows the safety department where concen trated effort is most needed.
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Fig. 2
The accident classification used by the American Roiling Mill Com pany differs from the classification in general use and was adopted as a means of preventing more accidents. "VVe operated for many years under the "lost time" accident classification and it was found that some
foremen were taking advantage of the very wide loophole in that defini
tion. They were switching workmen here aud there and improvising light jobs to take care of injured men who would otherwise become lost time
A. B C Sessio-n
127
cases, and thus show on the record. In our plants, as in many others, there was a tendency for foremen to expend more effort in finding light
jobs for Injured workmen than in preventing the accident. Under our present classification of major and minor accidents, this temptation is re moved. "Whether the injured man loses time or not, if he is unable to con tinue on the job at which he was injured, the accident becomes a major one which is tabulatable and enters into the frequency record. With this classification, we are no longer fooling ourselves. Because the accident record is bound to tell the truth, it becomes a decided Incentive to all
foremen to prevent accidents rather than to bury them.
The second page of the monthly, accident report (Fig. 3) gives the
detailed account of individual accidents, charging them to the proper
department and to the foreman under whom the man was working at the
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time of the ac cident. From the two pages of the monthly accident report we can com pile any acci dent statistics wanted.
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Fig. 3
which classify
accidents as to
The management and operating executives are interested primarily
in the cost of accidents which is best shown by the severity record. Fore
men and workmen should be appealed to through frequency records, be
cause, to them, every accident is a potential serious accident. The safety
department receives valuable information from the study of these records,
particularly the classification as to cause. Statistics of any description are
more readily understandable when presented in the form of graphic
charts which need no explanation.
128 Twelfth Safety Congress
COMFUTUTG FBEQUENCY
For the executives, the safety department and others who fully under stand the significance of the frequency rate, there is no more accurate way of computing frequency as the method adopted by the International Association of Industrial Ac cident Boards and Commis sions. (See Fig. 4.) When computed by this method, the frequency rate shows the number of accidents per mil lion hours worked. All fre quency rates for publication and for comparison with those of other companies should be prepared on this basis.
There may be, however, a proper place to use fre quency charts computed on a different basis. Some fore men and workmen find it easier to understand fre quency when presented in terms of the number of ac cidents per hundred-men em ployed. (See Fig. 5.) To them, the man represents the haz ard, regardless of the number of hours he may be exposed. If the rank and file under stand it better that way, the accident frequency should be shown to them on that basis.
Fig. 5.
ABC Session
129
Very good results can be obtained by using a frequency chart which shows the actual number of accidents as they occur. This can be a chart of the thermometer type (Fig. 6) which shows the actual number of accidents to date this year compared to the average number for the past five years. When an accident occurs, the thermometer rises. This arouses keen interest in making each year's record better than the preceding one. This chart should be displayed permanently in a location where the entire organization can see it. ..
Fig. 6.
The most satisfactory way of computing accident severity is the method
adopted by the International Association of Industrial Accident Boards and Commissions. This method expresses the severity rate as the number
of days lost, both actual and computed, per thousand hours worked.
(See Fig. 7.) It is possible and desirable to show not only the total
severity rate for any specified period, but also the severity rate classified
as to causes. In other words it is a simple matter to compute the severity
rate for temporary disability, permanent disability and deaths, the sum
of which will make up the total severity rate.
.
130
Twelfth Safety Congress
Fig. 7.
A. B C Session
131
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132
Twelfth Safety Congress
SAFETY COMMITTEES
Arthuis H. Young, Mawageb, Indusxkiai Relahons De.partment, Inter-
WATIONAI, HARVESTER Company, CHICAGO, III.
We will all admit, on tlie merest analysis, that successful safety wrork requires 100 per cent not co-operation but participation-. If we have a plant in which our plant organization, superintendents, foremen and all supervisory forces are keyed up to the limit and wholly efficient, and yet if one single workman withholds his enthusiasm and his entire par
ticipation in safety work, we have the potentialities of accidental injury to himself or to his fellow-workmen.
It is a basic principle of psychology- that we are mildly interested in what other people do to us or at us, and we axe intensely interested in
the thing we do ourselves.
Safety committees are almost the sole medium for securing 100 per cent participation by all of the factors that make up the industrial equation. In them, 'the owners of the business, the management, the supervisory forces and the workmen all can participate. Nothing can be more deadly, however, than a safety committee poorly organized and
functioning as if it were an inquest rather than a safety committee. Nothing can be more destructive of safety morale than committee work so organized that suggestions requested, when made, receive no attention,
or when if they do receive attention, the full history of their considera tion, adoption or rejection is not carried back to the originator of the suggestion.
I would counsel first and foremost in safety work, a proper mechanical
safeguarding, an indication by the management of its willingness to spend money and start upon the fulfillment of Its responsibility. Fol lowing that, to secure the co-operation of every one, the participation of every one in the organization of safety committees of mixed groups,
not safety committees of foremen alone nor of workmen alone, but of
mixed management, supervisory and workmen groups for a particular
purpose which I will touch upon later.
-
A prerequisite to the success of the committee will be the setting of a definite periodic. date for meeting, not leaving it to the chance call of a chairman, but at the start letting it be known that this safety committee meets on every second Thursday, or every Monday, or once a month on a particular date, and that nothing may interefere to prevent the meeting of that committee.
nrvxsxioATioir or accidents
The committee should be given power to Investigate tbe cause of every serious accident and fix responsibility. It should make periodic inspec tions, ana. its meetings should be meetings of record; that is, minutes should be kept, and every suggestion discussed by that committee or
submitted to It should be carried on the open file until finally disposed of. I don't think I can over-emphasize that particular point, and, after
all, it means but a very little organization work. You should have a
A. J C Session
133
card system containing the suggestions offered by title and number, and then simply keep them in the open file with periodic reports until they are finally disposed of, no matter how long that may be. You safety workers who have your problems and have your difficulties sometimes in securing the attention of your management, will find a potent force at your disposal in the mere maintenance of such a record which will indict sluggish management for inattention to items which should be cared for. You will find a growing satisfaction among the men with whom you are working, the workmen in the shop, in being able at all times to tell them of the progress being made toward the successful carrying out of a suggestion.
I think in no place quite so much as in the conduct of safety com
mittee meetings can the truly ideal charactertistics of a safety inspector
or safety engineer be shown. To my mind, the success of the safety
inspector rests , mostly on his personality. The technique of the game is
little or nothing .at the start. Any man or woman of average intelli
gence can quickly acquire it, and in no profession, in no endeavor can
it be sci quickly acquired as in safety because of the whole-hearted ex
change of experiences, good, bad and indifferent, that is had in such
conferences as these and among safety men. The technique can be
quickly acquired. But the most essential thing in personality, and by
that I mean the possession of a vision, which means almost a consecra
tion to service in' this cause, and by which there comes automatically
an ability to submerge yourself, a willingness to step into the background,
not always to carry the banner, to be anxious that full credit and more
than full credit be given to workmen and to foremen and to all members
of the organization.
..
I think, also, the conduct of safety committees calls for a demonstra tion of tactfulness and diplomacy and real statesmanship that is not matched by a Balfour or Hughes or any of the men who are in the lime light in that respect.
SAFETY AS MORALE BUILDER
Safety is, after all, a morale builder. All of the educative influence that we bring to bear to make the naturally careless man habitually careful, brings automatically with it a desire for precision of workman ship, for good housekeeping, for conservation of material as well as of life, that goes to improve the morale of the shop, and it has a definite by-product in that respect. But transcending that, the value, as I see it, of safety committees, a value not only in the industrial stratum but a definite political and social value, is the opportunity of bringing all of the factors In industry--owners, directors, management, supervisors, workmen--around a conference table on a wholly non-controversial sub ject. It is altogether different from wages or hours or working conditions. It is altogether different from anything else we have almost except
religion- Safety has no negative values. Participation in it by any one and every one brings a wealth of satisfaction and a definite economic gain to each and every participant, with no losses on any side.
134
Twelfth Safety Congress
The management, the owners of the business, make money on success ful safety work. The men are saved days of suffering and their lives are saved. Here we have an opportunity that is more and more being realized by men in American management, and, thank God, here in America, our captains of industry rise from the ranks, and they find that they are of the same common clay, and the workmen find that they have the same common clay. They begin to realize that each other's problems have weight, that consideration of safety items automatically can be made to include consideration of other items, and we find in safety committees, that men and management can meet together on at least one point of contact without controversy, and it is the wise manager and it is the wise safety inspector who will see in that medium an opportunity for solving industrial ills that can only be solved by direct contact, and who can see a vision of contribution to the political and social well being of the world through such a medium.
THE BULLETIN BOARD--AN INDISPENSABLE SAFETY ADVERTISER
R. T. Souensten. Bulletin Editob, National Safety Council., Chicago, Iix.
Advertising is the most powerful force in modern commercial life for popularizing any product manufactured for general consumption. It dis seminates Information, creates demand, convinces the prospect, sells the goods. It tells you all about an article; then it makes you feel you would like to have it. Then it makes you feel that you ought to have it, and then it makes you buy it.
It is advertising that has put Ivory Soap in the "bath-tubs of the nation. It is advertising that makes babies cry for Castoria, and it is advertising that induces a man to walk a mile for a Camel.
The right kind of advertising will put on the map any product that has merit in meeting a human want, and what advertising will do for the commercial product, it will do for safety.
Safety work, of course, is more than advertising, but the kind of adver tising or publicity or educational publicity which we are discussing her< is absolutely essential to success in any campaign to reduce accidents The reason for that is that so many of the accidental injuries that occu: are within control of the workers themselves. They are accidents tha can not be prevented by safeguards, that can be prevented only by thworkmen themselves.
Proper advertising of a safety character will bring borne to the work men what accidents mean to them. It will show them how to avoid in jury, and it will create good will and cooperation for your accident pre vention work. In other words, it will sell them Safety.
The bulletin board is so cheap to install, so economical to maintain an so effective in its influence when properly posted, that it has come to h regarded as an absolutely indispensable medium of safety publicity.
A. B C Session
135
Ask any successful safety engineer, and he will tell you that an execu
tive trying to conduct safety work in an industrial establishment without
a bulletin board is like a seven year old boy trying to sing bass--he
hasn't got the voice. The bulletin board is the voice of the management,
instructing, warning, reminding, encouraging the employees, and inspir
ing them to put forth greater effort and more sincere effort to avoid
accidents. Your bulletin board thus becomes an influence in the plant,
not merely a piece of equipment, and the scope and' character of that
influence will depend only upon how you talk to your employees and
what you say to them. In other words, it will depend upon what you post
on the bulletin boards.
_
The experience of the safety movement to date has proved conclusively
that illustrated safety bulletins and posters constitute the best form of
publicity upon which the safety engineer should rely for his principal form
of bulletin board communication. These bulletins--I have in mind now
particularly the bulletins prepared by the National Safety Council--are prepared in accordance with correct advertising principles. They attract
attention, they hold the interest, they put over the message, and they
get the reaction desired.
-
FUNCTIONS OF SAFETY BULLETIN
What are the functions of a safety bulletin? As I see them, there are three. First, to stimulate safety thinking. Second, to create good will for the safety work that is being conducted in the plant. Third, to instruct the workers in safe practices and warn them against unsafe
practices. A. bulletin or poster that will not do one or more of these
things is not worth posting. Now I am; going to enumerate briefly five principles of bulletin board
practice. The first is to place your bulletin hoard .in a conspicuous location where the worker will not fail to see it. The advertiser demands preferred space in magazines and newspapers. Why shouldn't the safety engineer insist upon preferred locations for his advertising medium? Adjoining a time clock is a good place for a bulletin board, particularly if it is so arranged that it can be read by the men as they stand in line to punch the clock. Other desirable locations are in the locker rooms, the dressing rooms, points in the work-room where men are obliged to pass during the day, in smoking rooms if you have them, or in place where men congregate to spend a few moments of their leisure time dur ing the lunch period. Plant entrances and exits are not usually regarded as the most desirable locations, because men are always in a hurry to get in and out of the plant.
The best type' of bulletin board is a cabinet equipped with glass doors which can be locked. Good lighting is required whatever type of board you use. Of course, the most important thing in bulletin board pub licity is not the board but the material which you place on the board. Nevertheless, if you provide a good, substantial, attractive, self-illum inated bulletin board, it will attach greater dignity to your enterprize and make a better impression upon your workmen.
136
Twelfth, Safety Congress
The second principle of good bulletin board practice is to use the best bulletins which can be obtained or prepared. Now, what are the qualifi cations of a good safety bulletin? In the first place, it must attract attention; it must have high attention value. One must bear in mind that the reading of safety bulletins is a voluntary act on the part of the employee. If your bulletin board doesn't attract attention, your mes sages will not be read, and if your safety bulletins are not read, your efforts are wasted.
The elements which make for attractive display in a bulletin are color,
illustration, decoration, typography and lay-out. The proper use of these elements is governed by well-defined principles which must be followed if the result is to be effective. In the second place, your bulletin must have a message which will be understood quickly and clearly. The entire bulletin board should be read in two or three minutes. The copy should be written with clearness, coherence and emphasis. Your entire por trayals should be vivid. All unnecessary details should be eliminated, and all the elements both of copy and display must be related and co ordinated to produce the one effect for which the poster was created That is what we call punch in a bulletin.
MUST REGISTER BESSCANEJVT X&EURJSSSIOir
The thing to aim at Is to register a permanent impression, and w< must be brief and concise and aim at getting one idea over, fixing on< impression in the mind and doing it quickly and in such a way that tbmessage will be remembered.
Bulletins should he pleasingly striking, not shockingly repulsive. Cop should be comprehensible to a fourteen year old boy. It should preferabl be written in such a way that the reader will infer the message. That i always more interesting and effective than to tell him directly an
bluntly exactly what you mean. But he sure you word your message s
that he will infer exactly what you want him to infer.
One thing to be avoided in the preparation of bulletins is the constai harping on the word "careless" or "carelessness." As a matter of fac this word is misused so often in bulletins that it probably would be betti not to use it at all. Of tbe last group of 108 bulletins prepared by tl National Safety Council, there is only one bulletin which contains tl word "careless" We feel that the workman resents being hounded f
this cause of accidents, and that if we harp on that word continually i
are likely to make him sore, and we won't get effective results from o bulletin board publicity.
Bulletins should be positive in character rather than negative. T aim should be to direct the worker's mind toward the safe way of doi his work, not to cause him to think constantly of some horrible rest tbat he must look out for. As a general thing, you can't scare a man it becoming a safe worker. If you do succeed in instilling perpetual f in his mind, you simply ruin his efficiency and make him more likely have accidents.
ABC Session
137
The third principle of good bulletin board practice is to get variety in your appeals. Most of the bulletins prepared by the Council are.pre pared to make an appeal to a certain instinct and to arouse in the reader the corresponding emotion for "which that 'instinct is the basis. The emotional appeal makes the deepest and most permanent impression upon the mind of the average man. It is the quickest way to stimulate action.
We can appeal successfully to the following instincts and interests (I won't try to name them all): self-preservation, helpfulness, devotion to family, economy and saving, pride, loyalty, constructiveness, reputa tion, and appreciation of the comic.
I might say a word here in regard to cartoon bulletins. Some of the safety engineers do not like to use cartoon bulletins because they think that a cartoon makes a joke of the safety movement which, after all, is a very serious and high-minded enterprise. I have no defense to make for many so-called cartoons which are merely grotesque drawings and which really have no humor in them. A cartoon bulletin, like any other, must have some point to it, must have some idea to express, and in a cartoon it must be expressed cleverly and in a humorous way. Every body appreciates cartoons. All you have to do is to watch people read the newspapers to realize that cartoons have a universal appeal. The reason is that the man reading a cartoon does not consider that he Is the subject of the cartoon; it is always the other fellow. If that were not true, cartoons would not be popular with any class or group of people and there would be no cartoons published in newspapers.
By all means use cartoons on your bulletin boards if they have merit as cartoons. If you can put a touch of humor into your bulletin boards, you can help to make them more interesting.
ARKANGETMENT ADDS 3POWEH TO MESSAGE
A fourth principle of good bulletin board practice is to give your bulletins a chance to do their work. Don't crowd your bulletin board. A board that is all plastered with bulletins and posters and clippings and things of that kind loses its effectiveness, because there is nothing but chaos and disorder and inefficiency. If the workmen look at it at all, they go away without reading anything that they saw there. Change the boards every day if you can, and if you can't do that, change them as often as possible. The idea is to give your workmen something new, something interesting to look at every day.
The fifth and most important principle in good bulletin board practice is to make your boards interesting. When all is said and done, that is the secret of bulletin board publicity. Safety bulletins in themselves are or can be made interesting, but it very often Is desirable to supple ment the posted bulletin with some other material which will help to intensify this interest.
I am going to show you a few bulletin board backs which I have prepared to offer some simple, concrete suggestions as to what you can do to make your boards a little more interesting and perhaps a little more attractive. .
138
Twelfth Safety Congress
(Showing Bulletin Board.) Here I have added as an interest featuri
what we call little talks with men in our plant. Here is a picture of thi
man in the plant. I have named him Peter Zielinski, fireman. "You knot
Pete. Pete says he likes it here because the work is steady and becaus
everybody is careful."
Now, a little interest feature like that can very easily be carried 00
by any safety engineer who has a camera, and I feel that every safet
engineer ought to have a camera, because the things he can do with
are almost unlimited.
.
EXAMPLES OP BULLETIXS
This is bound to create interest, because the friends of the men wi
remark about it, and the workmen will be looking to see whose pictui
goes on next.
(Bulletin Board.) Here I have-taken one of our bulletins on the su
ject of dropping things on one's feet. I have tied that in with a simili
accident right in the plant, showing a workman whom everybody knoi
and who they know has had a similar injury. Up here I say, "Plea
don't kid A1 about this; his foot hurts enough now." And down hei
"Remember the E. B. A. dance Saturday night. Keep your feet in go
shape."
(Bulletin Board.) "This man struck out." using one of our bulletin
and tying it in with a contrast in experience in the plant, "but Joe Bu: Machine Shop Sheik, got a safe hit. This emery wheel broke while rt
ning at high speed. Joe's .eye was saved because he was wise enough
wear his goggles. Goggles are free. Ask your foreman."
Here again is a large poster which has enough human interest
attract attention and to make an appeal. (Bulletin Board.) This b
letin I think you are all familiar with. It shows the picture of
orphanage, and all the children shown on the steps of this orphan!
are children who have lost one or both parents on account of accidt
Such a bulletin also needs nothing to bolster it up so far as attract
attention and holding interest is concerned.
(Bulletin Board.) Another thing that almost any safety engineer
do is to get some of the men in the plant who are handy with pencil
pen or brush, to make some home-made bulletins. Here is a home-m
bulletin on the subject of infection, showing how a -man protects
tools but neglects himself. I have also posted up there another bull
which is a lit.tle weak in attention value. The home-made bulletin h<
to attract, attention and helps to put over the message of the other '
letin. Incidentally, we have added a little local interest by labe
tiiis as "Safety Bulletin by our own Shop Artist, Professor Forem
The "professor" is gratuitous.
(Bulletin Board.) Again we have a weak bulletin, bolstered by a
letin which has human interest. You notice how these two are pot
You can arrange the two posters in different shapes and forms on
bulletin board which will help to make your board look different
1 e a little more attractive.
A.'B C Session
139
Here we have two posters posted in a little differ nt form with a little different decoration on the side, to make it a little more attractive.
We also have up here what we call our Safety News Pictorial. In other words, it was supposed to be a little news picture with some comment
on it that could be tied in with safety. We probably will issue more of those later on. But this has interest and will help to attract attention
and put over the message here.
'
(Bulletin Board.) Here is a news pictorial issued by the Chicago Tribune which I have posted on here to help attract attention and add a little interest to the board carrying another safety bulletin.
' In a great many cities, the daily newspapers, especially where there
is competition, issue such newspaper pictorials for hanging in windows and placing in barber shops and other places, and I think .you will find that a great many of them will be glad to furnish those for posting on your bulletin boards if you care to have them.
(Bulletin Board.) Here is an illustration of another home-made bul letin, using a clipping from the National Geographic Magazine. It shows
two beggars in debate, one of them with his hand cut off and the other with a hand and foot cut off. The story is that these beggars were
criminals, and that they were punished by having in one case a hand cut off and the other a band and foot cut off. Up on top there I have written in with a typewriter, "Cripples, hut not from accidents." Then
I tell down here in a few words that these men were criminals and were punished because of crime, but that in civilized countries like ours we don't punish people in that way, but a great many people punish themselves by failing to observe safety rules and take proper interest
in safety. That is something that most any man can do to make his
bulletin hoard. a little more interesting.
.
(Bulletin Board.) Here is a clipping from the National Safety Netvs
telling about the Safety Court established by the Standard Oil Co., in-
which a driver who has an accident is tried by his fellow-workers, and
if he is found guilty 'of infraction of safety rules, he is sentenced to a
period of manual labor in the warehouse..
(Bulletin Board.) Here I have shown how we can tie in two bulletins, the slogan bulletin with another poster, where you have a logical sequence of thought. There is a picture of a man who has been hit by the head of a sledge which was on a loose handle. Instead of saying, "Don't work with sledges with loose handles," expressing it bluntly and directly that way, we say, "Nobody has ever been smart enough to think of a good exduse for using a sledge with a loose handle; there Isn't any." That is getting across the message in an indirect way, hut I think you will agree with me that it is -just as effective, and more so, than the other way.
The executive who has keen appreciation of -the influence which can be exerted by a bulletin board for stimulating interest in safety among
his employees, for developing plant spirit, for encouraging loyalty to the ideals of the firm, will place a high-grade man in charge of the bulletin board publicity. The work calls for a man who has vision, a
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Twelfth Safety Congress
man who has a keen understanding of human nature.
taHMre fee*
to appeal to working men, who knows news and
fe mat
who is a good psychologist, who is a good safety engineer, and wfe 1
enthusiastic over the possibility of preventing aecSdeosa `Chroetg
education.
Make your bulletin board an influence which will be fefc. tferwgbc*
the entire personnel of your plant. Use bulletins freely. Stake tfeei
interesting. Keep it up. Talk to your men in such a way that the
will know you have their interests at heart, and you wfis get resale
in reduced number of accidents, in a better plant spirit, in more bean
and thorough-going cooperation, and in a more happy, prosperous i
dustrial family.
.
PUTTING PEP INTO A SAFETY CAMPAIGN
Ac. Kboes, Dikectob of Safety Education, Employees Mutual. Liabilt Insurance Company, Wausau, Wisconsin
A safety campaign without PEP is worse than useless. For some years we have been distributing PEP with cards--impress!
upon the worker the vital things In Safety, not only causes, but resul the effect on his home, happiness, etc. At no time, as I remember it, v there a lack of interest or appreciation.
Now then, in order to get the right slant on all this, imagine yours to be the man on the job, gathered somewhere in the shop to hear t: message- A safety campaign is being conducted but the edges are ki of worn off; the bulletin board has nothing new; a few old posters : hanging on one tack and the last notice is three weeks old. Accide are on the increase, a bad infection case is holding the center of stage and all Is gloom. The safety drive so well started is all hut de and even the safety committee is a "paper" organization pure and simi
At this critical stage we need a PEP PUEEMOTOR--a message of f
rather than figures. We must bring the man face to face with accid causes and what It means to him and the folks at home. We must m him fully understand that he plays a vital part in a campaign wt can do so much to scatter the seeds of safety, to stay with helpful h the grief of "safety last" and speed the rosy dawn of a new day--w the preventable accident will be classed as a crime.
It is hard to get the idea straight into our head that safety can all this, but you can easily bet your next month's pay check that it do just that and more. The heart and soul of the safety movement I get you to believe all of that. It has always been a mystery to me it took so many years to bring this vital thing close enough so thal can all see it and firmly believe it.
It is easy to see it after the accident happens--after a man has a violent death or serious injury, being caught in a fast whirling s.' After we see that awful thing and feel in our hearts the sorrow despair in the family circle of the victim, the attending grief of a br home, then we all get very busy and guard that shaft so further dai is impossible.
ASO
141
We all see the elerator gate tMI fK aat *Jt wemtiag te4igwwtt-
walk by it, instead of catting the rop*
S^ K IM
or ta&aw
atway the stick that someone has pat natter 1% fin sf-rwrf tiofatiap. of mtl
shop rules, but when we see some poor 6gH9o tatl down the- etseacoe
shaft and hear his cries of agony, #tea wtr see the aaMae hacked up against the gate of the factory and have ewr shop brother taken away
in It, then, the scales fait from our eyes and we make that gate safe as
it should be.
We can easily see the man at the emery wheel working without goggles,
the sparks Hying in every direction like a brilliant display of fireworks. We see the man with his eyes foil of emery dust or perhaps a chip. We know the danger. Perhaps some amateur oculist pat this fellow against the wall and pokes into his precious eye with a tooth pick or a lead pencil or soiled handkerchief. We care very little, but when later on we hear that Jack lost his eye through a hopeless infection, we see the danger vividly and we have learned a costly lesson.
We thoughtlessly walk by a fellow who is working on a saw totally unguarded. We know very well he is in constant danger of losing his fingers or perhaps his band, but we say nothing. When the fingers are gone or his right band has ceased to be bis best friend, we get busy and correct the evil.
We walk by the yawning floor opening without a sign of a railing, unmindful of the danger to some of our shop fellows. We don't seein to care, but all of a sudden some poor fellow falls into it and breaks his leg or perhaps receives a more serious injury, and we all blame the fellow who is charged with the responsibility of guarding this danger point.
We see high piles of material dangerously leaning, like the Tower of Pisa. We even hear someone remark: "Some day that darn thing is going to come down," but we quietly pass on our way. When it topples over and one of our shop neighbors is caught underneath and perhaps loses his life we wake up to the danger of piling material carelessly.
There is a door leading out into the yard with the railroad track nearby. We all know that the safety gate placed there for our protection has been smashed off the hinges, but no one seems to take interest enough to report it. Then comes a busy day. Our mind is taken up with some hurry- job. We dash out of that door and are crushed under the wheels of a passing yard train. Everyone in the shop is excited. The gate is repaired, but one of our fellow men had to die to call attention to it.
We know that the chain which holds a. suspended load has not been annealed for a long, long time. Every day we are taking a big chance passing under it, but we haven't got the stamina to take a positive stand and see that it is made safe. One day some poor fellow is crushed under the heavy load and loses his life. Then for a brief period of time every attention is paid to annealing these chains until we again fall into a state of indifference, and forget.
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Twelfth Safety Congress
We see a shop worker swinging a heavy sledge hammer. We know
that tool* inspection has been neglected. Blow after blow is given until
suddenly the head flies off, hitting some poor fellow in the head with
fatal results. Then we see that a defective tool is a great source of
danger, but unfortunately we don't see it until the damage is done.
We notice some fellows in the shop`passing us time and time again
with any old rag around their finger or hand where the skin has been
cut, but we don't see the danger of blood-poisoning. Later on we hear
that one of our best pals in the shop is suffering frightful agony at the
hospital, being the victim of a serious infection. Neglect of going to the
first aid room and making light of small injurie: has been the direct
cause of this man losing his hand.
Day after day we notice a protruding set screw on a shaft near the
point where the oiler must go every morning. We don't see it as we should
and some fine morning this oiler is caught by a ragged sleeve and is so
badly injured that the arm has to be amputated. We all feel sorry, but
a better interest in safety first at the right time would have avoided
this horrible accident.
'
FORESIGHT, ONLY SOLimON TO SAFETY PROBLEM
I could mention a lot of more things that happen every day in the thous ands of workplaces everywhere, but it is quite enough to convince us that to see these things before the accident is a real solution of the safety problem. It all depends on the degree of Interest. Way down deep in our hearts lies the desire to do right. We must direct our forces against the demon of indifference. There must never be a let up. We must see all these things in time. It also depends on the eternal willingness to help and be of service to our fellow men. The question is, "Are we willing to consecrate our lives to the greater things"?
And then again, towering far above everything that is said here, comes the HOME. All your interest, all the service you can give to cut down accidents in some way will make the home happier.
HOME, that wonderful place where Jack and Mary are - by the gate to await Daddy's safe return. . That's the spot where the lightning strikes when the ambulance takes another victim from the shop. And sometimes we forget the importance of- Mother's part---'the struggle she has to get along. Think what a real man's job it is to make that home safe.
Accident prevention is your privilege and a sacred duty. The world points the finger of scorn to the man who would not lend a helping hand in this great work. If you now belong to the "I don't worry club," cancel your membership today. With the rising of the sun tomorrow dedicate yourself to the greater service--to that wonderful service of helplessness. A better day of more genuine brotherhood of man is waiting just around the corner. Let's all help and hasten the day. '
Carelessness has cursed humanity throughout the ages. In the com plexity of a busy day in the shop we are all apt to forget. We slide back into a state of indifference which is full of danger. At times we are at sea. We are much like the ship tossed about in the storm. Imagine
A. B C Session
143
yourself standing on the edge of a great lake. There is a long pier and on the end a lighthouse, great waves beating against It. The storm is at its height. It is pitch dark, but faithfully, without interruption, the light flashes throughout the Inky night. Once in a while we see the moon emerging from the dark clouds and notice a ship buffeted by the high angry waves with upper structure swept away, but the good skipper keeps >a sturdy hand on the wheel and never for a moment loses sight of the guiding light flashes. Finally, after a long and heroic struggle he reaches the safety of the inner harbor. What a wonderful Inspiration. That lighthouse is your Safety First. Keep your eye trained on It always.
My friends, this is a serious matter. The crimson record of preventable accidents in this our fair land, will find a responsive chord in your heart. You have done much to advance this mightly safety movement. No matter from what angle I treat the subject I know that you understand. The noble work has become an Integral part of your life and, after all, there is a tremendous difference between just making a living and making a life.
To you men, dependable pilots of the good ship "Safety First," I have but one appeal; Sail on--sail on!
. PRONE PRESSURE DEMONSTRATION
v S. H. Reid, Botead of Safety, Chicago, III.
During the last two or three years, we have heard a good deal about safety and about service to humanity. The matter of service has perhaps been emphasized more at this Congress than at any previous one. *A good many years' ago, I read a story that has made more impression upon my life in the line of service than any other one thing. Some of you may have read the same story..-
A certain man was going from Jerusalem down to Jericho, -and he -fell among robbers who stripped him of his raiment and left him for dead. By and by, along came a priest, and the priest walked by on the other side and went on about his business. Later a Levite came by, and 'he saw the man in his distress, but he, too, passed by on the other side and left him to suffer. Then the good Samaritan came along, and he got down off his beast and rendered the necessary first aid, took the man to a hotel, and made the necessary provision for his care until the time of his recovery. That is what I- call real service.
There are a good many kinds of service that we can render to humanity in connection with our safety work, and during the week we have heard a good deal about the care of the injured, about how to tie up wounds, how to take.-care of broken legs and broken arms, and so on, and that is well. It certainly is a commendable and praiseworthy service. But there is one class of service that is unlike those which I have mentioned. We can not wait for the services of the doctor, because when a man is suffering from an electrical shock or is apparently dead from drowning or is suffering from asphyxiation, the doctor is usually somewhere else at the time of the injury, and so it is necessary in those injuries which
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Twelfth Safety Congress
I have mentioned and others which interfere with a man's breathing, that first aid be administered Immediately and right on the spot where the accidents happens.
That is particularly true of electrical shock. It is one of the things that can not wait. It has been said repeatedly that a man can do without anything to eat for a period of possibly forty days. He can. do without a drink of water for three days. But a man's life is in danger when he is deprived of air for three minutes.
I don't mean to say by that that if you were unable to get to a patient within three minutes from the time he received the shock, that you should not do all you can to help him, or that your efforts would be useless. But I do say that a man's life is in danger when he is deprived of air for three minutes.
When a man receives an electric shock, he is deprived of air, and then smothers to death. If you want to know what it means to be smothered to death or to be deprived of air, just pull out your watch some time and try to hold your breath for three minutes. Then yon will appreciate what the person is up against who is deprived of air.
BETATION OF DIATHKAGM Tp BRF.ATHXNO
Remember that the lungs have no power within themselves to inhale or exhale. Your breathing is dependent entirely upon the diaphragm, and when a person receives an electrical shock, the muscles or the nervous system controlling the diaphragm is paralyzed and the dia phragm ceases to perform its function. Ordinarily, in your chest and mine right now, it is moving up and down at the rate of about fifteen times a minute, and it does that just as regularly and constantly as the beat of your heart, and It is just as essential to your life.
There are many other injuries in connection with electric shock-- electric burns, etc. We read a good deal about the effect that it has upon the heart and upon the nervous system generally and upon the blood vessels, and all that sort of thing. We are not interested in that particularly. These are matters for the physician to handle. But when a person gets an electrical shock, it is your business and mine to see that he gets air in and out of his lungs, because that is the first necessity for the saving of his life,- and we leave the heart and blood vessels and nervous system to be taken care of either through nature or by the physician.
It is obvious that the first and important thing in cases of electric shock is to get the patient free from the thing that gives him the shock and do that without danger to yourself. Many a person has been killed in. attempting to free some one from a live wire, and then* having done that, you get the patient in the prone method, that is, lying flat on his face.
Many thousands of people are drowned in this country in a year, many people are electrocuted, and many suffer from asphyxiation, -and many of these no doubt could be saved if there was some one around who knew how to give this particular part of the first aid.
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The simplicity of this method commends itself to the ordinary indi vidual. It requires no apparatus or equipment other than the hands of the operator, and these they always have with them. Any other device might he away somewhere else, in the fire department or in a hospital, and by the time you would get it to the patient, it would be too' late to do anything.
EXAMPLES OF FIRST AID PRACTICE
If I had time, I would like to tell you of some of the cases during the year 1923 where this method- has been successful in saving life. I will ..mention one or two. I know of one man that received a shock from a 33,000 volt wire. They worked on that man, according to this method for three hours and twenty minutes before there were any signs of life. I have known of other cases where they worked two hours and a half, an hour and a half, twenty minutes, ten minutes. Sometimes they come around all right in five minutes. But it is our business to-work until the patient is absolutely dead, that is, until rigor mortis sets in. Then we know we have done all we can.
This summer, a hundred miles or so from Chicago, a man who is in this room now, and one of those associated with, us in our work in Chicago, had occasion to go out to one of the camps. A man had been in bathing, got out beyond his depth, and went under, and it was some five or six minutes before they got him out of the water. There the man lay on the grass, everybody excited, nobody knew what to do. This gentleman from Chicago who had had experience in working on voluntary, subjects as well as others, knew exactly what to do, and when he came upon the scene, he scattered the crowd and went to work on the patient, and in less than half an hour the man was all right, and a day or two later, he was no worse for the experience.
This doesn't require a great deal of skill. It does require some practice, because this is one of the things that you have to learn to do by doing. You folks, when you went to school, remember when the teacher put a letter upon the board. You could have been there yet and watched the teacher do that, but you never learned how to make the letter S or the letter A or the figure 3 or any other figure until you took the chalk in your own hands or the pencil in your own hands and made it. In other words, you learned to make those letters by making them. We learn to give artificial respiration by giving artificial respiration, and, necessarily, "'we must practice on voluntary subjects so that when the emergency arises and there is a real case, we will be able to per form this necessary first aid with satisfaction to ourselves and benefit to the patient.
Now, I said that it doesn't take a great deal of training. I am going to try to prove that to you. "We have three young men up here. Here is a young man twelve years old. Up until three-quarters of an hour ago, he had never seen the Prone Pressure Method of Resuscitation, he had never seen artificial respiration and therefore knew nothing about it.
146 Twelfth Safety Congress
I took Mm up to the room upstairs and just gave him about five minutes' training, and if he doesn't do quite as well as some of you folks think you can do, of course you will understand that he has only had five minnt.es' training.
DEMONSTRATION
I just want to emphasize, folks, that this is one feature of first aid that is your business and my business, because if we don't practice it and become proficient in it, the time is going to come when we are
going to be placed in a mighty embarrassing position because of our
inability to save somebody's life. Obviously, there will be many cases that are beyond hope, but neither you nor I nor even the doctor, if he happened to be there, can tell wMch case is hopeless and wMch one is not, so the thing to do is to give the patient the benefit of the doubt and give him our best efforts, our best service, until we are sure that there is no hope or that he has been restored to consciousness and life-
ADJOUBNMENT.
General Round Table
/
October 4, 1923
H. W. FORSTER, Chairman
Independence Bureau, Philadelphia, Pa.
HAIRMAN FORSTER: You will observe our problem of getting safety across to the new man Is divided Into two parts, the non-
English speaking men and the men working in scattered small groups. We might take a given group of men and get them trained in safety in first class style, and it would be wonderful if we were able to keep them. But always at every industrial plant we have a steady Influx of new men, and we have to get to them and to put the message into their hearts.. Let us confine the discussion during the first part of the afternoon to the nonEnglish speaking workman.
Mr. Henry A. Reninger (Lehigh Portland Cement Co.): "We in the cement industry, considering approximately a three or four thousand barrel plant, run those mills today with anywhere from 250 to 350 men, and with three shifts you can see that we never have a great number of men at the plant. That includes all the men, including quarries.
Bulletin service, to my mind, is the greatest thing for the foreigner. Keep your bulletin boards clean and fresh with new material. Even though he cannot understand a word that is on the bulletin, the picture will impress itself upon his mind, especially if the man has been im pressed with the safety idea and made to understand that the company is vitally interested in it, not from a financial standpoint but for his own sake.
We have mass meetings twice a year when everybody attends. The mills are practically shut down. At those meetings we have two or three foreigners talk on safety, and while I personally cannot understand Czechoslovakian or Polish or some of the rest of those languages, I can tell by watching the faces of the men that the messages are getting across.
Another thing is the awarding of trophies. You can impress the men
in the mill that they are in a contest, in a safety campaign for a no
accident period, and if they win they get a trophy. That is placed out
where they can all see it^
.
Mr. J. E. Walters (General Electric Co.): Ten months in the year during school term we run a compulsory night school. Every employee.
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148 Twelfth Safety Congress
male or female, who'can neither read nor write his own name, is com pelled to attend this night school, where a working knowledge of English is taught, one hour each night, two nights a week.
Mr. J. A. Starkweather (Board of Education, Duluth): In cities where you have a public night school, you can furnish the teachers of the night school the safety signs that you want them to learn to read. That is one of the first things that we try to teach--the safety signs, the street car signs, and the few words that they need to read those signs. We wrote our own text-books, and that was one of the first things we put in them. The men in industry can help a great deal by furnishing to the schools those particular signs which they want their people to learn regarding safety.
WELCOMING THE NEW MAN
Mr. E. G. Quesnei (Commonwealth Steel Co., Granite City, 111.): Very
recently we adopted the plan of having our safety inspector take, the
names of new employees, which he turns over to the safety department
the next day, and he. goes, down into the plant, looks these men up,
shakes hands with them, tells them he is glad to see them, asks whether
they like their job, whether they know where the wash-room is, where the safety department and' the doctor's office are, pats them on the
back and tells them if there is anything the matter to come to the office up near the gate and they will be glad to go into the matter. We
have found in a good many cases this has proven extremely beneficial. Some of the men tell us .that they never had a man give them two welcomes. They get one when they come in and the next day a fellow comes around, looks them up and shakes bands again. We believe also
in teaching a man English. We have no signs nor publications generally
distributed ab._ the plant in foreign languages except three, one at
the front gate which has all the languages on it--a sign of a safety first nature; one in the medical department giving a few rules that he Is
expected to know; and the fire sign which is in the building where there
is danger of fire. All other publications are in Elnglish. Our plant
publication is in English. We also have our school where we teach
English. Mr. H. S. Moody (Bausch & Lomb Optical Co., Rochester): We make
American citizens out of all the men and teach them English at the same time. During the winter months we teach them all English. That
saves putting up all signs in twenty-six different languages.
Mr. C. Sankey (Carnegie Steel Co.) : Between the director of safety
and the safety committee and the employee is the safety inspector. He
is the pulse of the safety department, he is the one who should direct
and influence the situation. No man should be a safety inspector unless
he has that employee at heart and not the company.
'
In our plant ten years ago we had 1,700 men; we had 263 lost time
accidents. Today we have 3,200 men on the pay roll and when I left
home last Sunday we only had fourteen accidents and the worst was. a
broken place on the foot made by a casting thrown by another man. I
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149
gave a report here that showed how one department had gone three years and six months with an average of 235 men without a lost time accident. That is safety. Remember that wasn't done by one man; that was done by each and every employee in that mill. Ninety-eight per cent of the men who work in our plant are safety men.
Mr. A- Kroes (Employers Mutual Liability Ins. Co. of Wisconsin) : In one of the plants where I am, any non-English speaking man who comes in is given a folder. On it are four columns, one in his own language, translated into English. They contain the principles and points of safety to be observed in the plant. Then he is given this book to take home and read. After four weeks that man goes through an examination. If he knows what is in that little book and can intelligently tell what these safety principles are, he is given a safety button.
That creates a sense of competition, and the fellow who hasn't got a button is looked upon as a smaller man than vthe fellow who has got one. The fellow without a button is not in the class with the fellow who has one.
INSTRUCTION- BY EMPLOYMENT SUPERVISOR
Mr. William Pellenz (Oliver Iron Mining Co., Eveleth, Minn.) : The new man gets his first education in safety from the employment super visor in our mines. He is told in a general way the nature of the work he is to follow and the hazards connected with it. If he cannot under stand English, and 98 per cent of our employees do, an interpreter is called in to explain it to him. He is given a printed slip upon which is this slogan, "Remember, while you are hired to do some particular kind of work, the safety of yourself and your fellow workmen is more important than that work." This is also explained to him and he is given a card upon which is printed or written, "I have been instructed by (blank) regarding the duties and hazards incident to the occupation," and this is signed after it has. been filled out by the straw boss under whom he works, and it is returned to the supervisor's office as evidence that this man has been instructed in the hazards of the occupation.
A year ago when we looked into the reason, for the number of acci dents, we were told that many of these injuries were preventable, that It was largely with ourselves as operators that they were caused, that we were not getting the co-operation of the men, and the reason we were not getting the co-operation of the men was because we were not sincere ourselves.
We have safety inspectors, and the men on the committees were picked from the men who could beBt be spared from the operations.
Our problem was to show the men we were sincere, and to show that we put on the committee the most experienced men we had. We now have an open pit foreman, a general underground man, a master mechanic, in conjunction with the safety engineer and the casualtyman and the superintendent acting as the chairman. This committee makes a supreme effort to be present each month at all inspection trips, and every place in the district is seen at least once every "month.
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Our motion picture campaign, our monthly slogan card, all the educa tional work we have done and our successful efforts in getting the injured man back on his Job or some other job without loss of time have been wonderful helps, but without the co-operation we are getting from the men, which we do get when they see that we are sincere, we would not have been able to accomplish the results we have accom plished in the past year. In the first six months of 1922 we had 2,166 days lost on account of accidental injury. With 1,800 men employed for a like period in 1923 we had 25 days lost for accidental injury.
Mr. Frank IX Elwell (Dayton Engineering Laboratories Co., Dayton) : The safety man who overlooks the foreman is overlooking his biggest asset. The inspector who goes by the foreman and goes directly to the men is overlooking something big or he is following the line of least resistance because he is passing up selling the foreman. Many foremen are old school, hard-fisted fellows that have risen to their rank because they were hard-boiled on production. If the safety man goes out and sells the hard boiled eggs he has accomplished his biggest task and he has support.
Mr. A. M. Heederik (National Brake & Electric Co.): In putting the message across to the new man, and especially the foreigner, no matter how many schools or foremen or how much publicity you have got, it is not going to amount to a row of pins unless you get right down and try to understand the men, get down to the human element. If we can place ourselves on the same level with the man that we are tak ing into the shop, then and then only are we going to put the safety message across, and it is going to be a comparatively simple job if we do that. That is what I have learned at this convention.
FOREIGNERS ARE NEWCOMERS
Mr. Roy S. Bonsib (Standard Oil Co., N. J,, New York City) : I don't like that word "foreigner" at all. In the first place there is something repulsive about it. I like the word "new-comer" better. I think the big mistake that the average safety man makes in dealing with the new comers is the fact that he fails to recognize that the men are new comers, that they are not familiar with the peculiar customs of the country, also that the average class of men that are in our common labor ranks don't think as quickly as we do. Consequently when a thing is explained to them they will say they understand it because they don't want to appear stupid. In getting safety across the safety man should be sure that the new-comer really understands what is being told him.
It is very important that you get down.to the personal element. The man is lonesome; he has been used to being treated with contempt, to being called a "damned Dago" or "Hunk" or some such name. Make a friend of that man, go to his christenings, his funerals, his weddings.
Mr. J. A. Northwood (Bethlehem Steel Corporation, Cambria Plant, Johnstown, Pa.) : Our experience in accidents has not been with the non-English speaking men as much as it has been with the touring laborer, the fellow who comes in and stays for a week or two and then
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151
sets the bug to move on. In looking over a number of our accidents in the past five or six months, I find that our trouble has been more with the man of that type than it has been with the non-English speak ing man, and the trouble also has been more with the colored man. Sixteen per cent of the accidents that we had in the last four or five months were to colored men, with less than sieven per cent of colored men working in our plant.
Chairman Forster: We are going to have at this stage the playlet which the Carnegie boys have prepared for us. After that is over. Major Reninger is going to take the chair and conduct a discussion of the second part of the program, namely, "Getting safety across to the men working in scattered small groups."
Mr. John A. Oartel: This playlet is based on a problem which arose because we have trouble with the non-English speaking man. We put on a course of lectures for foremen at the Edgar Thompson Plant that was so popular they asked us down to put on something for the em ployees. We knew that a large percentage of our employees were foreign ers who wouldn't understand a lecture or get the message, so we decided to take dangerous practices that occur in steel mills-and dramatize them for the men. Eight departments of the steel mill each put on a little sketch or playlet. This sketch is entitled "A Scene in a Foundry," and these men whom we have here are from our Edgar Thompson Foundry at Braddock, Pennsylvania. They consist of David Scott, assistant super intendent of the foundry; John O'Donovan, foreman, who has worked for our company for 43 years; Harry Owen, safety man; Edward Coles, Henry Maddern, Thomas Burke, James Elliott, Robert Toddler, Charles Taylor, molders, and Charles Walburg, new man. They will do things here like they do them in our foundry.
A SCENE IN A EOUNBRY
Safety playlet given by workmen from foundry department, Edgar
Thomson Works, Carnegie Steel Company.
SCENE--Any present day in the foundry.
-
CHARACTERS--Foreman, John O'Donovan, seven present workmen and one new man.
PROPERTIES--Two medium flasks (complete), clamps, wedges, horses, patterns, moulders' tools, rammers, trowels, shovels, one tool box (small for new man)., safety signs, water
_ fountain, two shanks (complete), skimmers, red fire, sparklers, goggles, etc.
Curtain rises with stage set to represent a present day foundry, with
piles of sand, copes and drags in place, faked up to look almost complete.
There are two gangs working on separate floors, composed of Edward
Coles, Henry Mattern, and Thomas Burke, and David Scott, James Elliott,
Robert Taubler, Charles Taylor, with Charles Walberg, a new man.
Harry Owens, Safety Man.
'
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Coles and Ms gang look sullen and out of sorts because there are only three men in the gang, while the other gang is complete.
COLES--(Setting hammer down with a bang): "Say fellows, don't you think we are getting a raw deal out of this today. The boss wants us three fellows to finish this job in time for early iron. Now look at those fellows over there. (Points to other gang doing the same kind of work.) They have practically the same job we have and there are four of them to do it. ' I don't think we are getting a square deal out of this, do you?"
OTHER TWO WORKMEN--"No, we don't."
"
MATTERN: "Oh well, fellows, you know John has a big cast on today over on the other side of the shop, and he is a little short handed, now let's dig in and help him out. Maybe he will send someone over to help us out after a while." "Say fellows, did you ever see an `old -timer' like John take up with a new system like he has to this Safety First movement. that the company has instituted. X would imagine an `old timer' like him who worked under the old conditions would not be so strong for anything new, but he sure is strong for it."
TOM BURKE: "Hey fellows, here comes the boss, and he has a fellow with him who looks like a new hand.
COLES: "Hope he is, for we will need some help to finish in time for early iron." (Enter foreman, with stranger.)
FOREMAN: "Well, fellows, here is a new man to help you out today. You were short handed when you started, but the office sent us a man. You can now get ready for early iron. I have given him a locker in the comfort room and told him of our Safety Plan in a general way. I would have liked to have gone into it further, but I am very busy. You fellows show him and tell him as much as possible today and I will have a better chance before long."
COLES: "All right, John, we will look after him." (To the new man.) "Well pardner, what might be your handle?"
NEW MAN: "Jim."
COLES: "Jim, what?"
NEW MAN: "Sometimes known as `Sunny' Jim, sometimes `carefree' Jim, sometimes `careless' Jim, but mostly `rhyming' Jim."
COLES: "Why the rhyming."
NEW MAN : "Because I have the knack of making up verses of rhyme
on most anything which interests me. Now this Safety Business
the boss was talking about. I'll bet you, that before the day is out
X can have a few verses of rhyme ready that will make you think
some."
.
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153
COLES: "Well, we will take your word for it, but we have a stiff day's work ahead of us here and we must be ready for early iron, so keep your verses until we have time to hear them."
COLES: "Come on, you fellows over there, we are on even terms, now
that we have another man. Have any of you fellows over there
nodding toward the other gang) any good stories to spout. If you
have, let us hear them and it will give us a chance to catch up
with you."
.
"
TAUBLER: "Yes, I have one about a big Safety First Fellow. How
would you like to hear it."
*
ALL OR ANYONE: "Let'r go." (When ready. Coles signals for the crane. Burke shouts at the craneman, the hook lowers, and the lifting chains with four hooks are put on. Each man takes one hook. The new man makes the wrong hitch on the flask. The foreman enters in tinie to see it and halts the crane. He shows the new man how to hook up properly and gives a short talk on the same- He returns to Walberg and the others.)
FOREMAN: "I thought I told you fellows to look after this man. I was too busy at the time he came to instruct him properly but this is just another lesson for me along with a long line of others, not to be too busy to take time to instruct the new man in safety when he starts. Now, boys, I'm not bawling you out, but it is my way of show ing you just what your safety is to the company, to our superintend ent and to myself and, last but not least, to yourselves. No hard feelings, boys."
COLES: "That's all right, John, we know how you feel about it and we feel we are safe in your hands, but say, John, this new man says he is something of a rhymer. I wonder if he could rhyme us something on Safety."
FOREMAN: (To new man) "How about that, pardner."
NEW MAN: "Well, Boss, I guess I can have something before the day
Is out."
.
FOREMAN: "Well, go ahead, and if we have time, before the iron is ready at the cupola, we will listen to what you have." (Exit).
(Here the lift is made of the cope to the horses and the men proceed to finish the mould. Walberg cautions the men to be careful. The gang takes the cope from the horses and replaces it on the drag. They clamp up and are ready for the iron.)
FOREMAN AND SAFETY MAN ENTER: (Safety man rushes on the stage with an accident blank and a bunch of letters in his pocket in regard to delayed treatment cases. Reads accident report in very excited manner.)
SAFETY MAN: "John Gordon, Check 43125, injured Sept. 30, 1923, at 4.00 P. M.., reported Oct. 1, at 8.00 A. M. Seale in eye.
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uwelfth Safety Congress
"Now, JoJm, almost every one of our delayed treatment cases hap pens just at quitting time and the man will not go to the hospital on his own time. "We are in bad with the manager. (Pulls bunch of letters from his pocket and reads them.) "What are we going to do about it. X have talked and talked, have done it so much that they have nicknamed me `Delayed Treatment'."
FOREMAN: "Well, suppose I fire the next man who does not report?"
SAFETY MAN: "Oh, no. Firing a man is the easiest job a foreman has. Aynbody can fire a man. The ideal foreman is the man who can make his men obey orders."
FOREMAN: (Turns to workmen) "Now, boys, see the trouble you have
gotten me into. Trouble for your Safety man. Trouble for your
superintendent. Bad record for your department and in every de
layed treatment case there is a big-chance for infection. We simply
must do better. X cannot watch you all the time. I have other work
to do. I can only oversee you in a general way. But you know when
. you get hurt and just because it is quitting time is no reason why
you should not go up to the hospital. Why, I remember the time
when a workman had to go to his own doctor after working hours
and had to pay the bill himself. Now, all treatment is free and
some of you feel that you should be paid for going to get free treat
ment. Boys, you must get away from that notion. Now, I pray yon,
watch yourself and watch your partner. Let's go."
,
SAFETY MAN: "That's a fine talk, John. I feel sure 1924 will he better than 1923. (Safety man exits.) /
FOREMAN: "Well boys, I see you are ready for iron but it will be a few minutes yet before the cupola man is ready."
COLES: "Yes, John, we are ready in good time. Now, how about this new man giving us some verses on Safety. He seems to have the
stuff all right."
' FOREMAN: (To new man) "How about it pardner, let'us see what you have, you seem to have made a hit here and if you have anything worth while on Safety, you can rest assured you can make good here."
NEW MAN: "Well, fellows, I have been looking around a whole lot to day and I must say I like this place. It is the best equipped shop I have ever been in and I know I am going to like it, and 1 hope I make good. I would like to stay here because I see you are all interested in each other's welfare and safety, and gee, yon sure do take care of your workmen here. Why, I worked places where you did not have anywhere to put your tools, your lunch or your clothes. Why here yon have clothes, lockers, tool lockers, wash bowls, shower baths, drinking fountains and toilets in a fine big building set apart for them and you furnish all safe tools to work with and safety guards all around pouring pits and cupola pit. and screened away from the chipping floor and goggles to wear when yon are casting. Say, some of you fellows better pinch me or 1 will wake up and find
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155
I have been, asleep .and dreaming I was in Moulder's Heaven, and
say, they tell me there are quite a few fellows here who don't take
advantage of these comforts that are supplied them. Say, they must be boobs or they don't have very' much feeling for their people at home or they would wash and bathe and change from their dirty shop clothes to ones better to come and go from work In. Well, -Boss, I have thought up some verses on this Safety and with your permission I will give them to you and the boys. How about it, have we time? FOREMAN: "Yes, go ahead." NEW MAN: "This I will call `How I Learned About Safety From Them'."
"I have taken my jobs where I found them,
I've roamed, and I've bummed in my time;
I've had good luck in getting partners.
And four of the lot were prime.
One was a first class moulder.
Another a gold miner from Nome.
"
One was a grand old machinist named Harry,
The last a young laddie from home.
"Now I weren't much for this Safety,
But taking it all along,
-
It's got me a-guessing, this Safety.
-
And surely it cannot be wrong.
There's times when you'll think it mightn't be right,
And there's times when you think it's all wrong. But the lessons I've learned from the crippled and .burned
Make me think that it's good for the strong.
'-v
"Now I was a young cub in those days A-learning my trade on the floor.
French Johnny was working beside me When the crane broke as never before. That big flask came down with a wallop.
Poor Johnny was under the rim.
Why, it happened so quick It near made me sick.
But I learned about Safety from him.
.
, "Then I quit the trade for the Yukon,
'
* Went a-diggin' for gold In the ice,
.
Met there a husky young miner
Who sure was in need of advice.
>
He was brawny, and lucky, and boastful.
This reckless young heathen named Tim.
Well, he's there to this day, but deep burled in clay--
And I learned about Safety from him.
"Then I shifted from there to Portland, '
Got me a Job building ships.
They put me to helping a machinist.
'
Who wasn't afraid of hot chips.
Till straight in the eye he got one,
Red hot from the tool to his glim.
So now he is shy that useful right eye--
And I heard about Safety from him.
*
"Then I came home to the Old State, Thinking I'd learned a good rule. Until this young laddie running the drill press
Showed me I was a damn fool. He wore a loose Jumper, the ninny. The fast turning spindle caught him. Broke his arm with a snap like a dynamite cap.
And I learned about Safety from him.
"So I've taken my Jobs wbere I round them,
But now that I'm roaming no more.
- I've brought home to you this good message.
It's yours--clear down to the core.
That Safety that you figured for others
Comes home to you now, can't you see?
.
Be advised by my lot, which I think that you caught
And learn about Safety from me."
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Twelfth Safety Congress
FOREMAN: (To the new man). "Well, pardner, you sure have the right
idea, and if you put into practice what you hare Just put into verse,
there is no doubt in the world that you or any other fellow who
comes along or is already here will make good with the company.
Oh, here comes the iron, boys, so get ready and we will pour off
and try and make this another safe day. Put on your goggles and
keep your heads away from the gates."
'
MEN: (In unison) "We are with you, John, for Safety First, Last and
Always. Three cheers for Safety, Boys."
(Pour iron.) Four men retire to the wings and come in with a shank of iron in which red fire, is burning. Around the edge of it are sparklers fastened to be lit on entering to depict iron sparkling in the ppts. Two or three skimmers are equipped. with sparklers also. While four men are carrying the shank, equipped with goggles, one man gets skimmer from its place. He has no goggles on. He is just in the act of putting the skimmer pyer the ladle pot when the foreman calls his attention to not having goggles on.
FOREMAN: "Say, what do you mean by attempting to skim without your goggles on? You have been here long enough to know that It is a dangerous practice."
MATTERN: "Yes, it sure is and I can verify it also. See." (Here Mattern shows the workmen and the audience his glass eye, saying) "If I had practiced all the things which we now have, I would not need to be wearing this in my head. I would have two good ones instead of only one. Play safe, old boy, or suffer as I did, and am."
* (Then Thomas Burke tells how his goggles saved his eyes.)
(Finish pouring iron.)
FOREMAN: "Well, boys, we have come through another day' safely
and we should all be thankful."
.
MEN IN UNISON: "We are, John. Good night."
CURTAIN
Chairman Reninger: Mr. .Oartel, I want to thank you and the men of the Edgar Thomson Works for bringing to Buffalo and the National Safety Congress a lesson that has been worth all the trouble and ex pense, and I think the demonstration that you have given all of us here we can carry back home to the shops and factories and Impress upon our men.
MEN WORKING IN SCATTERED SMALL GROUPS
Rlr. Northwood: We are handling the small group through the foreman and by appointing one man of the departmental committee to represent every definite hazard that comes into his area. We are getting big results by having a man that will represent every hazard that the men come in contact with.
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157
Mr. F. Li. Wanzer (Steel Co. of Canada): It has been our problem,
as it has been the problem of most of you, as to how to reach the men and to sell them this idea of safety. We are using the foreman; we want to try to make the best of the foreman, so we get an order from our works manager to the effect that the foreman or his sub-foreman shall appoint one or two or three of his men. You make it very simple to start with so as not to overburden them. We say, "You must come and report every day something that you have seen. If you have seen something that is in the way of a near accident, so much the better.
The man has to .hunt around and find something different to report to his foreman every day, and he has exercised the ability of observation; he has also improved his. memory; he has had to think of what he has seen. His foreman has a form which is sent to the superintendent. The superintendent's office sends it to the works manager's office, the works manager's office sends it to the safety office, and that is where it is hooked up. If he has a little message, an accident, a steer for the superintendent, he puts that on the report. These reports come in daily, are looked after and classified under the twelve departments into which we have divided our works, and at the end of the month these are all summed up and a general report made upon them. We get after those that have not reported or that have reported intermittently. Those that do .eport or are reporting something worth while get a letter of recog nition immediately acknowledging the report and helping them along, showing that we are with them, that we are trying to help them, take notice of what they say, and are really interested.
Mrs. Ruth G-. Thompson (Northern States Power Co., Minneapolis): In a power company we have underground and overhead, utility and construction groups. These men are scattered all over our city and many times in distant places. They rarely get to the central plant, and it is very difficult to reach them with these things. Furthermore, in my experience I find men talk very much better and you get much closer to them when you talk to them on the job; they can smoke their cigars and sit down and be perfectly happy. I took a man out with me all this summer talking to men on the job. It is all done on company time, and when we have finished presenting things to the men, they in turn present their problems to us and we take up their criticisms with the general safety committee. Those criticisms are answered and sent back to the. men.
Mr. 2. S. Chapin (Safety Inspector, Pennsylvania Railroad, Phila delphia.) : I think that probably the railroad has scattered groups as far afield as any other line of work, and I might throw this hint to you which is a method being used on at least one of our divisions rather experimentally at present, hut probably will be extended. We have our safety committees. The chairman of this particular division safety committee conceived the idea of having one-twelfth of the supervisory forces attend the safety committee meetings each month, so that in the course of a year the entire supervisory force of that division gets to one
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Twelfth Safety Congress
safety meeting at least. The size of the division, is such that these super visory forces make a meeting of . about seventy men by themselves. There are something over 15,000 employees on a division.
THE QUABTEBLY SAFETY "WEEK
Mr. R. A. Shaw (Ford Motor Company, Detroit): Almost everybody
here has individual safety drives and things of that sort. We have adopted
a quarterly safety week whereby the different foremen of each department
must give their own material and conduct their own safety week. We
give assistance in any way possible. That seems to carry to every
division of the plant, and the foreman is placed on his own initiative, and
It is surprising how much a man will get if he seeks it himself. The first
week of each quarter is safety week, and it is really surprising to see
how the accidents drop in that week. X just speak of that because X
believe it is a little bit new. The new point is in placing responsibility
on each department. X believe you might tqke that to men out in groups.
X notice in Detroit one of the telephone companies put a badge on a
certain group which indicated that that group were leaders in the safety
drive at that particular time. Outsiders notice that and it draws their
attention.
v
Mr. D. J. Wallace (Humble Oil & Refining Co.): We have scattered
groups. In order to go out and get the oil that we are using we have
got to stick holes in the wildcat territory, and that means about five men go by themselves. We have established in the minds of our foremen the fact that their accident experience may either jeopardize or help very
greatly in their advancement. When a foreman or a gang pusher, as
we call him, goes out with a crew of five men to put down a hole,
he carries that thought with him, that if he has a good accident record
it will help him wonderfully; if he does not, it is a black eye, because he only has five men to handle and any man ought to be able to take care
of five men.
-
Mr. J. M. Steffen (Standard Oil Co. of Kansas) : We should not over
look the average man in the ranks. The more we can get next to him
the better results we will get. Mr. Bonsib: Getting safety across to the sales department of an oil
company is very difficult because you have groups ranging from three to
twenty men. I have recently completed an 11,000 mile trip lasting four
and a half months in order to reach the-small gronp3. I have found
through years of experience that what a man sees makes more impression
than what he hears, and' I have made a practice of carrying a kodak with
me. In fact, I wouldn't think of going without a kodak because it saves
an awful lot of argument. I catch men doing things that they shouldn't do, and sometimes I catch men doing things that are correct. I find condi
tions that are good and conditions that are had. I have slides made of
those; then when we get the men together we show them these things. I
am also a great believer, as most of you know, in the family element,
because although'we men don't like to admit it, we usually do what our
folks want us to do. We have little meetings in the-garages, in the ware-
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159
houses, out in the open, in churches and schools, with probably only six or eight or nine or ten, but we get the men and their families together and show, them the slides of the father, the husband, the brother, doing things that he should not do. It tickles the man to death to see his picture, on the screen, and it makes a deep impression. When you catch a. man doing something wrong, he says to himself, "Well, that guy won't catch me doing that again." It is also an example to others.
You can carry a little portable machine and work it. on any lighting circuit. Most of our oil companies have lighting systems in their
plants.
.
Another very good plan is a personal letter. Occasionally we hear of
a man getting hurt, and we write him a letter. We do that not only in the sales department but also in- the producing department, which is
another place where we have large numbers of small scattered groups.
That has a very splendid effect.
the foreman's infujenck
Mr. Leo D. Woedtke (Fred T. Ley & Co., Springfield, Mass.): Our
labor is continually fluctuating. .You may find 100 men on a job today and 350 a week later, or perhaps only 10, according to the progress of the work. I had -one striking illustration that I will give you briefly to show you some of the unique ways that these so-called rough-neck, hard-boiled foremen on a construction job well develop out of their own minds something about eighteen jumps ahead of the educated safety director or engineer. By the way, this superintendent was with us about ten years and is with us now. This thing happened about two and a half years ago. This chap was sure enough hard-boiled. He was so bad that we found one of his hoist engineers sleeping alongside of his engines, the safety valve plugged and the boiler about to burst. We also found four sticks, of dynamite in a tool box with small tools being jostled about. We got under his skin one day; I don't know whether it was in his head or heart or where he sat down, but we got him. He felt pretty cheap about it and he decided he would issue a bulletin of his own, and it was a bird; I have never seen anything like it. He had ran it off In blue pencil, and then he went into the mill and had it typewritten and put on one of our letter-heads. It came out one time on the inside
cover of the National Safety Netos. It read something like this:
"To the Men on the Job: Of course we have always considered this white collar stiff hack in the home office crazy. Sure he's crazy with all this safety stuff, but we have come to the conclusion that we might as well do this job clean and without bloodshed as to do it the way we are. We are making jobs for the undertaker, and that is all going to stop. From now on every man on this job has got to account to me if he gets hurt and why he gets hurt. Furthermore, if it is up to me I will take the blame; if it is not, he will take the blame. The first time he gets hurt through any fault of his own beyond what he can control, he
is fired."
-
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Twelfth Safety Congress
I couldn't get that over in twenty years. Nothing l oooM 4* or say
would permit such a statement as that going up on m. Istainaa^e bulletin board, but when the big boss on the job puts it over, tt goes
through.
Mr. George Stark (Elyria Iron & Steel Coi): 1 think not euomgh stress is laid on the foreman. Let me tell you one experience I have luid in the plant I am taking care of in safety work. I am afraid too many of us, with a lot of foreign element, are depending upon the interpreter the first crack out of the box. From actual experience three months ago,, before we posted our bulletin on the number of accidents, the kinds of accidents and the number of men employed and the actual money spent, I made a round of the different departments, especially
amongst the foreign element, and I had a heart-to-heart talk with those men in the good old American language. "What did it mean? In less than six hours afterwards 70 per cent of those men had come to me and wanted me to explain in detail just what I was talking about relative to safety. Of course then I had to call in some of these different interpreters because I couldn't get the point clear to them when I took just a few minutes making those rounds.
Chairman Reninger: Reference has been made to the white collar man and his getting out on the job. I think if all of us here, especially those of us who are supervisors of safety in various organizations can persuade the officials of our companies, the president or the vice-president in charge of operation, or whoever may be the head of the organization, to come to a National Safety Congress and. spend two or three days, it would be an. easy job for you to put safety across to your organizations.
ADJOURNMENT.
Annual Banquet
October 4, 1923
JOHN D. WELLS, Toastmaster
Managing Editor, Buffalo Times
RESIDENT DOW: You read in the papers the other day, perhaps,
Pof the invitation that had been extended to the National Safety Council to send a representative to attend the International Labor Con
ference of the League of Nations at Geneva, Switzerland, in October. That invitation was accepted by your Executive Committee, and at its meeting this afternoon, the Executive Committee appointed as your representative and ambassador to attend this Conference none other than our indefatigable and untiring Managing Director, William H.
Cameron.
ANNOUNCEMENT OF NEW OFFICERS
The next item of business on the program is the announcement of the election of your Executive Committee by the. Board of Directors for the ensuing year. I will read the list of names of these members of the
Executive Committee:
C. B. Auel, East Pittsburgh.
C. E. Pettibone, Boston.
.
George T. Fonda, New York.
R. Dawson Hall, New York.
Robert T. Herdegen, Walkerville, Ont.
Homer E. Niecz, Chicago.
Herbert A. Rowe^New York.
Walter G. King, New York.
L. A. De Blois, Wilmington, Del.
Henry A. Reninger, Allentown, Pa.
Julian H. Harvey, Kansas City.
C. L. Hfnkel, Chicago.
A. D. Risten, Hartford.
R. B. Stoeckel, Hartford, Conn.
*
' '
.
I see here the names of Mr. Arthur H. .Young and somebody else by the name of Dow as Past Presidents.
Representing the various sections we have also on the committee the chairman of the Public Safety Section, Mr. David Van Schaack, of Hartford; Mr. A. W. Whitney of New York, Chairman of the Education
161
'
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Twelfth Safety Congress
ejection; Mr. James P. Barnes of Louisville, Chairman of the Electric estreet Railway Section; Mr. F. P. Walker of Detroit, Chairman of the Ice and Refrigeration and Taxicab and Delivery Sections; Mr. A. L.
Watson of Niagara Falls, Chairman of the Chemical Section; Mr. W. H. Moses of Boston, Chairman of the.Public Utilities Section; and Mr. Fred Metcalfe of St. Paul, Chairman of the Steam Railroad Section.
We have also elected to' serve on this committee one representative each from the St. Louis, Memphis, Milwaukee, Detroit, Rochester, Baltimore, and Massachusetts local councils.
Your Executive Committee at its meeting this afternoon elected the officers for the ensuing year. It gives me pleasure to announce as vice presidents elected, Mr. C. B. Auel, of East Pittsburgh, Vice-President in charge of General Activities; as your Vice-President in charge of Local Councils, Mr. Georga T. Fonda, of New York; as your Vice-President in charge of Industrial Safety, Mr. H. A. Reninger, of Allentown, Pa.; as Vice-President in charge of Public Relations, Mr. David Van Schaack; of Hartford, Conn.; as Treasurer and Vice-President In charge of Finance, Mr. Homer E. Niesz.
For your President for the coming year your Executive Committee has very wisely selected a man who is a thinker, a man who has served as an officer in practically every office within the gift of this Council except the office of President, to which he has just been elected, a man who is a leader of men. Good leadership, we know, has been tbe secret of the success of great movements the world over from time immemorial. We are to congratulate ourselves that the Executive Committee of this organization has selected as your President for the coming year a real leader, a man who was President of the Delaware Local Council and who for the past year has rendered yeoman service as Vice-President in charge of Local Councils, Mr. Lewis De Blois.
ADDRESS OF ACCEPTANCE
' Lewis A. De Blois
.
I wish to assure you that in accepting this great honor that your Executive Committee has bestowed upon me, I do so with a deep sense of the responsibility imposed by the high standard of devotion and accomplishment of our Past Presidents, and especially my predecessor, Marcus A. Dow. It is my privilege, and a great pleasure, to inform, you that Mark Dow, although filling a position of grave responsibility in the Police Department of the City of New York, a position which unfortunately precluded his accepting nomination for reelection as Presi dent of this Council, has consented to serve as and has been duly elected Vice-President in charge of Public Safety.
The formulation and execution of the general policies of the Council is vested in your Executive Committee, hut I trust that I may be permitted at this time to express an individual opinion on what branches of our work are deserving of special development during the coming year.
Ajnn-ual Banquet
163
I believe, first, that we should intensify the activities of our industrial sections so that industrial accident prevention may be developed to a higher degree of efficiency. To this end I wish to take this opportunity of requesting the newly elected chairman of industrial sections, as many as expect to remain in Buffalo over night, to meet for breakfast with the officers at nine o'clock tomorrow morning in Room 1118 for a short preliminary conference on the year's work.
I believe, second, that we should press forward toward the solution of the public safety ^problem by stimulating greater public interest in the subject, especially among our industrial connections, by improving
our sources of statistical information and by continuing our present
policy of local council organization and development.
URGES CLOSER PUBLIC RELATIONS
Thirdly, I believe that the Council, through the offices of its new Vice President in charge of Public Relations, should bring about closer re lationship with the more important national trade associations, with all national bodies directly concerned with human conservation, and with the various departments of our federal government, so that the Council's scope and purpose may become better known and receive actual national acceptance.
We have many duties to assume and many obligations to fulfill before our goal of "Universal Safety" can he attained, but no year in the Council's history ever held for us more hopeful prospects than this.
Not this mere handful of earnest, men that you see gathered about this table tonight, but you, you, my friends, are the National Safety Council, and we that are here want you to take home with you from this great and successful Congress not only a feeling of gratification over the success that you have so far obtained, but also a sense of individ ual moral obligation. To your safe keeping is entrusted the sacred, gift of human life, your own life and the lives of many others. Take with you also the promise that your executive officers, for whom I may act as spokesman, will do their utmost to advance, develop and solidify the work of the National Safety Council.
President Dow: Of all the splendid achievements in life saving that have been brought about by organized safety work, to my mind there is none that is so magnificent, none so inspiring, none so beautiful in its appeal to the human heart as the fact that countless children have been saved from death or injury by safety methods, as the fact that in countless American homes the lives of young children have been per mitted to go on and grow in healthy surroundings because by organized and consistent safety effort, a father has been saved from death or mutilation.
Who is there among us who has not been thrilled by that safety poster of the little child with outstretched arms, entitled, "The Best Safety Booster of All''? Who is there among us who has not been
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Twelfth Safety Congress
thrilled by that other poster of the little child under the captfcm. "AA Daddy"? X am sure that every one of you here will find a priil nyptftl in these few lines of verse which I copied from a book X vjm jrvwdtag just the other day:
"Your creditor, a child stands there, A normal child with tossing hair. With grimy hands and smudgy thumbs And childly charm, save what the slums Have robbed him of and left him wan And thin with half his' boyhood gone.
"Your creditor? Why, yes, by right Of all the wealth and health and might God. gave you, for in your care He placed the little urchin there. And bade you hark to his distress And help him in his helplessness.
"You owe him fields and pleasant ways. The endless joys of boyhood days. The streams, the paths, the skies more rair Than he has dreamed, the country air, The summer days with trees unfurled. The good, good green of God's great world.
"You owe him all that you ever can Help fashion him a manly man.
No common debt of such that is
Offset perchance by promises. But one that stands forever. Go, Go pay the debt to the child you owe."
'
The author of those lines of verse and of many other choice bits of poetry in that book, "The Rhymes of the Old Home Folks," sits at ray left. It is needless for me to say that for years he has been well known and loved by the citizens of Buffalo. As the originator of the column "Grave to Gay" be has been quoted in newspapers throughout the United States. As the Managing Editor of the Buffalo Times, a newspaper that has given us wonderful cooperation this week during our Congress, be fat
a newspaper man of the highest rank. W.e would he honored, indeed, if he were here simply as our guest, but we are doubly honored in baring him here not only as our guest hut as the Toastmaster of the Annual Banquet of the Twelfth Annual Safety Congress.
TOASTMASTER'S ADDRESS
John- D. Weixs Buffalo has been tremendously interested in your coming, Buffalo is deeply conscious of the bigness of your subject, Buffalo has followed the trend of your deliberations with an interest that is complimentary to you.
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This for two reasons: First, Buffalo is proud to entertain so representa tive a body of people; secondly, Buffalo is a city that operates greatly along the lines that you are laying down, the conservation of life and health.
Curiously enough the Safety Movement came when it was most needed; perhaps that is destiny, perhaps that is the working out of the great inscrutable plan that none of us has ever been able to explain. With a world terribly torn and dismembered, the spectacle of earnest men and women trying to save the individual is a wholesome thing to look at.
Inconceivable as it may seem, your officers tell me that your efforts to conserve human life and health encounter both opposition and indif
ference. There are such people in the world, regrettably. Some people are upset by any attempt at a good and a human thing for their fellow-
men.
'
.
Our first speaker tonight comes from the British Empire. He is one who has studied conservation of life and health from every conceivable standpoint. Eadies and gentlemen, I have great pleasure in presenting
Sir Thomas Oliver.
SAFETY AND HEALTH IN INDUSTRY
Sir Thomas Oliver, NEwcASTisoir-rHE Tike, England
I have always regarded safety as a movement of American origin, and in Great Britain, although we have followed, we have never yet over reached you; but in the matter of health in industry, that movement began in Great Britain and you have wisely followed.
I need hardly remind you that health in industry is a movement that only dates back thirty or forty years. At that time there was in England a considerable outcry against a number of deaths of people in the factories. In the town from which I come, Newcastle-on-the-Tyne, there were several deaths every year from lead poisoning, particularly amongst the young women, and also amongst the children of the workers in the lead factories. As a physician I felt that something ought to he done to put an end to that state of matters. I addressed a meeting of the British Association of Science when it came to Newcastle, and I pleaded for the workers' education.
Mr. Asquith, who was then Home Secretary, appointed a small com mittee and asked me if I would act upon it as medical expert, just, of course, the .very thing I was only too anxious to do. As the result of that inquiry we were astonished to find that there were so many deaths and so much suffering and that there was such an enormous loss of infantile life to Great Britain.
The first thing I asked the Home Office to do was to remove the women from the dangerous processes of lead making and to institute machine methods for what had been done by hand. The result, with other regulations as well, was an extremely satisfactory condition of things.
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Twelfth Safety Congress
When I was here eleven years ago, a lead manufacturer told me that he had 53 cases of lead poisoning in his works at that particular time. I was through these works only ten days ago, and I was told that there are never more than two cases now in the year. That is the improvement of industry by regulations and by the introduction of mechanical means.
ELIMIjrATIOJT OF PnOSWIOBUS FOISOS1NO
.
One other illustration as to what preventive medicine has done is this: Just about the same time that our country was scandalized by the number of deaths that had taken place in the industries, there, came out in London the knowledge of the fact that in one large plant or match factory alone there had been six cases resulting in death from what is known as phosphorus necrosis of the Jaw. It is a very painful conr dition of things, and when it attacks the upper jaw it is rapidly fatal. Mr. Asquith, appointed Sir Edward Thorpe and myself to go into this matter, and the result was that I traveled through Belgium, Germany, Austria, Hungary, and also I had been to Norway and Sweden, ito see how they were conducting conditions and work in the factories. I found the same amount of sickness there as we had at home.. It was clear, therefore, that something ought to be- done, not only for own country but for others. I found that France had taken up the matter as seriously as the British Government had, and that it was carrying out many experiments as to whether a substitute for white phosphorous could be found. They did And a substitute known as the sesquisulphid of phos phorus, which is a harmless material, and matches are now made out of that.
What is the result? At the time I speak of there were many cases of
death, accidental in the case of children, by their sucking the red tips of matches, women dying and suffering great pain from taking a box of matches and putting them into a tumbler of water and allowing them to soak there, and as the result of either being crossed in love or through soipe difficulty in the home, after drinking this they became jaundiced and died from phosphorus poisoning.
As the result of the introduction of the sesquisulphid of phosphorus there will never be another case of phosphorus poisoning, suicidal, or accidental in industry.
I, as a medical man ought to cure and not to destroy, and I have always felt, therefore, that wherever I came in contact with a dangerous industry it was not for me to recommend the abolition of the industry itself, as sometimes has been suggested, but rather to find out how that industry could be cleared of the poison, and bad conditions behind it. I have maintained and always felt that a man's occupation should never be a cause of suffering or death.
It is many years since factory legislation began in England in regard to the hours of work that children and women should have, and we have, I think, rather satisfactory hours so far as our own country is concerned, and you, I think, have done the same.
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167
Sleven years ago, as I have told, you, I came to this country and visited several of the factories. You were Just beginning to wake up then; you had been a few years awake, I admit, but you were beginning to take a keener interest than ever in the matter of improving your industries.- 'Whatever you Americans take up you carry on with greater vigor and you carry on with better organization than we do, and the result is that you get really ahead of us. We don't begrudge you that position at all. As a nation you are alert and enthusiastic and you reach your points generally quicker than we do. We In our country are slower, we take life more leisurely and I think sometimes we really get more out of it, although I admit yon put more into it.
. TJNEMPIOXMEKT AS OCCUPATIOS-VL DISEASE
I am sometimes asked about occupational diseases. My name has been associated with that, for some reason or another, and I think sometimes the greatest disease of occupation is to have no occupation at all. I mean that seriously, because in my own country at the present time we have not recovered from the effects of the war. There is still unrest. You may have your labor troubles here as every country has in its time, but you have nothing like the unemployment we have in our country. One million two hundred thousand people are still unemployed, and the gov ernment has spent 65 million pounds in trying to relieve the unem ployment.
I have been pretty well through the States this time. I have been down as far as New Orleans, up through St. Lotis, Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland,
and X am now making my way to Boston to attend a meeting next week, and I cannot but admit how struck I have been by the air of prosperity which is present all through the states that X have visited-
You are a prosperous people, you have much to be proud of, you have
a territory that we all might envy, and you have, as a result of this, new industrial opportunities lying before you which I feel you will tackle as well as the problems coincident therewith and you will sur mount them in the future as you have done in the past.
. A HUMAN TOUCH'
Jack Aemouk, McGraw-Hill Publishing Company, New York
On an occasion of this kind in New York at the Astor Hotel about two weeks ago, with not so many people present, the toastmaster had introduced the first speaker when it came to the coffee. He had been on his feet about three minutes when one of the prominent members went to another and said, "Bill, would you chip in ?5 to kill that after-dinner speaker?"
"Yes, Bob, here's twenty-five dollars, kill five of them." I was at the Hotel Blackstone in Chicago with 750 people in the audience and 20 people to speak, and when they introduced me I looked at my watch and it was twenty minutes of two in the morning. I had been talking 15 minutes when I had the temerity to look at the audience.
168 Twelfth Safety Congress
and behold, the dining room was empty, saving one poor' devil who sat
on my left, and I said to him, "My friend, I don't know your name, but
I have been no good to my business, I have been no good to my home
for the past three months; I have spent most of that time in libraries
digging and researching to make this one grand speech, and I'm going
to finish it even if you are the only listener."
.
He said, "Go on, old man, don't mind me, I'm the last speaker."
I hope what little I have got to say won't be received as that political
address was in Pittsburgh during the last campaign when this wonderful
orator wound up with "I want rent reform, I want political reform," and
then with both fists up he said. "I want house reform," and a fellow
yelled out and said, "Yes, and you want chloroform."
I propose that my speech will be like a woman's dress, short enough
to be attractive and long enough to cover the subject.
I was in Philadelphia last Thursday night; I spent a week there that
night; you can do -that in Philadelphia. I had my feet under the sump
tuous table of the Bellevue-Stratford Hotel and I was requested to give
a toast. Think of it! A toast in these times when the house is filled
with old women of both sexes and when the roll is called they don't
know whether to say "Present'' or "Not guilty." I gave a toast; it .is
short: Here's to America, the land of a billion bushels of wheat, the
corn-fed country, America the greatest garden in all God's, earthly
empire, the land where they pay more and play more, the land with the
best money, the highest ideals and the most human humans, America,
thank God my home! And the fellow said. "No, no, not that kind of a
toast, a regular toast." Then l raised my glass with what was in it
and I said. "God dress -oar wihdccl we oaX" When 1 got through with that toast I found my right band clasped around a shell glass of near
beer. I said. "Why. itV a iacrtWce te Ware made such a beautiful toast
on such material.-
It put me in mind a mitsm f ae
Hashed in a movie house, "The
man that invented near hwar w*# a eery poor Judge of distance.'' Near
beer makes me think of a owryu: ch* body is there but the spirit hath
departed.
You won't believe thin, folia, hsct seated on my right hand at that table was a fellow from Ramon viiou the breaking waves dashed high
on that stem and rocfcbeuad s***_ where they dumped the tea into the harbor. The iron cnww h* Ait! there in the center of the city where the riots occurred; the church h> still there where they hung the lantern
in Paul Revere'* rid*. He was regular Yankee; when he discovered
that that old cocktail he was *o need to wasn't forthcoming, he turned
to me and said. "Judge. IT* a shame that the Plymouth Rock didn't land
on the Pilgrims."
Speaking of Pilgrim*. *t Valley Forge Washington said, "Put none
but Americans on guard tonight.- That is what history states, but,
ladles and geniiemeu, what Washington really said was this, "Put none
but Americans on guard tonight; let the Irishmen sleep; there's fighting
la do in the morning.-
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169
When the cry came for volunteers, one of-the first to enter was my friend Mike Maguire. Nine months after that--front trenches, a half
hour before zero, all ready to go over the top. The commanding officer
reviewing the troop came up. to my friend and said, "What's your
name?"
-
"Private Maguire," he answered.
"Where's your hat and coat?"
.
"Oh, I forgot them. I'll be here in a minute, sir, with the hat and
coat."
"But where's your gun?"
"Oh, I forgot that too. I'll be here in a minute with the gun."
"Where are your cartridges and your belt?"
"Oh, I forgot them too. I'll get them right away."
"Say, what were you before you went to the army?"
"I was a plumber's helper, sir."
:.
Your good Toastmaster nudges me and says, "Say something about safety." I suppose I ought to. I have a friend in New Hampshire, Cyrus
Young--Young by name but married in middle life. He was about 49
years of age when he got married, and he married a widow. He had a
nice home all ready for him to. walk in and hang up his hat. In the
parlor of that abode on the mantle shelf was an uni that contained the
ashes of her first husband who had been cremated. One day about three months after he had been married he came home after it had^ been
raining all day and freezing as the rain fell. The sidewalks were very
dangerous. When he neared the house he saw his wife standing on the
stoop, the urn in her hand, and she was sprinkling her first husband's
ashes on. the stoop to make it safe for the second husband to come up.
If there is one thing in this world that I like to do it is to spread
sunshine. I love to see a laugh. Here's a short poem I have time to
give you: '
-
"A laugh is just like sunshine. It freshens all the day.
It tips the peaks of life with light And drives the clouds away.
The soul grows glad that hears it And feels its courage strong.
A laugh is just like sunshine For cheering folks along.
"A laugh is just like music. It lingers in the heart.
And where its melody is heard The ills of life depart.
Happy thoughts come crowding Its cheerful notes to greet.
A laugh is just like music For making living sweet."
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The great philosophers tell us there is no tomorrow. Good people I have made up my mind long ago, so you make up yours tonight when ever you get an opportunity to let your face slip into a wrinkle of laugh ter, let her go. Don't stop a laugh; you don't know when the next one is coming.
I want to leave one more little verse with you by James Whitcomb Riley:
"When a man ain't got a penny And he's feelin' kind of bine.
When the clouds hang dark and heavy And won't let the sunshine through.
It's a great thing, oh my brothers. Just to have a fellow lay
His hand upon your shoulder In a friendly sort of way.
"It makes a man feel curfoua like. It; makes the tear-drops start.
And you feel a kind of flutterin' In the region of your heart.
You can't look up and meet his eye. You don't know what to say.
When a fellow's hand rests on your shoulder In a friendly sort of way.
"This world's a curious compound
'
With its honey and Its gall.
With Its cares and bitter sorrows.
But a good world after all.
And a good God must have made It.
Leastways that's what I say.
When a fellow's hand rests on my shoulder
In a friendly sort of way."
A short address was made by the Hon. Forbes Godfrey. M.D.. Minister of Public Health and Labor. Toronto, Canada. He eulogized the efforts of the Congress delegates in public safety work and declared that the wholesome effect would be felt throughout Canada.
ADJOURNMENT.
AUTomonve oecnon
October 2-3, 1923
. F. BLAJfK, Chairman Safety Director, General Motors Corporation, Detroit, Mich.
THEODORE O. MEISAEK, Tice-Chairman
District Safety Manager, American Can Company, Maywood, 111.
I.. E. AVERELt, Secretary
Safety Engineer, Oakland Motor Car Company, Pontiac, Mich.
TUESDAY MORNING SESSION
HAIRMAN BLANK: We have had fifty-three new members added to
C our Automotive Section during the last year.
We started out right
after the last Congress on a memberssip campaign and through the
National Automobile Chamber of Commerce we solicited all the automobile manufacturers.
The Automotive Section work comprises anything from metal working through the foundry to wood working, so a cross section of our work overlaps and covers some of the other sections.
I want to report for the statistical committee, of which Mr. J. R. Ander- son. Continental Motors, is chairman, that we sent out 240 letters asking members of the Automotive Section and allied industries to cooperate in reporting accident statistics on the standard basis. We were able to get 25 to report in that way, which report was given, I believe, in the May issue of the National Safety News. Ten of the automobile group and fifteen of the motor and accessory group reported ou the standard basis. We hope next year we can get more of the manufacturers to report
on this standard basis, so we can get some idea of comparative figures.
The bulletin committee, of which Mr. W. F. Sterne of the American Radiator in Buffalo is chairman, reported a good many bulletins sent to the National Council and a lot of material sent in and worked up.
I have talked to several men who have an idea that the Engineering Section is made up of a hunch of "high-brow" graduates who get together and discuss some of the things that ordinary men can't talk about, in mechanical terms. That is wrong. The Engineering Section is a cooperative section of the National Council and is spending a great deal of time on engineering problems and new engineering projects, dis cussing these matters and drawing up codes. They have held three
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sectional meetings tills year, one in Chicago, one in Detroit, and one in
New York. At least five of these sectional meetings are planned 'for
next year. Semi-technical subjects of interest to operating men such as
handling material, elevators, gas, electrical welding, etc., will be dis
cussed. You are invited to attend these( meetings during the coming year.
The Engineering Section has research committees on subjects like static
electricity, flywheels, guillotine paper cutters, etc. These are safety
problems not limited to any one industry.
'
SUPERVISION AND SAFETY H. A. Cokfix, Camixac Motor Cab CoacPAX~r, Dj-rraorr, Mien.
I am not going to try to preach a sermon to those of you who are better ministers of the gospel of safety than I can ever hope to be. On the other hand my inexperience perhaps has its compensations for I have no
pet theory to advocate, nor shall I be foolish enough to attempt to set up
any cut and dried series of notions which might or might not be founded upon the facts. In other words I have no new fancied plan of action to sell you and for that at least you can be truly thankful.
I think it is apparent to all of us that a certain toxin has entered into the blood of this present generation and the family name of that toxin is "Speed" and the first name of it is "Harry." and the deadly disease
which that toxin develops is "Carelessness and Recklessness" accompanied by utter disregard of the consequences which tomorrow may bring for
the thoughtlessness of today.
.
Often my mind goes back in thought to the home of my grandfather,
whose simple faith and beautiful simplicity of character has always been * Jm***iratioa to me. How unhurried was his method of living, how com forting hi* daily program compared with that which fails to our lot in thifc more modern era.
A* o'clock each week day, the good old fashioned maid who com bined the functions of cook and butler, of janitor and chambermaid, at three dollars per week, called him from his peaceful slumbers. Leisurely dressing himself he was downstairs at 7:30 and taking the daily news paper from the front steps, he retired to the library and calmly read it from cover to cover. At S o'clock the mess call was sounded, to which the whole family responded in mass formation and partook of a repast that would stagger oar modern stomach- Fruit and cereal, eggs and bacon, with a liberal allowance of flapjacks thrown in on the side, was consumed with avidity as the family discussed the common ordinary events of family interest. At the conclusion of the repast chairs were pushed aside and the good old book was brought forth and at the con clusion of one of the Psalms, or a chapter from the Gospel of Jf-ohn,
the family knelt while Grandfather led them in prayer to Almighty God for blessing and protection for the work of the day ahead. . Then donning his liat and coat and taking his gold-headed cane he unhurriedly walked to the family store where the orders which Grandmother had
entrusted to him were carefully delivered to the grocer, the butcher, the
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173
baker and the candlestick maker, then to his office for the transaction of the business of the morning. Promptly at 12 o'clock the office was closed in order that he might walk back home once more to luncheon with his family, then back for the afternoon until about 4:30 the office shutters were again drawn and he was back at home to hitch up old Dobbin and, crowding into the capacious carry-all, the family enjoyed their usual afternoon ride. After a simple dinner the evening was spent by the old folks in chatting or in reading and by the young folks .in studies or games around the fireside. Promptly at 10 o'clock the family gathered around the library table for evening prayers and by 10:30 the whole family was in bed and at peace with the world.
HIGH PBESSUKE METHODS OF PBESENT DATS
This picture X am sure will find its counterpart with everyone of you. Those were the days when arterial sclerosis and high blood pressure were unknown. It is, without doubt, equally true that our modern chemistry that has since successfully cowed the typhus germ was then unknown and that all the bugs in the human anatomy were allowed to romp in unmolested glee. Many an illustrious sire undoubtedly perished from good .old-fashioned stomachache in blissful ignorance of the fact that he was afflicted with an attack of appendicitis and infant mortality was high but "where ignorance was bliss, 'twere folly to be wise," is probably the philosophy that comforts their spirits in the Promised Land.
Today, how different is the picture--father arises, hastily makes his
toilet and descends to the dining room table three jumps ahead of the
rest of the family, swallows his coffee, securely hidden behind the pages
of the daily newspaper, two minutes for the headlines, one minute for
the stock reports, thirty seconds for Andy Gump and he is on his way
to the waiting automobile. With one dye on the motorcycle cop behind
and the other eye on the stream of traffic ahead, he rushes for the office.
With telephone in one hand and correspondence in the other, he dictates
his answers and then rushes from one conference to another until noon.
He must forego the privileges of a luncheon at home for a Committee
Meeting of the Society for the Prevention of Breeding Long Haired Dogs
awaits his attention or possibly it is a Directors' Meeting of the Golf
Club that calls him, or a drive to get to the Rotary Luncheon on time,
then madly back through the traffic to his office. Some important letters
must be signed and in a tremendous hurry in order that he may' not be
late to his appointment with the foursome. Then back to a hurried
dinner in order that the family may not he late for the second show, or
perhaps it is a meeting of the bridge club or the Oarsmen's Ball, that
demands his presence until some time after midnight he drags his weary
bones back to his domicile there to open up anew the perennial and
unsettled question of what time Johnnie and Susie should be expected
to report at parental headquarters and finally to bed to snatch a few
fitful hours with Morpheus before the program of another day shall
present itself for his consideration.
.
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Twelfth Safety Congress
Possibly the picture may be somewhat overdrawn but certainly not so
much so that all of us will fail to recognize it.
And how truly does this picture of our changing methods of living have its counterpart in our present industrial life as compared with the industrial life that our grandfathers knew. Then everyone was paid by the day no matter whether he earned it or not and no doubt many were overpaid. Those were the days of leisurely production, of slow speed. nfachines, when the forces of competition had not yet gained such head way as that before which we are driven today. It is true that they did not produce much and that the wealth of the nation was not increased by leaps and bounds almost overnight as is the case today but certainly there was present a certain sure-footedness and steadiness of pace to which our present high speed methods of production have made us strangers.
LATE AFTEKNOOX IS DANGER HOUR FOR WORKMAN
Then there were no troublesome Taylor theories of management to bother, piece work prices with their constant nerve enervating stimulus to haste and hurry were unknown. Today a man is paid for what he delivers, the more he delivers the more he is paid, he has no time to move leisurely for leisurely movements are now expensive. The chances are, by afternoon that under the constant struggle to produce more, and so earn more, his powers of sight and bearing have been lessened, by fatigue (particularly so if he has been out with the family at the movies into the late hours of the nigbt before)and his step is a little less sure, his chances of making a mistake that will result in another accident a little more certain. Then the application of electricity with its high speed motors and dangerous voltages had not made its appearance. Today there is hardly a square foot of our modern factory that is not charged with sudden death for him who is not constantly on his guard.
Then our cutting speeds rarely exceeded 25 or 30 feet per minute, now high speed cutting steel has come and our cutting speeds have been in creased from 25 feet to 500 feet and more. Our machines are revolving at speeds that would have seemed terrific to our grandfathers, with con sequent exposure of the operator to danger from flying chips and broken tools, our drill presses take up with lightning speed. Onr grinders and our sand blast machines threaten danger to one's eye-sight on every hand.
Then our cutting compounds consisted of lard oil or some other mineral oil derivative, more antiseptic than they were dangerous. Now soluble oil, less expensive and equally desirable as a coolant but more liable to turn rancid and invite the deadly germs of tetanus or blood poisoning have taken their places.
Today conveyors, and tramways, and cranes and electric trucks and elevators, and hoists threaten danger at every turn.. The science of the heat treatment of metals has come into our modern .production and brought with it the white hot metal that must be handled and the vats
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175
of boiling oil in which it must be plunged and all too'often is some human life snuffed out under the giant forces unleashed by this development of our industry.
And last but not least, we make it a hazard for a man to even go to his work. He must dispute the right of way with autos and trolleys and busses and trucks and the deadly jitney so that it may truthfully be said that we divide our modern population into two classes--the quick and the dead.
What the net result of all these developments might be so far as the safety of life and lim'b is concerned without the application of those prin ciples which are at the foundation of your organization, I do not dare to think. Certain it is that the toll of life that would otherwise be exacted would equal, if not exceed, that produced by one of our modern wars.
You have come in as with the ministering hands of angels and have provided guards for our machines, goggles for our eyes, runways and traffic cops for our trucks, inspectors and gates for our elevators, special devices in our factories for handling molten metal, special tools for our heat treating plants; you are even teaching us to quench in water instead of oil with far less fire hazards and you have given to us a thousand and more other devices too numerous to mention here, not the least of which is our industrial hospital and the first aid kit, all of which constitute themselves into a mighty force beating back the hand of death and teach ing the principles of safety so that all who run may read.
Best of all is the philosophy of safety you are preaching in our plants and the education of the workman to the hazards of his job.
There is another factor that is entering, into' the hazards of our modern production methods. We have reached a point under the compelling forces of competition where under the law of the survival of the fittest those industries who can still further increase their productivity in proportion to the amount spent for labor are those who will forge ahead. I was discussing only the other day some of these matters with a certain plant which had recently decided that it must set as an objective for itself the increasing of its production by a figure equal to 30 percent, with but^ little more than a nominal increase in the number of its operatives and after we had discussed some of the problems connected with this increase of production for a while, I asked the safety engineer of that plant what had been his experience with the number of time losing accidents that had occurred since the increase in production had been under way. His reply speaks for itself--"The number of accidents has increased nearly a hundred, percent."
The forces that drive us on in this modern industrial era are irresistible. If we attempt to buck against the spirit of the times we are, for the present at least, doomed to almost certain failure. Therefore, I see in the constantly growing interest you are sustaining in this great organiza tion of yours, our only real hope for the continuing insurance of safety to our employees. As the production manager and his assistants .are
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redoubling their efforts so you gentlemen in your organization must recog nize the necessity of redoubling yours. What has been done in the past is not going to be good enough for the necessities with which you will be confronted in the future.
St'CCESS LIES IX PnACIIfG OF BESl*ONSIBIX.ITX
I recognize that It is idle to point out the necessity for increased activity on your part without at least suggesting some of the ways in which you can work and bring this about and in suggesting it as I come to the closing of this rather informal address, one suggestion has come to me out of a conversation X had with the industrial manager of one of our large modern plants. I asked him what they were doing in that plant to teach their operatives the principles of safety and insure them against the loss of life and limb and he replied that they had a safety engineer on the job, one of the members of their own organization, who was doing faithful and conscientious work, I said, "Does he report to you?" He replied, "JXTo," and when I asked him the reason why, he said, "He used to report to me, but now he reports to the head of the maintenance division." When I asked him why the change had been made he said because under the old arrangement changes that were suggested or installations that were recommended were all too slowly adopted because the maintenance division did not then so fully appreciate its responsibility for the recommendations of the safety engineer. Now that he reports direct to the head of that division he is one of the department and his recommendations are acted upon with less delay. There you have the text for the subject assigned to me by your chairman--"Supervision and Safety.** The moment those who were responsible for the supervision of the plant came in daily contact with the principles and the teachings of the safety engineer, their responsibility for life and limb became Immedi ately apparent and was recognized as too great to be denied.
In reading through the report of your meeting at Detroit a year ago,
I was Impressed with the number of papers that were presented
emphasizing the Importance of educating the foreman and transforming
him into a preacher of your doctrines, but how much can you expect of
a foreman unless the man to whom the foreman is directly responsible
and to whom he must report is himself imbued with the importance of
these same principles.
.
Possibly the time has come for you gentlemen to turn the searchlight of your organization not only upon the foremen but upon the superin tendents of the factory and last but not least, upon the general manager himself. How many general managers are there who take time to talk things over thoroughly with their safety engineer, or who will carefully go over the figures of the loss of life and limb. How often is it that the general manager learns indirectly that some unfortunate operative has fallen into the boiling oil. or been mangled in some conveyor, and shocked by the fatality sends a message of condolence to the widow and possibly
somfe flowers to the funeral and then in the press of other matters pro-
Automotive Section
177
ceeds to forget the incident. How many general managers are too busy with the reports' of the sales manager or statements of the comptroller or the figures of costs with reference to the product, to take time to investigate earnestly and seriously as to whether the safeguards against accident in his plant are as adequate as they can be made or whether the work of the safety engineer is being performed .as satisfactorily and as efficiently as our modern concepts of service to our fellowmen demand that it should be.
I am not concerned here with preaching to you about how the super vision can make your practice of Safety First effective. You have demon strated that you understand the importance of supervision in your own experience, as is shown by the papers presented at meetings prior to this. I am concerned with the hope that you gentlemen will find some way of presenting your message so forcefully and so clearly and so directly home to the general management of our plants that there may come from the fountain head of authority in our great industries today clear and unmistakable edicts the result of which shall be of an awakened intelli gence and a. thorough understanding of the obligations that management has for the safety of those who work with their hands. If you gentlemen can in this convention either assembled as a body of the whole or through some well selected committee, devise some method of bringing your story crisply and clearly before the general manager of today and fire him with enthusiasm with the inspirations that have led you men on through these years, then I believe that you will have accomplished much in the way of meeting the increased hazards to life and limb that are the direct result of our constantly speeding up in our modern methods of production.
DISCUSSION
Mr. W. F. Sterne (American Radiator Co.) : Mr. Blank has asked me
to lead the discussion on the subject of "Supervision and Safety." It has
been my experience without any question that Mr. Coffin's idea is abso
lutely correct, that there can he no safety work of any success or any
magnitude unless we get the complete cooperation, backing of the man
agement of the plant, etc., in personal interest or condescension. I
would like to hear from several of the other safety engineers or fore
men, if necessary, of the different plants represented here, in regard to
this matter.
'
.
Mr. John E. Walters (General Electric Co.) : Can some of you people tell me how'we can get cooperation from the individual? The West Lynn plant of the General Electric Co. has the lowest accident average of any allied concern in the state of Massachusetts, yet I find my battle with the individual in spite of the supervision. Tell me how to handle the eye case, how to make visits to the dispensary compulsory outside of firing a man. You cannot affprd to fire labor for trivial causes.
Mr. Sterne: I have found a plant here in the city that has a rather gruesome and. peculiar method of deriving a solution of the goggle problem. The safety inspector or engineer of the plant found it a very
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Twelfth Safety Congress
difficult thing, in certain departments of the plant where eye hazards were in great numbers, to get the men to wear goggles because they claimed goggles hurt their eyes.
The inspector, in the first place, starts a little propaganda of his own by taking a glass eye, having photographs of injuries which occur from non-use of goggles and carrying them around, until he had converted, in part at least, those people who seemed to be oblivious to the dangers which surrounded them.
It was found also that a great many of the men had difficulty in seeing
their work due to the bad lighting conditions of the department, and
also due to the fact that they had defective vision, and it became neces
sary in several companies for those men to have their eyes examined and
tested and have their goggles ground to prescription.
..
Mr. Cotcher (Maxwell Motor Corporation) : The safety engineer is not
the man to exercise authority or argue with individuals. My status is as
a staff officer of the organization, an advisor. I think I would be making
the biggest mistake in the world and losing a great deal, if I tried to
argue with the individual man. We get to it a little differently.
We started on the theory that the foreman was the most responsible man, but that the foremau could only do what his chief backed him up in doing. Mr. Mitchell, our vice-president in charge of operation, got interested in the safety movement; he is thoroughly sold on it and is backing it from the start to finish. He conceived the idea of holding con tests between departments and placed on me the responsibility of conduct ing them.
It has proved a wonderful success. We took the different departments with their kinds of work, we placed a bogey rate on the department, based on the class of work they were doing, that rate being in the insurance company's terms of so many cents per hundred dollars pay roll. We multiplied that rate by the average weekly payroll of the department, giving them a dollars and cents bogey per week. That is what they were to shoot at. We lined up all of the departments in each plant according to their bogey. We charged the accidents against them in dollars and cents so that they always had before them a tangible figure which they could achieve because they could jingle those dollars and cents together in their own pocket. We figured the individual work man reacts to about 90 per cent what his foreman tells him. These foremen are competing against each other. They get a suitable prize. The winning department of each plant is given a dinner, then they hear their Mr. Mitchell or some other high executive reiterate the corporation policy on safety.
FOREMEN' Ml'ST BE SOl.U
The prizes only cost the company fifty dollars apiece, and they save the company a thousand dollars apiece probably. Now, to get to the man you have got to get to your foreman. A good share of the men around the plants know me, but if I go to them they are ready to start a
A.Vrtoniotivc Section
37.9
tight; they want to .know what business I have butting in. I don't go to
them, but if I find a. foreman who says that he can't make his men wear
goggles I know he is a darned poor foreman. If he believes in them
and he is the boss his men wear goggles. If they are not wearing goggles
he is either a. weak sister or doesn't believe in goggles, so there is not
much use trying to fight the individual man. He is here today and gone
tomorrow; the foreman and superintendent stay, the general foremen
stay and the division superintendents stay. If you sell them you have
the outfit sold, and if not they are not sold.
Mr. Thalner (Buick Motor Car Co.) : Regarding the increase in labor
turnover as a result of compelling men to wear goggles, we had a little
instance of that at the Buick. On our construction job one of the fore
men was a little lax about having the men wear goggles until the super
intendent as much as told him.that he would have to have the men wear
goggles or there would be another man on the job. The foreman then
went after it.
At first he said that if he tried to make these fellows wear goggles
they would all quit. His foreman said all right that if they did quit they
would hire new men. He went out on the job and ordered goggles and
brought them to each man and had each foreman deliver the goggles
personally to the man with the instruction that they were to wear them,
and if they didn't want to the release was waiting in the office. Not one
of the fellows came to us asking for release, and all of them wore the
goggles.
-
.
Mr. Phelps (Link Belt, Indianapolis): In a grinding room, say of
30 or 36 men there may be 30 or 35 different shapes of faces or noses, and we got around the problem in this way successfully: We picked out about five or six different types of goggles, all of which were a safe
guard for grinding work. Then we went to the foreman of the depart
ment and said, "The men have got to wear goggles absolutely." Then they
had no excuse. There is a little more expense in keeping a larger and
well, rounded stock of goggles, but we find in doing so we get the men
to wear the goggles.
.
Chairman Blank: I believe that not only in the goggles proposition
but any other safety measure, if you go about it in a business-like way
and they know you mean business you won't have any trouble from labor
turnover.
PUNCH PRESS HAZARDS
A. L. Kaems, Simmons Company, Kenosha, Wis.
.
What is the trouble with us that we have so many punch press acci
dents with, all the devices- that have been made to guard against this?
Prom year to year we read that the loss on punch presses is increasing.
There must be something radically wrong if that is so. If the guards we
have all bought and used on punch, presses would have done what was
claimed for - them we would not have had this trouble. It must follow
that the guards we have been buying and using are not stopping our
accidents.
.
180 Twelfth Safety Congress
I went with the Simmons Company tour years ago. They used a great
many punch presses when I went there, something like 500, and they
had many accidents.
.
I didn't start out very strenuously at first. They had all the devices
that were on the market and that had not stopped their accidents, so I
started out to find out what, caused them. We say the men are careless.
Just stop and think. The causes of punch press accidents are due to
the fact that the man must place his material into the die and take it out.
Supposing a man does 12,000 pieces a day. That would mean putting the
hand into the danger zone twice for an operation, putting it in the
danger zone something like 25,000 times a day, and putting the hand in
something like five to seven million times a year.
I started to work out a system whereby it would not become necessary tor the man to place his hands in the danger zone and we were very successful. We had one department that in 1919 cut off twenty-four fingers. That department has now run for three years without an accident.
What we did isn't so spectacular. It is something we all can do. . It only needs a little thought. The thinking can't be done by just one man; it must be done by all who have anything to do with the work.
A little piece was to be made into a "TJ" shape. They had always done it by laying it into the die and the press pushing it through. A man always had to put his fingers into the danger zone-and I said, "Let's
turn the job around.'' They said, "You can't. That job goes through and the piece will fall through."
I found out how far this piece would go before it would tip. It they had done as I did and found out where the tipping came and measured over the opening they would have found the piece bent over before it tipped, and it was easy to turn the job around and slide it in.
Then I took the second job. They had to lay this in very carefully. -It made a curved piece, and the fingers always came where the punch came. I said to them, `T will turn that job around."
They said, "How will you locate it?"
CII-VXGIXG I-OCATIOX OK l-I NCII ]*KESS WORK
If they had taken out their rule they would have found that that curve and top was widest, that we could go ahead and cut away part of the front of the place where it was located, tor that was not interfering with where the punch was doing its work, and it would slide in very easily. Then the foremen began to see that we were beginning to get somewhere, and they said, "There is another job coming. We lost three fingers on that last year."
It was a sizing job, and they had to set it into the die. The trouble was that, in setting it in, a man worked fast and having his fingers inside of the piece the punch came down and caught them. The first thing we did on that job was to take off the stripper and put the stripper on the punch. Then we found out we could slide the piece into it very
Automotive Section
181
easily. It would slide, but as it stripped oft it would fall back into tbe die. We had a man knock it away with a stick. We found that was inconvenient, so we took a piece and set it on the side of the press. When the punch came down it pushed this back and as the piece was sized it brought it up. The man has nothing to contend with any more except putting the pieces on, one after another.
That little job increased production 150 per cent and the reason it
didn't increase more was because the press didn't run any faster. You
see these are just horse sense methods.
.
There came a redraw job. This piece is round at the bottom, and
you can't push it because it is bound to fall over. When that job came on the foreman said, "What are you going to do?"
We tried to push it into the die. When it came to where it was going to fall into the die it would always tip. What we did was to put a little tension spring on the side to hold it out, and now all a man does is sit and push ahead one piece after another. That was very simple; yet it took us some time to find out what could be done. It is just as simple as rolling off a log when you get to it.
Herfe is one that probably took us longer. The piece is made Into a
ball and as it is heavy at the bottom and light at the top it always wants
to tip. Three and a half years ago I gave a talk at one of the section's
summer sessions. I had just started this and said we would have to
slide that through a tube,' and that is what we have worked out, and it
goes into'the die - every' time. So you can see no matter how difficult
many of these things are, if you will stick to it you are going to get
the thing to work.
.
I am telling you that 75 per cent of all the punch press accidents in the country could be wiped out like that.
ONE DEPARTMKST IIAU T1IKEE YEAR XO-A'CCli)EST RECORD
'
This department I told you about that had gone for three years without an accident increased its production sixty-five per cent and that, of course, paid for all the work. Turning this job around that I just showed you saved us eighteen hundred dollars last year. That didn't cost us twenty-five dollars. "So I have lots-of money left to do other work with. I am sorry that I couldn't bring the hundreds and hundreds of dies that we have made safe. We have probably four thousand dies and probably very nearly one-half of them made safe so I don't have to worry over half of them.
~ Chairman Blank: I am sure you agree that it is very simple if you
know how, and Mr. Kaems will be very glad to demonstrate any of these dies he has brought here with him to any of you who are personally
interested. This exhibit is going tp stay here all of the time during the
duration of the Congress, so you can get in touch with these men and they will demonstrate their things.
I will call at this time on Mr. Sanford.
.
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Twelfth Safety Congress
Mr. G. E. Sanford (General Electric Company): Without any pre
liminary remarks, I will ask to have the lights put out and I will run
right through these.
'
Mr. Sanford showed some slides illustrating improved methods and
devices for safety work.
,
Mr. C -B. Auel (Westinghouse Electric Manufacturing Company): Only a few years ago the punch department of the average industrial establish ment was called the slaughter house and properly so. and our own was no exception to the rule. Today most concerns have made consider able progress away from that condition and ours, I think, may be said to be among those who have made the most headway, although I am free to admit we have not yet come to that degree of excellence reached by Mr. Kaems when he said he had a department go for three years without an accident. 1 am inclined to believe that some of that is due to the fact that he has more of a standardized product to deal with than we have.
Mr. Coffin touched on the necessity of supervision from the heads down. We have been particularly fortunate at our plant in having a manage ment that has been blessed with a vision and when I speak of the management 1 include not only the hegd executives but the other .execu tives including the superintendent of our punch department. He is a man that has been, blessed with a vision and one who has been able to turn this vision into a real thing.
We were fortunate in moving our punch department into an entirely new building where we could give every tool ample room. I think that lack of room has considerable to do at times with the accidents, and there is too much tendency on the part of many managements to crowd one tool after another into space originally Intended for a considerably less number, before they consider the erection of additional floor space. When you have ample room around the tool you also have ample passage space So that the traffi<yback and fourth is not liable to interfere with the press operators. You also have ample facilities for getting the material right np to the press and the same facilities in removing the material promptly away after it has been worked on, including the scrap. A really serious accident is almost unknown nowadays in our punch department, but we still have accidents, and 1 give you my word I don't see how you can get away from them entirely.
Then again we have excellent lighting facilities--not only general light ing but individual lighting at the machine tools.
INSPECTOR CONSTANTLY ON WATCH
.Another very important thing that we have introduced has been a safety patrol. We actually have a man who was formerly assistant foreman devoting his entire time to patroling the punch department to see that the men are handling their tools properly.
This man, as a result of his experience, has made some very valuable suggestions, but the point that I- wish to make is that we have found it has paid to have an actual patrol going on every day in the week In
A-iitomotive Section
183
our punch, departments for no other purpose than as I have said, to see that the men, particularly new men, are handling themselves and their tools properly. We do not believe in any guard that allows the operator to put his hands into the danger zone. I don't care what other kinds of guard you have, sooner or later there will be a screw come loose or a bolt or nut drop off, and an accident will happen. In other .words, where an accident can happen, an accident sooner or later tciZl happen.
Here is a little swab as we call it--nothing but a wooden stick with
a piece of felt on it. The felt is dipped in oil and used to swab the dies.
At the same time there is enough roughness or hair on the felt to enable
you to pull the punching out from under the die.
Here is a little suction device we think very well of. It is provided with a little sucker such as all of you used to make as youngsters. It has a little finger so that in event of the punching sticking it can be loosened, then all it requires is lust a squeeze of the bulb and it will lift 14 pounds.
Some of you may say that it will only do for flat pieces, yet we have made them with two of these on and here is a piece showing that it can also be applied to an irregular surface. That same scheme has been applied to some of our big work. This is only on a very small scale; this goes through the press and by means of it we have not only made the actual job safe but we have eliminated the necessity of the man back of the press whose job It was to feed the long sheets in under the press. The operator sits in front of his press, pushes this thing through and it runs on a little monorail, then it drops down on the sheet. He squeezes the air valve in the handle and this sucker clamps the sheet and he pulls it towards him and releases the air pressure suction. Ifhe piece drops on the die, after which he manipulates the press by gripping the piece at the sides and pulling it through until the work is done. That is a case where we have actually cut the cost of production in two by the elimina tion of one, as well as eliminating accidents. '
ACCIDENTS Dl'E TO DROPPING DIES
We had considerable trouble with accidents due to dropping dies. The dies are always greasy and when they begin to be of some weight there is a decided tendency at times for the men to drop them, so we make it a point to equip all of our dies with lifting eyes and we have portable trucks.
Another tiling we have done has been to cut away the front of the dies so that there is less danger, in case the worker has to put his hands into the danger zone, of getting his fingers nipped.
One of the big. and I think unique, things we have done has been to
make the guards a part of the die. Formerly we had elaborate guards,
but for some reason or other they would be taken off the press perhaps
when changing dies, and they would not be put back, so we have com
menced the practice of making the guards, such as you see here, a part
of the die itself. 'When the die is removed the guard goes with ft. When
the die is brought back the guard is right there.
'
1S4
Tivelfth Safety Congress
Mr. H. S. Putnam: I think Mr. Auel and Mr. Kaems hit the nail on the head when they said the best way to eliminate accidents was to ar range your presses in such a way that the operators would not have to get their hands or fingers in the danger zone. As Mr. Kaems said, it is sur prising to see, after a little study, how many operations in your shop can be so arranged. True, it will take a little work. It may look com plicated at first, but sometimes you cau just reverse your operations. You can put on chute feeds, dial feeds, automatic feeds, and thus elim inate entirely the necessity of the operators getting their fingers near the punch.
Some of your work may be what you might call shallow work, that is work you may not think the punch would pick up and leave in the die. That can be overcome by the use of vacuum, or else put a little rubber vacuum cup which will answer this purpose, and that in turn can be injected either with a spring knock out as Mr. Kaems had or compressed air.
You might put punch press work under two classifications, what I would call ordinary sheet or strip cutting, which might be called first operation work, and forming, slotting, reducing, that .kind of work what you might classify as second operation. Now, it is evident that the guard that might be suitable for the first operation work would not do for second opera tion work.
In cutting from strips or full sheets it is desired to get products and
to keep the spoilage down to a minimum, and at the same time afford safety to your operators. That is where the guarding of punches them
selves come in.
.
I don't believe it is necessary to have a reduced production if you have
the right kind of a guard. It has been demonstrated to me that the proper kind of guard will more often increase production than reduce It.
Granted, there may be some jobs that are very hazardous, very irregular
in shape and which may mean that you get a reduced production if you
make the job safe, but they are in the minority.
Mr. Putnam then showed a number of slides.
Mr. Harry R. Sinclair (President, Worcester Stamped Metal Company,
Worcester, Mass.) : The. Worcester Stamped Metal Company is an old
established business with modern buildings and equipment devoted almost
exclusively to the manufacture of accurate stamped metal parts to order,
generally not machined, polished or assembled, and manufactures stamp
ings from the lightest up. to redrawn parts weighing four pounds each and
plain work much heavier.
'
The hlanking and redrawing presses vary from 1" to 15" stroke and are mostly 4", 5" or 6" stroke and, including the necessary cam double action presses, we have between 50 and 60 machines.
.The redrawing presses have cam operated under-motions and bar
knockouts and are fitted to handle as wide a range of work as possible We are provided with all the necessary tool making and hardening
equipment, with plain and semi-automatic squaring lathes, stock shear-
A^itoniotive Section
185
mg, tumbling and annealing devices, but in this paper are neglecting most ordinary machine shop hazards and confining ourselves to power press safety work.
The management of the plant has been alert to safe practices for a number of years and has always had full cooperation from the foremen.
The subject of safety is emphasized in our shop paper, "Stamping Life," by the use of the National Safety Calendar, by safety meetings and by the use of Safety Bulletins which have even been displayed at the shop picnic, where the wives and children were interested. We cooperate with the Worcester County Safety Council and our foremen have attended their schools. We have weekly inspection of the shop equipment giving special attention to clutches, frictions and danger points on presses.
We also keep a novel daily record of the safety devices in use to place responsibility and check the effectiveness of our methods. This consists of a suitable list of the machinery arranged in groups corresponding to the control of the press foremen. An actual record of the device in use at the minute of observation is taken, the sheet being a bird's-eye view of the condition of machines as regards safety. In our plant this record can be made in a few minutes and its examination, if any accident occurs, shows where any tendency to slackness has developed.
The mere fact that every operator and foreman knows that this record is being taken is a strong inducement to use safety devices and calls all slackers to the attention of the safety inspector.
MECHANICAL GUARDS
Oar presses have belt and fly wheel guards, gear and backshaft guards. The only real novelties are among the fly wheel guards. The lighter onesare hung on semicircular frames suspended at two points near the top of the fly wheel and concentric with it. "They automatically adjust them
selves by gravity to the position of the presses which have to be changed from the Inclined to vertical position frequently and are locked securely
by thumb nuts. Some guards on back geared presses are suspended by a single bolt
on the axis of the pinion shaft to a heavy iron bent to fit the frame of the press and which just clears the shaft end. Both the above guards open in such a way as to make the belts and wheels accessible.
We have no record of any accident from strictly blanking operations which are practically all done in the strip but we are now adding treadle guards to prevent occasional setting up accidents. Though we have con siderable work where no point of operation guards are necessary, as the
fingers are not in the danger zone,' most of our trouble has come from
reoperation work.
r
It is becoming more and more our practice to design and provide safety
devices when the tools are made, whenever the quantity permits.
As a single method of protection proved inadequate we have gradually
developed the use of four systems of guarding which seem to be the best
adapted to our work, and sometimes we combine two methods, using one
for each hand.
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Twelfth Safety Congress
Instead of this being: a difficulty it suits the needs and spirit of our
practical press operators and foremen. We leave them considerable lati
tude as to choice of safety methods on Jobs which are not equipped in
the tool room and they generally choose the best method without trouble
or delay.
OPERATION GUARDS AND HAND TRIPS
We tested, one after another, several kinds of point of operation guards then on the market and discarded them after longer or shorter tests, as we were then looking for a single device which could be universally adapted to our varied presses and which would suit the men. This cure-all .we have never found. We, however, finally developed, for our own use, a gate guard which is effective if correctly set and which slows up production less than some mechanical guards. It is normally hung in front of the ram slanting back against the punch. We call this the Pull Guard' as when pulled forward into a vertical position it'guards the tool space and trips the press, for it is direct connected to the clutch. It is on exactly the same principle as one developed by the General Elec tric Company which pulls down instead of out. It has the advantage of requiring only one hand to trip the press yet it guards both hands; a trip and guard combined.
If the nature of the tools or stripping devices prohibit the use of the Pull Guard we sometimes remove the gate using the lever mechanism only as a one hand or right hand trip. It then is necessary to protect the left hand by pliers, by an implement, or by a left hand operation away from the danger zone simultaneous with the tripping of the press.
The above devices entirely eliminate the foot treadle hazard, and the failure of the mechanism or its connections leaves the press untripped. There seem to be no attendant mechanical hazards.
The advantages of chutes as safety devices were brought to our atten tion by Mr. A. L. Kaems in the National Safety Notes and though we had occasionally used them from a production standpoint their full signifi cance as adapted to a wide range of work had not dawned upon us. We felt some reluctance to use chutes extensively as it meant a return to the foot treadle but we are proving daily that chutes are both safe and speedy though we oblige our operators to use a stick for straightening any work inclined to stick in the gages.
A serious unnecessary accident of the finger within the cup variety on a heavy press suggested the possibility of pliers for this work and through the courtesy of Mr. G. E. Sanford and his company we were immediately furnished samples of their soft nosed pliers. Though it had seemed to us that pliers would never be adapted to our work We found that they were excellent from both a safety and production stand point and we have jobs where our men use two pairs of pliers and operate the press continuously in safety on parts weighing as much as two pounds each.
A.utoinotvve Section
187
We are also constantly devising implements of flat wire which, are extremely useful-
We of course use permanent barrier guards and semi-automatic devices when we can but have in regular daily use the four systems or guards we have described as follows:
1. Pull guards.
2. One-hand tirips combined with pliers or implements.
3. Chutes combined with implements.
4. Pliers or implements.
It is a surprise to us to see the new kinks which our foremen suggest as they continue to use these methods and we have a mutual feeling of pride in the results. This is not that we have no accidents, though we have greatly improved our record, but it is practically impossible for one to occur where the man uses the appliances properly.
We are trying to hasten the day when no Angers are pat under unguarded tools.
APPOINTMENT OF NOMINATING COMMITTEE
Chairman Blank: I am going to appoint on the nominating committee R. A. Shaw, Chairman; E. J. Clark and H.-Campbell.
This committee will report tomorrow on nominations for next year's officers.
WEDNESDAY MORNING SESSION
' Chairman Blank: I notice by the number that have gathered around the punch press and other exhibits that there has been a great deal of interest displayed. This afternoon at two o'clock we will have a continu ation of the discussion on punch press hazards in this room. We plan next year to devote the most of one day's time to punch presses alone. Each year we give punch presses a better place on our program, and each year we fall short of having time enough, so that next year we want to have a larger exhibit than we have had this year, more, samples, dies, and photographs from a larger range of manufacturers.
The first speaker on the program this morning is a man who has had experience in compiling accident statistics in an automobile plant. The Statistical Committee this year has done a great deal of missionary work in trying to get all of the Automotive members to report accidents on the standard basis.'
THE VALUE OF ACCIDENT STATISTICS ON THE STANDARD BASIS
.
R. F. THALJ'EB, SAJb'ETV EXGIJfEER, BUICK MOTOR CuMl'ANY, Fl-IZN'T, Midi.
The use of statistics in any work, whatever it may be, is absolutely necessary. Let us take fox- example, any other line of work and see if we cannot find conditions which, are analogous to our o.wn-along the
188 Twelfth Safety Congress
line of statistical information. For example, can you imagine a large department store in any of our cities being run successfully without an accounting system? Is it possible to run an employment department with out records of the employees? Can a game of baseball be played without keeping score? Can you play or do you play poker without keeping mental record of the cards dealt? Is it possible for you to tell me what gas mileage you are getting out of your car without checking it up? Innumerable instances such as these might be cited to show the general use and value of statistics' but it is unnecessary to go further because they all resolve into the same fundamental principle, that to measure anything we must have measuring apparatus.
To carry out this work proper attention must be given to the recording
of all lost time accidents, to the investigation from a neutral standpoint
of every lost time accident, showing the exact cause of the trouble, mak
ing it possible then to apply the remedy. To be of practical value, acci
dent records must include a complete story from the time the accident
occurs until the injured person is back at work or the case otherwise adjusted and closed. This requires cooperation between the safety de
partment, medical department, employment department, accounting de
partment, and often many other departments, and of course means work.
But if we are going to have records, why not have them correct? If a
job is worth doing it is worth doing well.
,
To be able to compile a report on our past experience we must have records which will show what our past experience has been, and this is not a. task that is impossible by any means because, by the proper appli cation each day of a small working force, these valuable records can be kept very easily. I think our main trouble is that we are treating this
proposition as a thing too technical to trouble with, when it is just an ordinary, everyday job of the proper tabulation of facts.
Is the management of your factory content to let yo,ur work go on, keeping no record of your experience--nothing to show whether you had two or fifty lost time accidents last month, what caused them, what your severity or frequency rates were, and how they differed from pre vious figures ? If the management is content. it is not behind you in the safety work in your plant as it should be, and, consequently, you will be unable to interest them and show them by figures, whether or not you are making any progress.
RECORD OF BUICK MOTOR COMPANY
Figures have been compiled showing the experience of the Buick Motor Company, in which the cost of pure compensation per hundred dollars pay roll has declined steadily until it is now 36% per cent below the 1920 rate. Among other notable savings has been the number of eyes lost, that dropping from twelve in 1920 to five in 1921 and four in 1922. Em ployees have also profited from the results of safety work as is shown by the figures compiled which indicate that at least 2,651 Buick employees have been saved from serious accident since 1918. The average lost
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time for such accidents during this period has been 31 days. Basing the saving on the average of 31 days for each case at the very low rate of five dollars a day, the amount is $400,000. In other words, this ap proximate amount of money has been saved to employees.
The saving to the company is reflected in the reduction in the com pensation and medical costs. The average compensation cost of lost time cases during this period was $57.05; therefore the compensation saving through the elimination of 2,651 accidents would be equal to $151,239.59. This, of course, does not take into account labor turnover which must be figured on almost every lost time injury, and which may be estimated at from $50.00 to $200.00. Taking the lowest figure of $50.00 on 2.651 cases, we'would have a saving of $132,550 on labor turnover alone. In addition to this, it would be necessary to figure that a good deal of scrap and breakage would be caused by a new employee learning the job; the loss of production and the additional wear and tear on tools and machines. Totalling this compensation saved in the last four years plus labor turn over would therefore equal $283,789.55, which represents the money which the Buick Motor Company has saved through accident prevention work. Of course, this does not figure at all the gain through uninterrupted pro duction, the gain through increase of production by the use of safety devices, and the Intangible but-vital strengthening of the plant morale through the elimination of these accidents.
These figures I have just cited were made possible because we have endeavored to keep a record of our accident experience at the Buick. They tell a very interesting story, one which must and does show the plant manager that it is a business proposition which pays dividends and one which shows the employees that to be free from accidents is as much their gain as the employer's. It is just a part of statistical work and shows the real value that statistics can be put to.
THE VALUE OF THE STANDABD BASIS
Now, if we are to keep records, and I think that most of you will agree
with me that this is-absolutely imperative, why shouldn't they all be kept on some standard basis? Why persist In using Some particular method
of your own to the end that we have as many varieties of accident reports
as there are spots on a tiger? It doesn't matter whether a plant works
eight, ten or eighteen hours a day. That doesn't concern us at all, and
shouldn't make a particle of difference in making up a standard report.
The thing that concerns ns is whether or not we can pick up a Ford
report and see how we stand with him--an Oakland report, a Dodge
report, a Chevrolet report, or any other plant, and compare notes on a
standard basis. There is nothing for me to gain if I compare the Buick
report which is compiled on the standard basis, with some other report
which is compiled in any other manner, and vice versa, but there is every
thing to gain if our Buick report can be compared with some other
factory report which is also made up on the standard basis.
-
Picture the endless amount of confusion which would arise if one-half
the carpenters In New York were using the English rule system and the
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other half were using the metric system. Or try to visualize an account
ing system in any large store being run with the use of both Roman and
Arabic numerals. Of course you will agree that this is absolutely absurd,
but is it any more foolhardy than the practice which is being indulged in now by various industrial concerns throughout the country of com
piling their accident records on entirely different bases?
There are companies who do not wish to divulge 'by means of statistics
their accident records. Sometimes the policy of the company forbids giving out any such figures, but this does not occur very frequently be
cause nowadays it is the general opinion that information of this kind should be given to anyone so that the safety movement as a whole will
benefit by it. Frequently they state that it is impossible to secure the
time necessary to compile accident records. This may be a valid reason but does it really take so much time to keep such records if they are simply started at the beginning of the year in the right manner, tabu lating every lost time accident as it comes through? There is also the company which has never had any accidents--until it starts reporting and investigating--but with all this trouble and variation in opinion, we must, in order to read each other's language, get our reports in such
shape that they will be comparable with any body else's, and the only means for doing that is by standardizing along one line.
On page 31 of the May number of the National Safety News and page 2S of the August issue, you will find a tabulation of accident records using
the standard method. It is very encouraging indeed to see as many plants rated as are represented in these two tabulations, and I earnestly hope
that those of us who are not as yet rated in that particular table will
strive to get into it so that we may have a complete list the next time
such information is printed.
.
OXL-s: LOST TIME ACCIDENTS _AHE COUNTED
As is to be expected, many questions have arisen regarding the standard method which has been worked out by the Statistical Committee of the International Association of Industrial Accident Boards and Commissions in cooperation with the TJ. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Those of you who are familiar with their report will remember that only lost time accidents are counted, that is, those which cause a loss of time beyond the day or shift. The reason for using only lost time accidents is of course that if any minor accidents were included, the plants making the most conscientious record would he at a disadvantage.
The next step, is to calculate the frequency rate in terms of the number of lost time accidents per million hours worked. This system certainly is most accurate because it eliminates difference in wage scale, number of hours worked, etc. To calculate the severity rate, or number of days lost per thousand hours worked, the question sometimes arises as to the table of equivalents representing the various kinds of permanent dis ability. Of course, this table can in no way conform to the compensation law allowances of the various states for death or permanent disability.
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because they are all radically different. The figures, 6,000 days or twenty years, for death, are based on the average expectation of life of the average industrial worker who is killed. The other quantities of values for temporary or permanent disability are in terms of fractions of this allowance for death. Of course these figures are open to question, but what difference does it make what figures are used as long as everybody uses the same?
It is well to remember when counting days lost for temporary dis ability that Sundays are not counted. Saturday is counted as a full day and no allowance is made for holidays; that is, if a man is off six weeks the number of days lost-is 36 regardless of the number of hours the plant may actually have worked during that time. The day of injury is counted as the first day lost.
In rating companies they are always placed in the order of their severity rate rather than their frequency rate because, surely, you would rather have 10 comparatively minor accidents in your plant than one fatality- Of course, any . small plant is likely to have a serious or fatal accident sometimes without any particular fault on the part of the plant, and this means a very high severity rate for that year, but in the long run these matters of chance will more or less even themselves up.
This brief review will give you an idea of the general procedure, to be followed in compiling your records. Should you desire more detailed information along this line, the National Safety Council will supply you with same if you will make'your wants known to them.
KEMEDEES SUGGESTED BY COMPABISOSS
We have used this standard method in the Buick Motor Company since
October, 1922, and are of the opinion that it is second to none. We take
a great deal of pleasure in being able to compare our standing with
other plants which compile their statistics oh the standard basis. It gives
us something definite to look for--shows us where the other fellow is
ahead and' where behind, and then, knowing that he is ahead of us in
any certain phase of his work, we can get in communication with him and
obtain knowledge that will enable us to remedy our job.
'
I have briefly explained the use of the standard method which has
been worked out by the Statistical Committee of the International Asso ciation of Industrial Accident Boards and Commissions in cooperation
with the U. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, and which has been adopted
by the National Safety Council and many other enterprising companies
at this time as the best method now in use for our work. I ask that you
consider it In a more serious manner because those companies who have
ucd it know that it is possible to use it advantageously inasmuch as
it has already been put to the test. Consequently, each and every one
of you should go back to your plants with one idea in mind, namely, that from now on.you will use' as your method in compiling statistics of your
accident experience, this standard method.
'
;
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' DISCUSSION
Mr. Minier: I just want to ask Mr. Thalner a question in regard to the standard method of compiling accident statistics pertaining to cases of hernia. In the standard method they allow six weeks' disability. I believe, but in case a man is operated upon and dies of postoperative pneumonia, do you allow the same six weeks?
Dr. Li. W. Chaney (U. S. Dept, of Dabor) : That question has been debated for 15 years and the committee finally came to the conclusion that hernia could only be treated satisfactorily and fairly by considering it as a temporary disability, and the results of such complications as de scribed would not be considered as a death. He died from something else as a complication. It would not be considered a death under the scheme of the committee.
Mr. R. A. Shaw (Ford Motor Co.): If a man crushed the end of his finger and the doctors put him under ether and the man should die on the operating table, would that he called a fatality?
Dr. Chaney: I think that is a question that has not been determined. As a matter of fact, cases of death under such circumstances are so rare that the committee did not feel it was necessary to give attention to it.
Mr. Herbert (Oliver Chilled Plow): Regarding the publication of figures in the National Safety News. It has been the practice to put each firm under a number- Personally, I don't get much satisfaction in com paring my own plant with a number. Wouldn't it be advisable to publish the name of the firm instead of the key number?
Chairman Blank: Most of the plants are willing to give the statistics and their names: there are. however, some plants who will furnish the statistics if they are kept confidential- In order to publish a greater number of these standings the National Council has adopted the method of giving each one of the plants a number.
I think soon the different plants will appreciate the value of this thing
and that reluctance will go away and they will be glad to give out any
statistics they have and also put their names on these reports, and give
authority for publishing the names.
Mr. Demond (Hayes Manufacturing Co.) : A case of minor importance which later develops into an amputation, will have to be reopened and carried again and your figures would not show this. It would appear in the first instance as possibly a day or two days' lost time and later whatever the compensation period said.
Mr. Herbert: One more question, about sending .the severity rate monthly to the management. Is it the custom in the firms you are con nected with to just assume the probable period of disability for a man or get the actual period? If you are going to assume it you are not go ing to get a true severity rate, if you wait until he comes back to work
your records will be behind time.
Chairman Blank: That can be easily answered in this way. You noticed in the report Mr. Thalner put on that some of those men had
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returned to work and some had not. For those who had returned the compensation and severity are easily figured but the.others are handled on the doctor's estimate.
Sometimes they are a little bit off, but most of the time the law of
averages running through there the doctor knows how long a man will
he off with a fracture, four to six weeks is the general rule, and ff he has
not returned to work at the time that your report is. made out you have
to take an estimated number of days' disability.
r
1 would like to ask at this time--signify by rising--how many report their accidents on the standard basis?
(About eighteen.)
.
Chairman Blank: I think most of the manufacturers who were on the report which was published in May of this year must be in the room
for we have about twenty-five here, and that was the number that re ported on the standard basis for last year. 1 hope that next year we may have a good many more. There were 10 automobile companies that reported on the standard basis for 1922 and 15 motor and accessory com
panies, making 25 in all, so that most representatives of those companies are here or there are others adopting the standard basis.
Mr. Peet (American Radiator Co.)< Supposing an accident occurs cost ing an amputation in a given month. Is the full time allotted by the National Safety Council for amputation then charged against the individ ual plant or department for that given month?
Mr. Thalner: That is all in one month's report, because the accident occurred In that month.
EYE INJURIES
Dr. Li. M. Fkancis, Bckfalo, N. Y.
I have here a clipping which says, "Twelve hundred accidents to the
eyes of workmen occur each year in industry, approximately 15 per cent
of the total blind population of the country or 15,000 people represent
the industrial blind." That does not mean that .there are 15,000 people
who have lost one eye. Blindness means both eyes lost. Those statistics
and any statistics like them, as large and appalling as they are, have
nothing to say about the person who has lost the vision of one eye. These
statistics are built upon people who are totally blind. So you see, aftei'
all, it is a real problem. It is a tremendous problem.
~
This question has two distinct phases, it seems to me: one, a human
side which it has always had and the other, an economic side which is
just coming to the attention of the employer for the reason that the
states are passing compensation acts, and whether you will or no, there
is a problem for you.
'
I am not going to deal in the few minutes at my disposal with the
question of safety devices, because that belongs to men who know a whole
lot more about the situation than I do, but I want to talk for a little
while on the question as a practicing ophthalmologist, or eye specialist,
and particularly from the man's side of the proposition.
.
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This question has two very distinct angles, one the manV eM *mS ttw other the employer's side, and they both can be met- They bodi h*r
a single object, and they both can be met with the exercise of * horse sense. The first thing is to see that the man is fit for tb Job
the second thing is to see,, if he is fit for the job and is injured, that be gets the proper care. If you can settle those two propositions, you are going a long ways toward redticing these tremendous figures of ocular
Injuries.
To tackle this first question, how are you going to know the man is fit for the job? The only way to be sure that your man is fit for the
job is to test his vision when you take him. You say that is not possible.
I am here to contend that it Is possible--and to convince you.
now to test sight
.
To find out whether a man has good eyesight is a very simple proposi tion. All you have to do is to put him a standard distance away from a standard test card and see if he can read it. You will say, "But how about those fellows who can't read?" We can take care of them all right, because we have test objects other than letters. For example, here is a standard test card. I might say in passing these standards are standards the world over. They are arbitrary standards but standards recognized in Buffalo, Cleveland, Chicago, San Francisco, Paris, in Patagonia, or anywhere. They are fixed standards. The letters are built up from geometrical formula and are standard all over the world. If you make a record of a man's vision here today in Buffalo, 20 years from now in Liondon you could refer back to these records made in Buffalo.
The easiest way is to cover one eye and then the other, see the smallest letter which the man can read and indicate It. It takes about five minutes an eye to a man not particularly experienced in examining. It is easier with the man who can read, but a great many of the men you take into the plant can not read letters. All right, if they can't read letters, we find out if they can read numbers; and if they can w;e get them to tell the smallest number they can read on the card. Some of them are so dumb they can't do thah Consequently we have another way. We speak of an illiterate chart. This particular illiterate chart is a series of E's which point in various directions. Mow it is a pretty dumb sort of a man whom you can not get to tell you which way that E points, whether it points up, to the left, to the right, or down. As long as you can get It through his head, it does not make much difference how much ivory he has in it, so that you can get him to start to tell you which way these things go, you have a visual test. There are some who are so thick and so dumb they can't get that through their heads. In that event, we simply tell them to count the number of fingers which they can see and you note the distance at which they see them. They hold up as many as you hold up. You hold up your little finger and tell him to do the same thing. If a man is so thick he can't do that, I don't think you'd better employ him.
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The point I am trying to make in the whole thing is that the testing of vision in all classes of labor is an easy and practical thing. If you don't believe it, ask some of the plants here in Buffalo who are doing it. I Bee Mr. McDonald here. I think he has been converted to this idea. As far as I know every man taken into the Wickwire Spencer Company is first examined so that they will have some idea of what that man sees.
WOEKJtES PRESUMED BY LAW TO HAVE NORMAL EYESIGHT
There are two reasons why these tests should be made: first, to be
sure that the man has enough vision to take the Job you want him to
take: and the second one is, of course, if he hasn't enough vision to do
what you want him to do, he is not a safe man in that Job, because
surely, sooner or later, he is going to be hurt and loose an eye, and the
employer Is going to lose a lot of time and incidentally pay for his
injury. From the man's side, it is just plain, ordinary humanity to find
out whether the man can see enough to do the Job you want him to' do.
Let me speak for just a moment from the employer's side. Unless you are prepared to show to the contrary, any compensation commission which
is going to award damages as a result of visual loss must assume that
the man had normal vision when he started to work. I know, and every
man who practices in diseases of the eye knows, that a very large per
centage of normal people who come to you haven't normal vision. The
results of the examinations for the Army showed that. The results of
the examinations conducted in the public schools show that. You can
take any group of supposedly normal men and find a large percentage of
them who haven't normal vision in either one or both eyes, and yet the employer, unless he is in a position to show what the vision of the man
at the time he employed him was, pays for an injury based on normal
vision, and it is all right and proper that he should.
Don't you see that those laws bring up the issue in a very practical
way to the man who is paying the bills, and you always get a little
action when you get into the pocketbook? That is why we are much
more concerned in the question of visual economies in the year 1923
than we were in the year 1913, and we are going to be much more con
cerned with it as time goes on, and insurance rates go up for carrying
these injuries. So you see there is a very practical side to it.
Don't think that every man who does not have normal vision should
be rejected. X am not silly enough to think that, but I do mean if the
standard is very low you had better find out about him and see if he
is safe in your plant. That is the time the man who employs the labor
-had better put the man aside and have the plant physician or nurse, or
whoever makes the examination look into the case a little further.
You may keep a man out of a job for two days, or you may keep: a
machine idle for twentyrfour hours,, but suppose you- do'--isn't it a great
deal better and isn't it better horse sense to do that than to .put a man at work that he may- fumble and endanger his eye-sight in, and' certainly
slow down production? I think it is much better sense'to-do-that than
it is to do it afterwards when the trouble-has happened, "vs---
.-
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You would think, it was a pretty poor sort o a business arrangement
that would put a one-legged man to trundling a wheel-barrow or a one
armed man into a job where be would be hauling a rope all day; but
every day in Buffalo and Pittsburgh you are doing the same thing as
far as eyes are concerned. You are putting a one-eyed man in a two
eyed job, a man with very defective vision into a job that requires fine
eye-sight, and you grumble because he gets hurt, and the front office
swears because production isn't up to standard.
'
EXASIISTATIOX FOR rtUZ-EXlSTlXG DISEASE IS XKCESSAltY
There is another question over and above testing of vision, and that is
to be sure that the man has no pre-existing disease. That is a little harder question; it is a question which confuses the expert every once in a while, so I don't expect that the man that employs labor can settle that question, but he can be curious. Any man that he is employing who has red eyes, he had better ppt him aside and have the plant doctor look
him over, see whether he is safe, before he takes him, for two reasons; first, because of the man. A great many of our immigrants suffer with the disease so common in Europe, called trachoma. If you employ a man suffering from trachoma or who has had it a great many years and is not entirely cured and put him in a job where he is exposed to dust and irritation, the chances are ten to one that sooner or later you are going to bring hack his trachoma, and he may have a very minor injury, such as a foreign body on the cornea that in the ordinary case might lay off a man for two or three hours or on the outside a day. In that individual case, it will mean a period of illness and disability extending over one month to two months or three months, and if you don't believe it, ask Mr. McDonald about that M.ohammedan he had last year on his hands whose name was------------we will call him All Baba, because be cer tainly was, from a compensation standpoint, one of the forty thieves.
- Now, Ali Baba was an innocent youth and strayed out to the Wickwire plant and got a job. They needed a man and took him on. Ali Baba was not any great sheik and I don't know why they took him, but they took him anyhow. -They never paid any attention. They said, "What is your name? - . . Your name is Bill. Your check number is so-andso. Report tomorrow.''
He worked two Or three days, and then he got something in his eye. He was sent to the first aid, as they do very promptly out there. The first day, they'took the foreign body out and sent him back, and he began to weep all over the place. Then they sent him to the plant physician, the eye specialist. That happened to be me. What was the matter with Ali Baba. Not a foreign body? No, no, no. It started up in Ali Baba's very lively trachoma which Ali Baba had in the old country. Ali Baba was off for months. I have-a feeling-that Ali Baba is not-working for the Wickwire people any more. If the Wickwire people have as much good sense as I think, he is not.
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It was not fair to Ali Baba, to begin with, to take him on and put him
in a dirty job. He was all right in the front office signing checks, but
no good where he was, so he lost two months' work and had some
awfully sore eyes. I don't believe his visual efficiency was impaired, but that was due largely to his medical attention. (Laughter.) The Com
pany paid him for the time he was having this experience, and I think
they paid very properly. I think they got precisely what was coming to
them, simply.because they didn't use a little horse sense in finding out
whether Ali Baba was fitted for the job.
'
LITTLE INJURIES THE MOST SEBIOUS
I want to speak just a moment about eye injuries. If I can drive home this thought, that it is not the major injury that does the damage, it is not the fellow that gets whacked in the eye with a crowbar and who has to have his eye removed--that is not what constitutes this fifteen thou sand I read about--if I can do that, I will have made the point I have in mind. It is the little injury, and particularly it is the foreign body on the cornea, that causes the most trouble.
What is the cornea? We think of it ordinarily as the sight. I am not going to give an anatomy lesson here, so you needn't leave, but these are actual facts: the cornea is just as much a structure as the finger. You know what the finger is. The cornea is of a great deal more economic importance than the toe and sometimes the hand; yet when I say cornea you wonder what in the world I am talking about. We will think of the eye as a watch. The white part of the eye corresponds to the watch case. We call that the sclera, but you are not interested in that. The cornea corresponds to the crystal on the watch. The cornea is the most wonderful structure in. the human body in tbat it is a functioning member constantly exposed to irritation and dust and all tbat, and it must keep clear.
Nature has been rather generous about the cornea. There is more cornea than we use. The average eye uses only a little circle in the center which measures four millimeters. This is the. sight of the eye to the workman. Most of the damage that is done is by minor injury to the cornea, and most of the visual losses are the result of injuries to that part of the cornea through which you see, namely, the central part.
A foreign body in the eye around the cornea Is one of the most common
industrial accidents we have. What happens? You have a very highly
organized tissue here that is unprotected except for the occasional sweep
of the lid. If a foreign body lands on that cornea. It makes a hole in the
cornea first of all, and if it is not very promptly removed, that hole is
very apt to get infected.
I heard you talking about infection a while ago. Infection in the cornea, means a lot more than infection in the band, because infection in the hand can close up and be replaced by scar tissue and leave the hand
functioning perfectly. That is not true in the cornea. The same process
goes on, the loss of tissue is repaired by nature, but not by the same
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tissue that was in the cornea before; to take its place, there is scar tissue, the same kind that is- put down here in the hand. That is all very nice, but you don't see through scar tissue. That is where the awkward part comes. Scar tissue is cloudy, and for every scar you have on the visual area of the cornea, you have some reduced vision.
If we could only get those who are responsible to regard injury of the cornea as a serious matter, we would, be going a long ways to reduce these statistics. Why? Because it is the unrecognized minor injury of the cornea, and particularly of the visual area of the cornea, that reduces vision. Fortunately, many of the foreign bodies are hot and therefore are sterilized. Some of them are not, some are pieces of dust which carry infection right with them. But in the case of a . foreign body, if I may call it such, such as a piece of steel or cinder, if it is removed promptly, you are not going to deal with infection, provided infection is not introduced at the time of the removal.
I am not sure that is quite a fair statement, because the lids are always infected.. They are exposed to the air. They always carry a certain amount of infection which you never can get rid of, but a great many of these, injuries are infected by the fellow who removes them, and that is usually that handy man that belongs to every gang who has a sharp pocket-knife and more nerve than good sense. He backs the man up against the wall, gets a good light and makes a stab at it with his pocketknife, taking the foreign body out. He is the fellow who is building up these statistics. The foreman says, "I can't spare that man to go to the' front office and have .his eye tinkered with when I can get old Bill who has always done that sort of thing.
If you will send that man to the front office to the plant nurse and let her take it out with a clean Instrument or a piece of cotton and put in an antiseptic ointment and send him back, your insurance rates will be less, and you will have these statistics reduced.
. DEAIOySTKATES PKH-EXIST1XG DISEASE
I think these things are driven home if you can only see them. I have brought a man with me this morning who is an example of what I am talking about. I don't mind telling you where this man came from. This is my friend, Mike- Sapelwitch, and there are hundreds and huncLredS of iMiKe Sapelwitclies roaming about the city today. I Have His record here, and here is the man.
On the 24th, while he was working for the American Radiator Com pany--I won't be rotten enough to tell which plant--he was walking through the drop room, "not engaged in his occupation, when something flew in his right eye. I saw Mike on the 28th, and here is what Mike looked like to me. This is the visual area, the business area of the cornea (showing by diagram), an Infection dipping right deep into the cornea, edges undermined, a lot of corneal tissue lost, eye full of pus. We rushed him into the hospital. He had night and day nursing for a week or so. We finally got the infection stopped and the healing process started.
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Now, here is Mike. Stand up here, Mike. I have not tested Mike, before this. (Making series of tests indicating that vision in the eye which had been infected was almost gone.)
The reason I showed you Mike was because Mike is not an unusual example of what we see. He is a common, ordinary, everyday exhibit to eye men. If Mike had had his original injury down at the side, it would hardly have made any difference because the visual area of the cornea would not have been involved.
On your records, when a case of a foreign body in the eye comes in to the nurse or to whoever has charge, always be sure to indicate where the injury is. That is not a difficult thing. It does not require any great skill. All you have to do on the record is draw a circle which indicates the cornea, and make a mark at the relative position where that foreign body was. If you don't want to do that, you can have a stamp. These stamps cost a dollar, but they are the easiest things in the world to use. Use' a stamp or a diagram and indicate on that diagram where the foreign body was, for the reason that these injuries are so common that you don't know whether visual loss is the result of a foreign body in the center which happened, say, six weeks ago, or whether the loss of vision is the result of a foreign body over here (indicating). It your records show that on such and such a day, he had a foreign body in the center of the cornea, you have some basis on which to go.
I believe that the large percentage of visual losses can be prevented by proper safety devices and goggles, and those goggles should be clean. They are cheap compared to what you pay for a lost eyes Just think how many goggles a thousand dollars would buy. It wuld buy a barrel of them--yes, half a carload perhaps--and yet they kick because you put in a clean goggle once in a while. The men are not going to use goggles that are blurred. You have to keep them clean, and .charge it up to operating expense. It is a good deal better to pay for a goggle every little while than to pay for an eye every little while; and then, too, I want to go back to that old phrase, don't put a one-eyed man in a two-eyed, job, and if he is hurt, be sure to see that he gets proper and prompt medical attention.
DISCUSSION
Mr. T. EC. Murphy: Do the eye tests described show trachoma?
Dr. Francis: No sir. Perhaps I didn't bring that out. These simple eye tests will show only lower vision. They will not show trachoma, but I think it is a safe premise to make that no man should be employed whose eyes are inflamed. If that is the order of the plant we will pick up most of your trachomas.
Mr. Murphy: Is there any test that will show positively that it is trachoma?
Dr. Francis: Only inspection by a person who is accustomed to it. There is one more thing about trachoma. The man who is afflicted is not safe for two reasons. I forgot my second reason. He -is a danger
200
Ttvelfth Safety Congress
to his fellow workman because trachoma is contagious. You ma? have trachoma in your whole plant.
Mr. Thalner: The question arose the other day where a man was brought up who had, according to the chart, a vision of twenty-two hun dred in each eye. The man started to argue with me. I gave him one of our papers and asked him to read it; he held the paper up and read it to me just as well as I could read it. I asked him to point out objects on the wall and he told me what they were, but still according to the chart his vision was twenty-two hundred, or we would say, practically blind. Is there any explanation to that?
Dr. Francis: There is an answer to that. What did you want this man
to do?
'
Mr. Thalner: He was going to be put on a stock checking job.
DrV Francis: You showed, a lot of good sense there.
You found out that his distance vision was blurred but his near vision r/as sufficient. I should say that man was safe. I don't mean to* say
hat every man you take into your plant must be perfect. I say you must
Aave a record of what you are working with.
Mr. King: You spoke of a severe blow to the eye. We had a slight dlow from a loop wire. The man was sent to our company surgeon, /nside half an hour the doctor said that apparently there was no injury to the eye, nothing in the eye, not a puncture. In two or three days severe inflammation was developed and again the doctor saw him and that time sent him to an oculist. That man has lost the sight of his eye, and probably will have to lose the eye. Did we handle that correctly?
Dr. Francis: I think so. I mean to say that you exercised a reasonable precaution; that is all that can be expected. No man's judgment is infallable, even a doctor's. Of course, my natural impulse is to say, and I have not said it yet, that every plant ought to have an eye man in whom they have confidence and who can guide them through these troubles. I think perhaps that is going a little too far. The time will come; it is not here yet. I would advocate it and urge it. I think the money that is spent in getting good advice is well spent and does not show on the red side of the ledger at the end of the operating year.
REPORT OF NOMINATING COMMITTEE
Mr. Shaw: We recommend as chairman of this progressive section, Mr. L. E. Averill of the Oakland Motor Car Company, Pontiac, Michigan. For vice-chairman, Mr. Cotcher, who is a new man to me. I had the pleasure of meeting him yesterday. As secretary, Mr. Thalner, the young gentleman who read the paper and led the discussion so capably.
I think the exhibit is going to grow and we suggest that we have a special chairman for carrying on this work. Mr. Kuechenmeister.
In addition to this we would suggest the past chairmen act as an ad visory committee.
The report was adopted.
.
Automotive Section
201
DISCUSSION OF DROP FORGE HAZARDS
Led Br Thomas Irving, Detboit, Mich.
Mr. Irving: The subject of the tentative code for drop forge hazards,
in my estimation, is one of the most important discussions yet presented,
for the reason of the attendant natural hazards, such as the hot metal.
The immense force represented in your equipment, the resultant vibra
tion, crystallization and breakage, the live steam, the fuel oil furnaces,
etc.--they are a few of the hazards which exist in the forge shop over
and above the hazards met in other branches of our industrial activity,
and I hope when we get through with this code we will be able to con
sider it as a hand-book for the forge shop; in other words, a bible which
we can abide by and base our decisions on along the safety line for
future use.
.
Mr. Irving then read various paragraphs of the code.
Mr. C. E. Lehr (.Bethlehem Steel Co.) : I should say an aisle width of four feet six Inches was rather small. In a great many drop forge plants they handle machinery such as a light electric truck, if the aisles are made wide enough, and I am pretty sure four feet six would not permit the negotiation of a machine at all. If it is simply a passage way for a wheel-barrow or something of that sort, it is all right.
Mr. Clark: It seems to me that the environment in which drop hammer plants are frequently placed is going to be the arbiter as to how much room you have. Frequently you have to utilize the space that is avail able, and in laying out a new plant, it appeals to me that the recommen dation of the committee should he the factor considered.
Mr. J. A. Dickinson (Bureau of Standards) : I would suggest that in addition to specifying minimum width, as we have, we put in another clause to the effect that the aisle should be wider where large machines will run. In other words, bring out clearly the idea that it is the mini mum, and in many cases wider aisles would be preferable.
Mr. G. E. Peterson (Travelers Insurance Co.) : Possibly the criticism
of the existing minimum lies in the fact that it does not take into account
whether a plant uses electric trucks or other means of conveying material
by means of mechanical power. Perhaps you could overcome this objec
tion by establishing a minimum for plants using trucks of that kind and
leave the existing minimum. Of course, the thing is a minimum and is
so understood. For the smaller plants, four foot six would probably be
sufficient.
,
ADJOURNMENT.
Joint Meeting of Chemical and Rubber
Sections
October 2, 1923
S. II. KERSHAW, Chairman, Chemical Section Hercules Powder Company, 'Wilmington, Del.
E. W. BECK, Chairman, Rubber Section United States Rubber Company, New York City
HAIRMAN KERSHAW: About a year ago, one of the member com . panies of the Chemical Section came to us and said it had had con siderable trouble with benzol poisoning. They thought it would be a good thing for the Chemical Section of the Council to investigate the subject. The first action that was taken was in the form of papers prepared by Mr. Horan, Mr. Paine and others. These were presented and discussed at the last Congress and proved to be unusually interesting. Several of the members present urged that we appoint a committee immediately and start a thorough investigation. As a result of that recommendation a sub committee of our industrial poisons committee was appointed, with Doctor Winslow as chairman. From all appearances, this committee has done a. remarkable piece of work. Unfortunately, Doctor Winslow is unable to be with us this morning, but Mr. Horan who has done much of the detailed work in connection with this investigation will present the report.
PROGRESS REPORT OF COMMITTEE ON BENZOL POISONING
I.VTBOD IjCTTOjY At the 1922 National Safety Congress in Detroit papers and discussions on benzol poisoning were presented by Mr. Chas. F. Horan and Mr. W. S. Paine, which papers aroused so much interest that the industrial poisons committee of the Chemical Section was specifically directed to undertake a study of the question. Mr. A. L. Watson, chairman of the industrial poisons committee in the spring of 1923 appointed the undersigned as a special sub-committee, to study and report on this important question. The committee was finally organized in March and has held two meetings --on April 6 in New Haven and on September 21 in New York City, and as will be indicated below, the individual members Of the committee have
203
204
Twelfth Safety Congress
been actively at work on the subject throughout the year. The problem is a large one and the committee feels that its work is only begun, so that the following report is to be considered merely as a report of progress.
. THE LITERATURE OF BENZOL POISONING
It was felt that our first step should be to arrange for a thorough survey of the information at present available in printed form and Dr. J. W. S. Brady, a member of the committee, was good enough to undertake this task. Dr. Brady has prepared an exhaustive bibliographical review of the subject, which is presented in full in an appendix to this report.
Benzol: Benzol is a pure hydrocarbon obtained from the distillation of coal tar and from the strippings of coke-oven as. It was not much used before 1910, but production, expanded to meet war needs, has now made it readily available and comparatively cheap. It is an excellent solvent for organic material.
Industrial Uses of Benzol: Except where it is used in the manufacture of chemicals and explosives, burned as motor fuel, in illuminating gas, or in welding, benzol is used chiefly as a solvent--mainly as a rubber solvent for cementing in the manufacture of rubber goods, tires, hose, footwear, garments, gloves and in the sealing of cans. It is used in the making of artificial leather, linoleum and straw hats. It is used in painting--either in tar paints, or as a "thinner" or varnish remover. It is used as a solvent for cement in can making, in shoe manufacture, in extracting fat from bones and in dry-cleaning processes.
Binds of Benzol: Besides pure benzol and toluol and xylol, there are several kinds of commercial benzols, these .containing toluol, xylol, thio phene, and, rarely, traces of carhon disulphide. The usual commercial products are:
Pure Benzol--a clear colorless liquid of a characteristic odor. B. P. 79.7 C.
Ninety Per Cent Benzol--So called because in the distillation 90 per cent distills over at a temperature less than lOO^C. It is composed of 80-85 per cent benzol, 13-15 per cent toluol. 2-3 per cent xylol, and sometimes contains as impurities traces of olefins, paraffins, sulphuretted hydrogen and other bodies.
, Fifty Per Cent Benzol--This substance contains 50 per cent of constituents which distill below 100C, and 90 per cent, below 120C; it is a very-mixed product, with only 40 to 50 per cent benzol.
Solvent Naptha--This material is called solvent naptha be
cause it is used extensively (especially in England) for dissolving
rubber. It is relatively free from benzol, and consists largely of
xylol.
'
It seems generally accepted that pure benzol is more poisonous than the other grades referred to.
Chemical and Rxtbber Sections
203
Susceptibility: A great variation in the individual susceptibility ap
pears to be well established. Women and children, as well as individuals
of deficient eliminative powers are affected more easily. Atmospheric conditions of temperature and humidity seem to affect greatly suscept
ibility.
A-bsorption: Entrance of benzol into the body occurs chiefly through the lungs. Eighty per cent of inspired benzol is absorbed by the body, less
than one-half of which is recovered in six hours. Skin absorption is
slight. Given by mouth in the treatment of certain blood conditions, doses
up to three grams a day have been tolerated for a considerable period.
(As a remedy it is at present little used.) It is excreted through the
lungs, or as phenols in the urine.
Action: The action, of benzol is anesthetic on the nervous system, and destructive of blood and fat. Doses as small as 0.02 to 0.05 parts of pure benzol per 1,000 parts of air in animals affect the cardiorespiratory nerv
ous centers, and produce delirium and death. Small doses, long con
tinued affect the nervous system, the blood and blood-forming organs.
The white cells, especially those formed in the bone marrow, are destroyed. Platelets disappear. Coagulation and viscosity are effected. Immune
bodies and antibody production are. depressed. Red cells are destroyed.
Recovery is slow.
Post-Mortem Pathology: Post-mortem pathology in acute cases shows cyanosis, fluid blood, minute hemorrhages from skin and mucous mem branes, and the presence of benzol in brain and tissues. In chronic cases the picture is that of non-regenerative anemia with purpuric spots and hemorrhages, and fatty degeneration of the bone marrow and organs.
Symptoms of Poisoning: . Faintness, dizziness, breathlessness, rapid pulse, cyanosis or lividity, and sudden death, preceded at times by acute mania or delirium, in acute poisoning and in chronic poisoning, gastro intestinal symptoms, anemia, reduction of white cell count, especially the polymorphonuclears; reduction in red cells with' increase in coagulating time of blood; neurasthenia, hemorrhages from various mucous mem branes, purpuric spots on the skin: Local action sometimes produces Irri tation and dermatitis. Numbness, pallor, parasthesia of exposed fingers is common.
Diagnosis: The diagnosis of benzol poisoning is made by history of
exposure, plus gastro-intestinal symptoms, anemia, hemorrhages, purpura,
increase in coagulating time of blood, reduction in both red and white
blood cells. The reduction in numbers of white cells is especially charac
teristic of benzol poisoning.
'
Treatment: Immediate, absolute rest and absence of any effort; fresh
air or oxygen; prolonged convalescence, in acute poisoning and chronic
cases, if mild, recover on removal from exposure with treatment of fresb
air and iron tonics. Cases with purpura or hemorrhages require repeated
transfusions and blood-building food and tonics.
'
i
206
Twelfth Safety Congress
PRELIMINARY STUI>Y OF EXTENT OF BENZOL HAZARD
In order to obtain a preliminary idea o the extent of the problem as it exists in American industry today an incomplete preliminary list was prepared of 324 industrial establishments which, from the nature of their products, might be expected to use benzol. Through the courtesy of Mr. W. S. Paine of the Aetna Life Insurance Company a questionnaire was sent to this list of industrial establishments in July and to date 140 replies have been received. Of these 56 replied that they did not use benzol in any form, leaving 84 firms who do make use of this substance. Some idea as to the amount of benzol used by the firms replying to our questionnaire may be gained from the- following figures: Thirty-six replies gave no definite information in regard to this point. In 19 cases the amount of benzol used was insignificant; in 6 cases it was between 5 and 25 gallons per week; in 4 cases between 26 and 99 gallons; in 10 cases between100 and 500 gallons; in 3 cases between 501 and 999 gallons: in'6 cases over 1,000 gallons--reaching the very high figures of 2,200, 3,000. 75, 8,000, 10,000, and 30,000 gallons per week- The six largest users included three rubber companies (8, 23 and 25) and three large chemical concerns (13, 24 and 19), one of the latter is principally concerned with the supply of products for the making of can seals. It is interesting to note that out of 15 companies reporting cases of benzol poisoning only 2 are among those using less than 100 gallons of benzol per week; 4 were among those using between 100 and 1,000 gallons; 3 were among the six firms using over 1,000 gallons; while 6 were among the 36 firms giving no infor mation as to the amount of benzol used.
A more helpful analysis from our standpoint deals with the number of employees exposed to possible toxic effects of the benzol. We have this in formation reported for 67 firms, 73. industries having failed to state the number of employees exposed in processes where benzol constitutes a haz ard. The general results are indicated in the table below with comparative figures showing the number of firms in each class which reported having experienced cases of benzol poisoning.
TABLE I
y umber of employees exposed to possible benzol poisoning
100 and
no
0-4 5-r> 10-24 25-4 9 50-99 over information
Number of establishments,
in each class..................................30
14 10 7 2
4
73
Number of establishments
reporting cases of
poisoning........................................... 3 1 3 3 i
4
''
Out of 23 establishments -with 10 or more employees exposed to benzol poisoning S were rubber factories, 5 were chemical works. 4 were paint and varnish makers, 3 were gas plants making benzol as a by-product, and 3 were plants of other types.
Chemical and Rubber Sections
207
It will be noted that out of 44 establishments with less than 10 em ployees exposed to benzol poisoning only 4 reported as having experienced cases of poisoning- Of 17 firms with from 10 to 49 employees exposed, 6 had experienced cases of poisoning, while of the 6 firms with more than 50 persons exposed'to benzol all blit one had experienced industrial poison-' ing by benzol. It is suggested that facilities for the diagnosis of benzol poisoning may influence statistics such ' as Table I presents, and that full time physicians in large industries may naturally be expected to diagnose cases of 'industrial poisoning more frequently than persons who are not familiar with the symptoms of such poisons.
We present in Table II the more important data with regard to 33 in dividual industries whose reports seemed of special interest for one reason or another. The table includes (a) all plants reporting cases of benzol poisoning (b) all plants reporting the exposure of 10 or more employees to the possibility of benzol poisoning and (c) all plants reporting the use of 500 or more gallons of benzol per week. The plants are arranged in order according to the number of employees exposed to benzol and are identified by arbitrary key numbers, since the information obtained in this study was in many cases of a confidential nature.
TABLE II Data With Regard to Establishments Where Benzol Hazard. May Exist.
' , *e o' S23.,M
CJ -J.___,03
3
v
V
P4
O5
aw&c.
Rubber Goods ...................................
2,200
21 Rubber Goods..........................................
9 Rubber Goods .......................................... 525
IS Chemicals ................................................... ... v
5 Rubber Goods.......................................... ... m 26 Celluloid, leather, cloth................ --
27, Jdpanned goods ....................................
60
6 Gas by-prod. ............................................. 500
25 Rubber Goods .......................................... 7,500
23 Rubber Goods .................................... 8,000
28 Rubber Goods .........................................
29 Chemicals....................................................... 17 Chemicals.......................................................
30.' Rubber Gpods...........................................
31 Gas by-products .'.................................
38 Rihts and Varnishes....................
* J7&'` `
' "* * ` *
32 Cans ....................................................................
25
m t. o>*t3 1"
Ifg.
ebo
JS 02
O 0$ WO
1,080
Yes
15 0
Yes
, . lOO' ' Yes
100
Yes
. .5,0.. . .Yes 50 Yes
35 32 --
NTo . Yes
No
30 Yes
25 No
.25 25
. No Yes
.. 25 ;. .No 20 No 20 No'
___No,
cCj _--Ji O 03
oi *3 *2
g si
32 a;
Ventilation. Ventilation.
Closed . containers, ventilation. '
Closed apparatus,
ventilation,
hel
mets, partial elim
ination of benzol.
. Ventilation, medi cal examination.
Local ventilation,
medical examina
tion.
`
Ventilation.
Closed containers, ventilation.
Closed containers, ventilation.
Limiting Benzol.
Use
of
Closed containers, ventilation.- - -
Closed containers. ^
Ventilation, `
"
- closed. - containers,
,. Local ventilation...
208 Twelfth Safety Congress
TABLE II--Continued Data With Tieaard. to Establishments "Where Benzol Hazard May Exist.
P roduct fir
N um ber em ployees exposed G enoral F rccnutlonn] M easures Us
o
z >
11 Paints, Varnishes............. 33 Gas by-products................
"3
as o -SO?
<gj> a OK a
20 Rubber Goods......................
22 Vegetable Oils......................
34
35 ................ 10 Chemicals...................................
25 0
19 Can solvents .......................... ................10,000
24 Chemicals................................... 3 6 ................
750
37 Benzol used in cutting asphalt 700
13 Chemicals................................... ................ 3,000 12 ................ 150
Rubber Goods
16 Motor Fuel...................... 13 Coal tar distil.........................
15 13 12
12 10
10 10
s 7 4 4
4 3 3
2
....
tSftl S "8 oa KO Yes No
Yes
Yes
No
No No
Yes No No
No
No Yes
Yes
Yes No
Respirators. Closed containers.ventilation. Local ventilation, rubber gloves. Medical examina tion education. Closed containers. ventilation.
Closed containers, care in cleaning tanks. Ventilation.
Closed containers. ventilation. Closed containers, low temperatures.
Closed containers. Change of employ ment. Ventilation. Limi tation of use of benzol. '*
_.
We may now pass to a more detailed consideration of the difficulties
experienced by the reporting firms in regard to benzol poisoning. It will
be noted that of a total of 140 firms reporting, 56 used no benzol and 19
used it in very insignificant amounts. This leaves 65 firms using an ap
preciable amount of benzol (where any information was available, at least
five gallons per week). Of these 65 firms, 15 have noted cases of poison
ing. The information submitted by these companies may be summarized
as follows:
-
Firm 5--A rubber company using about 100 gallons of benzol per week with about 50 employees exposed. Four fatal cases occurred in earlier years, but at a time when the use of benzol was greater than at present. Experiments are now being made with a carbon tetrachloride-rubber cement to replace the present benzol. Three of the four fatal cases were among cousins, and all cases occurred in the spring. The principal symp toms noted were anemia, purpura and hemorrhage, blood changes. There were no instances of sudden acute shock.
Firm 6--A gas company producing'benzol as a by-product. About 500 gallons a week are handled and 32 men exposed. During 12 years opera tion three or four men have been temporarily overcome by fumes and in one department where benzol fumes are sometimes liberated men have experienced some gastro-intestinal symptoms.
Chemical and Rubber Sections
209
Firm 7--A rubber company using: only 5 gallons of benzol a week for cement in certain processes. Three men are now exposed. In the past
when benzol has been .used more extensively, those who were exposed constantly complained of weakness, headache and pains in the eyes. They had a form of intoxication which largely passed off over night. One case exhibited these symptoms in very marked form, others in a slighter degree.
Firm 8--A rubber company using about 2,200 gallons of benzol per week with 1,080 employees exposed. One woman worker collapsed but
was revived in a few minutes in the open air.
Firm 9--A rubber tire company using about 525 gallons per week, 100 employees being exposed to possible poisoning. One employee suffered from hemorrhages from the nose and was relieved by removal to another department.
Firm 11--A paint company with 15 workers' exposed to possible poison
ing. One case of sudden collapse.
Firm 12--A paint and varnish manufacturing establishment with about
100 gallons of benzol used per week. Three employees are exposed to
possible poisoning. No poisoning is reported, but skin irritations have
been noted. Symptoms relieved by transfer to other work.
Firm 15--A large chemical plant where about 100 employees are in
processes where benzol is used. Two fatal cases in artificial leather coat
ing department in the spring of 1920 and one fatal case in the same de
partment in the spring of 1922. Has experienced several cases of nose
bleeding in employees of coating department, and symptoms have cleared
up with change of work.
'
Firm 16--Manufacturers of benzol-blend gasoline motor fuel. Two em-.
ployees exposed. Nervous disturbances and neurasthenia have been noted and the firm has at times been considerably worried as to the situation.
Firm 17--A chemical company in which 25 men are employed in benzol ' processes. Some five or six years ago a definite case of benzol poisoning
occurred from special unusual exposure and during the past year another worker gave some indication of gastro-intestinal disturbances.
Firm 19--A chemical corporation making benzol products for use in the making of can seals. 10,000 gallons of benzol used each week, and 8 men exposed to possible poisoning. Has experienced no cases of poisoning
among its own employees, but has had several cases of probably acute benzol poisoning reported by users of its products.
Firm 20--A rubber company in. which 25 gallons per week of benzol is used, 12 workers being exposed. One or two cases of poisoning have occurred, with symptoms of anemia, gastro-intestinal disturbances, dizzi ness, and cracking of the nails and skin of fingers.
Firm 21--A rubber company with 150 employees exposed. Two years
ago cases of poisoning occurred but lately improvements in ventilation and abandonment of impregnation processes have eliminated the trouble.
Film. 22--A firm using benzol for the extraction of vegetable oils.
Twelve workers exposed. One foreman was overcome after entering the
storage cellar when a valve had broken.
.
210
Twelfth Safety Congress
In addition to the experience reviewed above we may site the statement ji a firm (2) which in. the past has handled benzol in connection with the manufacture of oils and chemicals that poisoning troubles experienced in the past have been eliminated by the substitution of toluol for the benzol. The chemist of this company writes:
"While we have not made exact experiments to support this opinion, we have ascertained that pure benzol gives considerably less trouble than the ordinary commercial grades. In the few cases where we use benzol we employ the pure product exclusively with very good results." (Committee Note: This opinion ap pears to lack uniformity with the proceeding paragraph.)
Another company (4) writes: "Recent developments in the industry are such that within the next few months we confidently ' expect to entirely eliminate the use of benzol if experimental work on another solvent has proceeded far enough to strengthen our belief that it will be a successful substitute."
The representative of another company (18) writes that while they do not use benzol at present he personally appreciates the effects of benzol poisoning since he was laid up for abdut two days at one time with ex treme nausea and headache as the result of handling this substance. It is of some interest to note that three companies (1, 3 and 10) manufactur ing or distributing large quantities of benzol report no complaints from
customers in regard to poisoning since the war. Finally we may consider the special precautions reported by certain of
the firms responding to our questionnaire. It should be noted that the following are precautions reported to the coinmittee and should not be considered as recommended by the committee. (The recommendations of the committee are considered in part V of this report:)
(a) The use of enclosed apparatus for the handling of benzol. (b) Special precautions in handling benzol so as to minimize exposure to the atmosphere. (c) The use of special exhaust ventilation at points where
benzo* .oust necessarily be exposfed. (d) Ample ventilation of the general occupied spaces where
benzol is handled. (e) The handling of benzol so far as possible at low temper
atures.
(f) The use of special protective breathing apparatus.
(g) The use-of rubber gloves.
(h) Systematic medical examination.
(i) Education of the worker in regard to the dangers of the
process.
-
Of the 140 firms using benzol replying to our questionnaire, 42 specify protective measures of oca or another of the types indicated. Of the 23
establishments in which 10 or more persons are exposed to benzol all but thi-ee report- special precautions. Among the most detailed statements in regard to this point may be mentioned the following:
Chemical and Rubber Sections
211
Firm 5--Physical examination with, frequent re-examination of all ex
posed employees. General room ventilation by downward draft in all
rooms where benzol is used.
-
Firm 9--Very complete ventilation to remove fumes. "We keep liquid
in covered containers at all times."
Firm 10--"We believe that the chief hazard in working about benzol
is to safeguard men in cleaning tanks which have contained benzol. Our
procedure is as follows: Steam out tank, then fill in with water to dis
place all gas. We do this as often as necessary, then allow a man to enter the tank with A rope round his waist and an attendant watching him
constantly."
Firm 13--Benzol is used only in closed containers (for sulfonation) and
delivered by compressed air. Fumes are condensed from sUlfonators into
the open.
. .-
' Firm 17--"We aim to handle benzol only In a closed system with further
precaution of very ample ventilation in order, to. eliminate any hazards
which may be present."
.
Firm 19--"We change the air every few minutes by ventilation."
Firm 20--Specially designed hoods with downward ventilation are pro vided. This has been found very elective in the elimination of fumes from
pre-forming processes and cementing tables. Fountain type safety cans
for moistening sponges'are provided and rubber gloves are-used.
Firm 22--The company doctor and chemist have reviewed American and
German literature on benzol poisoning. The company doctor has drawn
up rules for first aid treatment, a copy of which is on the'inside cover of
the box containing the drugs he prescribes. The rules for the use of
these drugs were explained to the manager, superintendent^ chemist and
each of the three foremen, and instructions were given as to the symptotns
of chronic poisoning.
PLANS FOB THE FUTURE
The results of our questionnaire taken face value .would appear- to
suggest that the industrial firms using benzol are keenly alive, to the
possible dangers involved and in most instances have taken very definite
precautions for the protection of their employees. It would appear that
the number of acute cases of benzol poisoning is not large, but-it is obvious
that cases of mild-chronic poisoning may often- occur without detection.
Furthermore it may be noted that out of 23 establishments in which 10
or more persons are exposed to possible benzol poisoning, 11 or nearly
half, report cases of poisoning, while of 6 plants in which 50 or more
employees are exposed, all but one report poisoning.' `
The principal purpose of our questionnaire was to obtain some idea of
the particular industrial'processes and the particular plants In which
the dangers of'hehzbl poisoning were" most considerable. ' If the committee
is to be continued we hope'in' the future to make' a more detailed study
of those industries where the hazard seems to be most- serious and to
report more fully at a later date in regard to the extent- of the hazard and
the most effective means of controlling- .it-.
'-
212 Twelfth Safety Congress
TENTATIVE RECOMMENDATIONS
Meanwhile the committee recommends the following precautionary measures as a means of preventing poisoning by benzol in processes where
this material constitutes a hazard:
.
1. The use, where possible, of enclosed apparatus for the handling of benzol.
2. The use of special exhaust ventilation where employees are exposed
to the fumes of benzol:
(a) Where benzol is evaporated at room temperatures, air
removal by general room ventilation with down draft is recom mended, although in certain enclosed processes where negative pressure can be applied, direct ventilation (from the enclosure)
with upward draft may be indicated.
'
(b) Where localized heat is applied in the evaporation of the
benzol, hoods or enclosures should be provided With up-draft. This draft should be sufficiently intensive and applied so closely to the point of origin of the evaporating benzol to insure the com plete removal of all of the benzol before the heated surface is removed from the hood or enclosure. This recommendation deals with specific processes where sufficient upward air movement is created by the heated surface to overcome the natural density of
the benzol vapor.
'
3. The use of special exhaust ventilation for tank cars and other con tainers together with the use of special protective breathing apparatus in the cleaning, of tanks and other enclosed spaces where benzol may constitute a hazard. The committee does not recommend the use of ordinary commercial respirators as a means of preventing the absorption of benzol fumes.
4. Physical examination of all new employees with the object of exclud ing from benzol processes applicants suffering from:
(a) Organic diseases of heart, lungs or kidneys.
(b) Hemorrhagic tendencies. ' (c) Anemia or any unusual blood picture.
5. Frequent re-examinations of all employees exposed to benzol and the
temporary exclusion from benzol processes when examination reveals the
presence of:
.
(a) Hemorrhages from the mucous membranes of the nose, mouth or other organs.
Cb) Decrease of more than the following from the employee's
normal blood picture (normal conditions will be obtained from
previous examinations of the individual employee):
(1) White cells, decrease of 25 percent; but In no case should * an employee with a white cell count of less than 5,000
he continued in benzol processes.
Chemical and Rubber Sections
213
(2) Red cells, decrease of 25 percent.
(3) Haemoglobin, below 70 percent.
(Note: Reduction. In white cells is the most important condition to be noted. Still more delicate and specific is the change in ratio of the various types of white cells.)
6. Investigation of absences from work by persons familiar with the
symptoms of benzol poisoning.
7. Detailed record of the results of physical examinations, duration of
symptoms and treatment of illnesses.
8. The employee should be made acquainted with the symptoms which
demand early medical attention.
9. A liberal policy of inter-department transfers for employees pre
senting minor symptoms of acute benzol poisoning.
.
Respecfully submitted,
3. W. S. Brady
H. Bradshaw C. F. Horan TV. S. Paine li. E. Weber
3. M. Weiss
C.-E. A. Winslow, Chairman.
BIBLIOGRAPHY OF BENZOL
Hayhurst, E. R.
*v. Jaksch,--
,
Kober and Hanson,--
Robert.----'Lehman, K. B.
Oliver, T.
Pieraccini,----* Rambouaek,--
Roth,--
Thompson, W. G. Weyl,-----
GENERAL BIBLIOGRAPHY
Industrial Health Hazards and Occupational Di seases in Ohio, 1915.
Die Vergittungen, Wien., 1914.
Diseases of Occupations and Vocational Hygiene. Phila., 1916. Article by Dr. Alice Hamilton.
Lchrbuch der Intoxicationen.
Kurzes Lehrbuch der Arbeits-und Gowerbe-Hygiene, Leipzig, 1919.
Dangerous Trades. London, 1909. Oxford Medicine. Article by Dr. Alice Hamilton.
Pathologia del Lavoro, 1906. "
'
Industrial Poisoning. London. 1913.
Kompendium der Gewerbe Krankheiten. Berlin. 1909.
Occupational Diseases. New York. 1914. Handbuch der Arbetter-Krankheiten. 1902.
Albaugh; R. Buchmann,-- Burnet, .T. Bohme & Koster Calamita,-- Curozzi,--.
BENZOL POISONING
Benzol Poisoning. Mod. Med. Dec., 1919, I, 8,
670.
.
Acute Benzol Poisoning:. Berl. Klin. Woch., 1911. 21. 936.
Industrial Benzene Poisoning. Clin. Jouro., Lon don, 1918, 47, 152.
Benzene Poisoning. Arch. Exp. Path. & Pharm., 1917, LXXXI, 1.
Clinical Study of Vulcanizers. Boll. Isp. Mde.
ITfC. Municip. del Lavoro, Rome, 1921'.
Effects of Benzol, etc. on Printers. Trans. NY.
Int. Cong. Hyg. Bern. HI, Part 2, So8.
Starred articles are more important.
214
Twelfth Safety~ Congress
Cuschmaan,--
De la rue,-- Duvoir,----Dworetzky,-- Faure-Beaulieu,--- Filippini,-- Fiandin and Roberti.-- Ford, C. E. Gerbis,-- Hamilton, A.
Harris.--
Hetzer,-- Hogan, and Schrader-- Iloltzmann.-----Horan, C. F. Koelscli. F.
begge, T. m.
Leigh,-- Xleda,-----G. Milian,-- Nick,-- Quinby, R. S. Rambousek.-- Samtesson,-- Schaefer.-- Schmidt----Nielsen.--
1. Early Diagnosis of Poisoning in Aniltn Manufac
ture. II Cong-. Int. des Ma!acUe3 Prof. Brussels,
19X0.
>.
2. Industrial Poisoning with Benzol, etc. Vrtl. Jhrs. f. Off. Ges. Pflege., 1911, XLin, 225.
Chronic Poisoning by Benzol. Paris, 1920. (52
pp.)
Intoxications from Benzine and Its Homologues.
Butt. Soc. Med. Hop., Paris. 1922, XXXVIII, 1541.
A Curious Epidemic of Poisoning in Russian Fac tories. Munch. Med. Woch,. 1914, P. 1306.
Occupational Poisoning by Benzol. Bull. Soc. Med. Hop., Paris, Nov. 10, 1922, XX.VT, 31, 1466.
Industrial Benzol Poisoning. Policlinico, July 24, 1922. Sez. Pract. 30.
Occupational Purpura. Bull. Soc. Med. Hop.,
Paris. Dec. 30, 1921,- XLV, 39, 58.
_
Benzol. Gen. Chem. Bulletin, Sept., 1916, II, 11, 320.
Chronic Benzol Poisoning, zent. f. Gewerbe Hyg., Berlin. 1914, II, 41.
1. The Growing Menace of Benzene (Benzol} Poison
ing in American Industry. J. A. M. A., March 4, 1922, ixmn. 9. 627.
2. Industrial Poisoning in American Anilin Dye Man ufacturing Monthly Labor Rev., Washington, Feb., 1919, Vni, 2, 199. (J. I. H- I, 200.)
3. Industrial Poisons Encountered in the Manufac ture of Explosives. J. A. M. A., 1917, 68. 1445.
A Clinical Study of the Frequepcy of .Lead, Tur pentine, and Benzine Poisoning in 400 Painters. N. Y. City Dept, of Health, Reprint Series 71. Aug., 1918.
Acute Stenosis after Poisoning with Benzol. Deut. Med. Woch., May, 12, 1922, 48, 627.
Benzol Poisoning. Am. Journ. Pub. Health, April. 1923. XIII, 279.
-Concordia, 1907, 440.
Benzol Poisoning: Its Occurrences and Preven tion. Proc. Natl. Safety Council. 1922. 269.
1. Industrial Poisoning from Benzol and Its Nitro-
derivatives Jahresk. f. Aerztl. Fortbildung. - Munich, 1918, IX, 9, 3.
2. Concordia, 1911, 20, P. 20.
3. Industrial Poisoning, geit. f. Angewandte Chem., 19 20, XXXIXI, 1, 1.
Chronic Benzol Poisoning- J. I. H., March. 1920, I. 539.
Industrial Poisoning in Chemical Manufacture. War. Years. Chem. Trade J., 1919. LXV, 385 and 411.
Moniteur Scientifique, 1905.
.
Occupational Benzol Poisoning. Lavoro. Sept.. 1922, xm. 264. See also Oct., Nov.. Dec.. 1922.
Benzene Erythema. (Abstr. J. A. M. A.. Dec. 30, 1922. 79. 2255.)
Benzol Poisoning Cured witli Lecithin Emulsion.
Klin. Woch., Jan. 8, 1922, I, 68.
-
Benzene Poisoning in Rubber Manufacturing. Rubber Age. 1921. VIII. 451. <J. I. H. IH. 157.)
1. Industrial Benzol Poisoning. Report at the II Int. Cong, des Maladies Prof. Brussels, 1910.
2. Concordia. 1910, XVHI. 44S.
Chronic Poisoning with Coal Tar Benzene. Arch, f. Hygiene. 1897, XXXI. 336.
Uses and Harmful Effects of Some Hydrocarbons and Other Organic Compounds. Hamburg Gew.
Insp. Arb. u. Sonder-berichte, 1909.
-- Poisoning from Benzol Vapor. Tids. f. Norske Laegfor. Christiania, 1911, XXXI, 528. -
Chemical and Rubber Sections
215
Schwenk,-- Selling L.
Starr. K. B.
Poisoning by- Benzene Fumes. ' J. Gasbe!., 1920. LXin. 142.
Preliminary Report of Some Cases of Purpura Hemorrhagica Due to Benzol Poisoning. Bull. Johns Hop. Hosp., 1910, 21, 23.
Poisoning' by Benzol-Carbontetrachloride Cement with Reference to Early Symptoms of Benzol Poisoning. J. X. H., Sept., 1922. IV, 5, 203. British Medical Journal. 1913. II. 886. British Medical Journal, 1918, I, 679. Jtwmal of American Medical Assoc., Feb. 2, 1916, X-3CVX. S. 432.
AdaroWewto.-----
Albatish,-- Betoele. *\--
Binder. A.--
.
Budasasa.-- Faure-Beauftew.'---
Flandin and BMerti.-- Genhard.-- Genova.--
Glazer. G.--
Harrington. T. F.--
HefCter.---Hetzer.---
Hogan,--and Schrader-- Lenoir & Claude.-- ' Lewin, L.--
McClure,-- Meda,--G. Newton, C. It_----Ronchetti.--
Santesson.-- Schultze. G.--
CASES OF TOISONIXO
Poisoning from Benzol Fumes. Dent. Med. Woch.. Oct-- 1*21. -ME. 1171.
Ot&e> Bcttic Health Journal. Xor. 1915.
fcwrt Fumes. Mtmch. Med. Woch. Oct. 15. 1912. LZX 43. 22**.
Acute Fatal Poisoning by Benzol Vapor. Monatschevgt. L UnafaltheLJc. Leipzig. 1921. XXVHI, 2*2.
Acute Benzol Poisoning. Bert. Klin. Woch-- 1911, 23. 3-
1. OocvrpationaX Polseeing by Benzol. BulL Soc. Med.
Hop- Parts. Nor. 10. 1*22. KLVL 31. 146*.
2. Benzene Anemia. fAbscr. Boll. Soc. Med. d. Hop.. Hoc. 24. 1922. 4. 1542. ta J. A. M. A- Jan. 20. 1*2*. *0. 233L>
Occupational Purpura. Bud. Soc. Med. Paris. Dec. 20. 1921. XLV, X*. 5*.
Benzol Poisoning. Koe. t~ Sehwwix. Aerate..
P. 387.
Hop. 1910.
f=eceral Cases of geveru Aatmtt from Chemical
Boiiwonirrg. etc. Ann, di OwteCrtchk. e Ota. April 30,
1922.
1. Report of Several Cases of Poisoning by Vapor of Benzol Jour. Soc. Chen. Xnd-- London. 1911. XXX. 519.
I Investigation Into Several Cases oC Poisoning by Vapors of "C. P." Benzol. Bun. Johns Hop. Hosp.. 1911. 22. S.
Industrial Benzol Poisoning in Massachusetts. Boston Med. Surg. Joom-- 1917. 177. 293.
Acute Fatal Poisoning from. Benzol Fumes. Med. Woch.. 1915, 7, 181-212.
Acute Stenosis after Polsonizsg' with Benzol. MedL Wocfc.. May 12. 1922/ 43* 527.
Deut_ Deut.
Benzol Poisoning. Am. Joarn. Pub. Health, April. 1923. XXII. 279.
Soc. MedL Hop., Baris. Oct. 20, 1897.
1. Acute Fatal Poisoning from Benzol Vapor. Munch. Med. Woch.. 1907, 54, 2377.
2. Acuta Benzol Poisoning In Industry. Aerzt. Sach. Ztng., Berlin. 1907, X2U, 89.
3. Decisions In Cases of Accidental Poisoning. Leipsic. 1912. Transfusions in Benzol Poisoning. J. A. SL A.. 1916. 67. 793.
Occupational Benzol Poisoning. Lavoro, Sept., 1922. XIII. 264. See also Oct., Nov., Dec., 1922.
Industrial Blood Poisons. J". A- 2WE- A_. 1920, 74,
1149.
.
Two Cases of Pernicious Anemia from Benzol, etc., Atti della Soc. Lomb. della Sc. Med. e Biol., 1922,
Base. IV.
Chronic Poisoning with Coal Tar Benzene. Arch,
f. Hygiene, 1897, XXXI, 336.
-
Benzol. Aertz. Sach. Ztng., Berlin, 1912, XVIII,
268.
216 Twelfth Safety Congress
Selling, L.
* Simonin.-- Sury-B ienz.--
Stuelp.--
Preliminary Report of Some Cases of Purpura Hemorrhagica Due to Benzol Poisoning. Bull. Johns Hop. Hosp., 1910, 21, 23.
Sot Med. Hop., Paris, 1903, XX, 199.
Fatal Benzol Vapor Poisoning. Gericht. Med. 1888. 49, 138.
Vrtl. Jhrs. f.
Acute Poisoning with Autopsy Findings and Chem
ical Analysis Showing Benzol in the Brain Tissue. Zeit. . Med. Beamte., Berlin, 1919, XXXII, 297.
Rambousek.
IXDUSTRIAL CASES Industrial Poisoning. London, 1913, P. 350.
Teleky and Brezina.--
International Review of Industrial Diseases, Ber
lin. 1922.
Annual Report of the Chief Inspector of.Factories and Workshops (British). 1. ISIS. P. 78.
2. 1912. P. 102.
Annual Reports of German Factory Inspectors. 1912 Vol. III., P. 15, 17. Annual Reports of the Austrian Factory Inspectors. 1911, P. 490. Bulletin of the Xew Vorfc State Industrial -Commission. Nov- 1920, VI, 2. 22.
-- PHAKMAOOLOOT-----
PHTSIOBOGV. ETC.
'
Agasse-Latont and Helm.----Chassevant and Gamier.-- 1.
Investigations in Industrial Hygiene, Paris, 1912. Relations Between Chemical Constitution of Sub stances and Their Toxicity, etc. Arch. Int. de
Phami. et de Therapie, 1905, XIV, 93.
2. Toxicity of Benzene and Several Similar Aromatic
Hydrocarbons. Comp. Rend: de Soc. de Biol..
Paris. 1903. 1255; 1904, 684; 1904, 1094 (toluic
acid).
.
Benian.--
The Resistance of Bacteria to the Disinfecting Ac
tion of Toluene. Benzene, Xylene. Zeit. Chemo-
tlier.. 1914. II. 28.
.
Kordas.---
Toxicity of Pure and Commercial Benzenes. Ann. fals.. 1922. XV. 274.
Davis. O. C. M.
Toxicity and Chemical Activity of Benzenes. Bris tol Med. Sz Chir. Journ., Sept.. 1913.
Jaffe, M.
Destruction of Benzol Ring in the Body. Zeit. f. Physiol. Chem. 1909,--62, 58.
Joacliimogln. G. IsT1>
Determination of Benzol in Tissues and its Distri bution in the Body. Bioehem. Zeit- 1915.----LXX, 93.
Quantitative Determination in Skin Absorption of Poison. Inaug. Diss. 1905.
Kleiner.-- -'
Quantitative Determinations of Benzol Absorption on Prolonged Inhalation. Inaug. Diss.
Kondo,--
Effect on the Blood Vessels, etc. Jap. Med. Lit., 1919. IV, 18.
Lehmann. K. !>.. and others.-- Quantitative Studies on the Absorption of Benzol * from the Air by Animals and Men. Arch. f. Hy
giene. 1910.-----LXXI1. P. 307.
Lewin.--and Guillerv.--
'
Effects of Medicines and Poisons on the. Eye.
1905. .
'
'' .
Experimental Studies on the Effects of Important Gases and Vapors, etc.-- (XXIV-XXIX). Hydro carbons. Benzol. Toluol. Xylol, etc. Arch. f. Hve,. 1912. BXXV, 1.
Luig, B.
Contributions to Experimental Poisoning by Car bon Disulphide and Benzol. Wurzburg. 1913.
Neumann, W.
Experiments on Benzol Action. DeuL Med. IVoch. Berlin. 1915. XLI. 394.
Orabn,--
Industrial Poisoning and the Liebermann Blood Test. Deut. Med. Woch., 1913, XXXVTU. 2079.
Pajaud,--
Contribution to the Pharmacology and Toxicology of Benzines, Bordeaux, 1907.
Pugliese, A.
1. Comparative Investigations of toxicity of Sam ples of Benzene and particularly of Solutions of Rubber in Benzene for Use on Fabrics. Rend. 1st. Lombardo, 1922,--55, 404.
2. Experimental Investigations of the Toxic Ac tion of Benzine. Petroleum. Ether and Toluene. Rend. 1st, Lomb., 1922, 55. 4 43.
Chemical and Hxibber Sections
217
Rabe and Hirschland,-- Schott,-!--
Stoehr,--
Sturm,-- Rabe and Hirschland,-- Schott,-----
Weissenberg,----Wqjciechowski,-- Zangger.--
Proving of Benzol, etc. J. Am. Inst. Homeopath. 1920, XIII, 499.
Electrocardiographic Studies in Acute Intoxica tions, Arch, Exp. Path. Pharm.. 1920, LXXXVII, 309.
Determination of Amounts of Benzol Absorbed by Animals and Men from the Air. Dissertation, Wurzburg. 1909.
Toxicity of Oils (Tropfoele), etc. 1908.
Inaug. Diss..
Proving of Benzol, etc. J. Am. Inst. Homeopath. 1920. XIII. 499.
Electrocardiographic Studies in Acute Intoxica tions, Arch. Exp. Path. Pharm.. 1920, LXXXVII. 309.
Quantitative Experiments on the Toxicity of Ben zine and Benzol. Dissertation Wurzburg, 1904.
The Toxicity of Various Commercial Benzols in Vapor Form. Inaug. Diss. Wurzburg, 1910.
The Relation of Technical and Industrial Poisons" to the Nervous System. Ergebnisse der Inn. Med. u. Kinderheilk. 1910. V. 386.
I'ATHOtOOY-- Brandino.--
Filipi,-- Fuchs.--and v. Soos.-- Henderson. Y. Santesson, C- G. Schmitz.-- Sohn.-- Zenoni.--
Histology of Experimental Benzol Poisoning. Rif. Med., May, 1922,-----38, 506.
Experimental Studies on the Effects of Important Gases and Vapors, etc.--- (XXIV-XXIX). Hydro carbons. Benzol, Toluol, Xylol, etc. Arch. f. Hyg., 1912. IXXV. 1.
Physiological Action of Some Benzene Derivatives Compared with Cyclo-hexane. Arch, di Farmacol. Sper. Rome, 1914.-----XVIII, 1078.
Combustion of Benzol in the Human Body. HoppeSeylers Zeit. f. Physiol. Chem.. 1916.-----98. 11.
Physiological Effects of Exhaust Gas. J. I. H., 1921. 3, P. 145.
Observations on Benzol Poisoning with Special Reference to Its Action on Fat. Skand. Arch. f. Physiol. T-eipzig. 1899.-----x. 1-36.
Chemical Diagnosis of Acute Benzol Poisoning by
Toachimoglu's Technique. Deut Med. Woch. Ber
lin Oct. 1915.-----XLI; 42, 1237.
.
Effect of Benzol on Metabolism, etc. Wien, Klin. Woch., 1913-15, 573.
1. Pathological Anatomy of Industrial Benzene Poisoning. Atti, Soc. Lomb. di Scienze Med. e
Biol. 1922.-----XI. 4.
2. Study of Pathological Anatomy. Pensiero Medico
Aug. 12. 1922.
'
'
Action- ox the Blood--
Bianchi.-----
Action of Benzol on the Blood and Blood Forming
Organs. Arch. Per. le Sc. Med.. Turin, l9lo,
XXXIX. 1.
.
Dazzl. A. Duke. W. W.
Mechanism of Benzol Action on Blood Corpuscles. Giorn. di Clin. Med. Parms, 1921. II, 612.
Causes of Variation in the Platelet Count. Arch. Int. Med. 1913. II. 100.
Fontana. G. Forbes, H.. and others--
Blood and Blood Forming Organs in Benzol In toxication. Giorn. di Clin. Med- 1921, 3. (J. I. H. III. P. 183.)
Effect of Benzol' on Coagulation Time. J. I. H., Nov. 1921, HI, 213.
Hamburger,--
Influence of Iodoform, etc., on Phagocytosis. K. Akad. Wetenschaften (Dutch) 1911. 894.
Hurwitz. and Drinker-----
Coagulation Factors in Experimental Aplastic Anemia of Benzol Poisoning. Journal Exp. Med. May, 1915, XXI, 5, 423.
Banglois. J. P.. and Desbouis,--The Action of Benzol Vapor on the -Blood. Hyg. - Gen. et App.. Paris, 1907. II, 149.
218
Twelfth Safety Congress
Leone,-- Meda. G.
Mohr.--
---
Ronchetti.--
Seech i, 1?.
Selling, L.
.
Immunitv, Etc.-- Hektoen, L. Klein, and Winternitz--
Rusk. G. Y. Schlff.-------
Simond, and -Jones--
Weiskotten and others--
Bc-inhauer.--
Dennis and McCartJiy.----lSgloCt, Cr.
Elliott and Dalton.--
I'araday. M. Holleman. A. K.
Jones, I'. 13.
Klein, C. A.--
Krais.--
:
Lejiaann.--
Lunge, and Kohler.-- Mansfield.-----
Molinari,-- Pfeiffer, O.---
Po erschke,--
Rambousek.-- Plinian,--
Wnrmes, A. R.
Antagonistic Action of Iodine and Benzol on the Blood. Arch. dl Farm. Sper., 1916, 180.
Alterations' In the Blood and Blood Forming Or gans in Chronic Benzol Poisoning. Lavoro, May. 1922.
Blood Changes in Poisoning with Benzol, etc. Deut Med. Woch., 19 02, 28. 73.
Low Platelet Count from Benzol. Genoa, 1914-15, VII, 211.
Pathologies
Hematological Studies on Acute and Chronic Ben zol Poisoning. Rif. Med. Naples. 1914. XXX, 995.
1. Benzol as a Leucotoxin, Beitr. z. Path. AnaL u. z. Allg. Path.. 1911, 51, 576.
2. Benzol as a Leucotoxin. Johns Hop. Hosp. Rep..
1916. 17, 83.
.
Effect of Benzene on the Production of Antibodies. Journ. of Infectious Diseases, July, 1916, XIX, 1.
Journ. Exp. Med., 1913. XVTII, 52.
Un. of CallL Pub. in Path., 1914, II, 139.
Zeit. . Immunltatsforsch. Orig., 1914, XXIII, 61.
Benzene on the Active Anaphylaxis on Guinea Pigs. Zeit. f. Immunutat., 1914, XXIII, 61.
Effect of Injections of Benzol on Production of
Antibodies.
Journ. Med. Res., Boston, 1915,
XXXIII. 2. 147 and 3 22.
Action of Benzol. Journ. Med. Res., 1916-1920, passim.
INDUSTRIAL
-
Benzol Poisoning and the Cooperation of Medical Officers in Factory Planning. Munch. Med. Woch., 1896. 43. 915.
Determination of Benzene in Illuminating Gas. Journ. Am- Chem. Soe.. 1908, XXIX, 1, 236.
Formation of Benzene and. Toluene by Action of Aluminum Chloride on Solvent Naphtha. Seience, Aug. 10. 1917. XLVI, 1180, 145.
Acetone. Alcohol and Benzene in the Air of Cer tain Factories. (Abstract, Lancet. May, 1919. 772->
Phil. Trans., 1825, P. 440.
Fifty Years of Benzol Studies. 1915. XX, 459.
Janus. Leyden.
Analysis of Commercial Pure Benzols. Journ. Soc. Chem. Indust-, London, 1918. XXXVII. 324.
Constructive Industrial Hygiene in the India Rub
ber Industry. Journ. Soc. Chem. Indust-. Aug. 15, 1922. 41. 15. 325R.
Dictionary of Technical Materials and Their Com position. Leipzig. 1921, Voi. Ill, F. 396.
1. Poisoning In an Aniltn Factory. Concordia. 1910. It, 3i)d.
2. Contamination of the Air from Processes. Fischer. Jena. 1903.
Industrial -
Coal Tar and Ammonia. 1916.
Quarterly Journ. of the Chem. Soc.. 1844. Vol. I.. P. 244.
Industrial Chemistry Vol. IT, Organic. London. 1913. P- 533.
Determination of Benzol in Illuminating Gas. Chem. Zeit., 1904, XXVII. 884.
Hazards in the Preparation of Rubberized Fabrics. Zent. f. Gewerbe Hygiene, 1913. I. 7. 46.
Industrial Poisoning. London. 1913. P. 352.
Encyclopedia of Technical Chemistry. Berlin. 1915. Vol. II. 360.
Coal Tar Distillation.
Chemical and Rubber Sections
219
Whitehead, Wolff.--
Benzol: Recovery, Rectification and Uses. Lon don, 1921 (Benn Bros.).
Accidents and Injuries to Health in Varnish Man ufacturing'. Farbenztg., 1921, XXVI, 943.
HYGIENE
Hamilton. A.--
Hygienic Control of the Anilin Industry in Europe. Textile Colorist, 1920, XLII, 32o, seq.
Marquard, F. F.
Safe Practices in By-Products Coke Plants. Na tional Safety Council Proceedings, 1921, 383.
Mass. State,--
Massachusetts State Board of Labor and Indus tries Industrial'Bulletin No. 11, 1916.
Mitchell, A. B.
Care of Workmen Employed in the Manufacture of Anilin and Benzol Products. Journ. of Indust, and Eng. Chem., Bee., 1916, 1161.
National Board of Fire Underwriters---
Regulations for the Protection of Benzol and Toluol Recovery Plants.
National Safety Coun Proceedings. 1916. 562. Benzol Tanks, 1616, 1515 ; 1921, 708; 1921. 709, Rubber Industry; 1922, 893, Rubber Industry.
New York State.--
Benzine Explosives, etc., in Great Britain, Spe cial Bulletin of the N. Y. State Industrial Com
mission, No. 76. March, 1916, 54.
Paine, W. S.
Benzol Poisoning in Industry. Nat. Safety Counc. Froc., 1922, P. 874.
Reifschneider. C._ A.
Benzol Poisoning : Its Occurrence and Prevention. Nat. Safety Counc. Froc., 1922. F. 279.
Robinson. J, A.
Nitration Products of Cotton and Benzol, etc. National Fire Protection Assoc. Quarterly, Jan., 1916, F. 285. Bibliography, F. 332.
Banger in Entering Chemical Tanks. Safety
. Engineering, Oct., 1916, F. 2.
BENZOL IN THE TREATMENT OF LEUKEMIA
Barker and Gibbs.----Barry and Ketchem.-- Betke.-- Boggfe and Guthrie,-- v. Boltenstern.--------Bori,-- Iviralyfi,--
v. Koranyl,-1-- Krokiewicz,-- Moorhead,"--T. G.
Muhlmann,-- Neumann.-- Pappenheim,-- Reibmayr,-- Rosier.-- . Sohn,-- Spiegler.-- Stein,--> Stern,----Tedesko,-- Turk.--
Bull. Johns Hop. Hosp., X914. XXIV. 363. Indiana S. Med. Assn. Journ.. Aug., 1916, IX, 8.
Fortschritte der Medizin, I... P. 2. Bull. Johns Hop. Hosp., 1914, XXIV, 368.
Berl. Klinik, 1913, 25, 305.
Wien. Klin. Woch., 1913, 49, 2034.
Berl. Klin. Woch., 1913, 43, 1982. Wien. Klin. Woch., 1913, 26, 1062.
-'
Berl. Klin. Woch., 1912. 49, 1357. Wien. Klin. Woch., 1913, 44. 1799.
.
Trans. Roy. Acad. Med., Ireland, 1915, XXXIII, 29.
Abstract J. A. M. A., No'v. 29, 1913, 2022.
TUerapie der Gegenwart, Feb.. 1913, II. 56. Wien. K1UV Woch., 1913, 2, 48.
Med. Kliri., 1913, 14, 540.
Wien. Klin. Woch., 1913, 21,. 838. Wien. Klin. WoCh., 1913. 15, 573.
Rif. MecL, 1914, XXX, 667.
Wien. Klin. Woch:, 1912, 49, 1938.
Wien. Klin. Woch., 1913. 10, 365.
Wien. Med. Woch., 1913, 2, 119. Wien. Med. Woch., 1913," 10. 626.
DISCUSSION
Mr: Horan; Under "Kinds of Benzol," the committee has pure benzol, 90 percent benzol, 50 percent benzol, and solvent naptha. There is another type of benzol, but not a common commercial brand, "100 percent benzol." A lot of us would assume that 100 percent benzol would be 100 percent
220
Twelfth Safety Congress
pure. That is not so. 100 percent benzol is a solvent that contains 100
percent of materials which distill under 100 degrees centigrade. It isn't,
the same as pure benzol.
The committee got up a questionnaire which was sent to 324 industries which, from the type of their product, might be expected to use benzol. One hundred and sixty, I believe* have answered the questionnaire. It will be noted that out of 44 establishments with less than 10 employees exposed to benzol, only 4 reported esses of benzol poisoning, in other words only one-eleventh; of 17 plants with from 10 to 49 exposed, only 6, or practically one-third reported In enrol poisoning: while of the six firms with more than 50 exposed, all but one reported cases of benzol poisoning.
I think that S* of Importance. My personal opinion (X don't want to be quoted as speaking Per the nwttte) is that the reason for the high percentage of Industrie* with snore than 50 employees reporting cases of benzol poisoning was feecttMC Of the fact that the people in those indus tries were more apt to diagnose properly the cases of benzol poisoning.
These statistic* are pretested by the committee for what they are worth. The cownfeke deem'* bdleve. I think, that out of 44 establish ments with less than ?* wployuta. only 4 had cases of benzol poisoning.
I hope y<n vitt appreciate that this fa a very tentative report Of prog ress. The commlnw! feels that quite an investigation on benzol poisoning might weil he made. Jt would be Interesting to know just what the dangers from benzol arc. There semi to be three opinions with reference to benzol poisoning. One group believes benzol should not be used under any conditions fn industry. The second group feels benzol is not partic ularly dangerous. The third group feels that, to individuals who are sus ceptible to benzol poisoning, benzol is quite a severe hazard.
Mr. A. I-. Watson (Hooker Electro Chemical Co.): I should like to express my personal appreciation to Dr. Winslow and the others on the committee on benzol poisoning for the most conscientious investigation I have ever seen conducted by any committee with which I have been connected. The report which has been prepared by them is a work of art and represents an mormons amount of work on the part of the com mittee- If my successor as chairman of the Industrial Poisons Commit tee should see fit. 1 would like to see this committee continued, to bring out further valuable information.
I will make the motion that this meeting go on record as extending its thanks and appreciation to the Benzol Poisoning Committee for its splendid work.
The motion was seconded and carried.
-
Dr. Alice Hamilton: I want first to congratulate the two sections on this admirable piece of work. I don't think. I have ever seen anything come from industry itself that at all equals the study you have made. I hope it is going to impress you all in that same way, so that you will feel, although the ground covered is very crude, 'the results covering this ground are gratifying enough to make you.want to explore further, for
Chemical and Rubber Sections
221
I am sure the members of the committee will tell you they have not finished their job. I think Mr. Horan intimated as much. There is quite a little yet to be done and I hope they wiiH keep on with it.
BLOOD TEST IS USED
The points that seem to me to remain to be done, I could perhaps illus
trate by describing a small piece of work in which Harvard Medical School participated, the year before last, in an artificial silk factory in Boston,
where tetrachlormethane is used and a case of mild poisoning developed It so happened one of the members of the company had interested himself
in the study of tetrachlormethane. During the war it was known as "dope" poisoning. In England, they had some 80 or 90 cases in aeroplane
factories. They finally got rid of them. It was a toxic jaundice which brought about acute yellow atrophy of the liver.
This-appearance of a mild case of jaundice in this man's factory caused him to come to us at Harvard and ask what we could do about it. We made a few suggestions as to the best safeguard against this escape of
fumes, but you practical men all realize how impossible it is to keep the
air uncontaminated from this dangerous poison. We suggested that they
put in a well-trained young physician and have him make routine examina
tions of as large a group of employees as possible to see if there was not some sign which could be determined upon to show the first stage of
poisoning before any serious effects of the jaundice on the liver.
He found the test of the urine showed nothing. .But, with the blood test, something did happen; that was the appearance of an unusually large number of leukocytes. Anything over 12 percent was regarded as
abnormal and in some cases it reached 30 or 40. In no case did the clin
ical symptoms occur in this plant without this change in the white blood corpuscles. In four cases that were found without clincial symptoms, they defended themselves against the poison and after the initial stage
of showing the change, came back to the normal blood count, indicating that their systems had adjusted themselves to the poison. You don't have to make the white blood cell count; just make the differential. It can be done quickly. It shows when an employee must be temporarily suspended.
If something of that sort could be done in plants with a large number
of employees exposed to small quantities of benzol over an appreciable
period of time, I believe we could establish a test which would enable us to know when a susceptible person is beginning to feel it.
Of course, with benzol as with all poisons, the individual's susceptibility
is an enormously important factor, the same as with wood alcohol. So that I think it would be a very good thing if this committee could find some factory which would allow such a study to be made and could per
haps take that as part of its next year's program. Mr. Sydney Ashe (General Electric Co., Pittsfield): We were very
fortunate the early part of this year in having Dr. Hamilton make inspec
tion of the Pittsfield Works, and she called our attention to a good
many of these facts in connection with benzol.
-
222
Twelfth Safely Congress
Since then, we have been making as thorough a study as we could of it.
We will be very glad to do anything we can to cooperate with the com
mittee. I notice you would like to get some specific data on the incipient
cases in the earlier stages. We would be very glad to help you out In this
respect.
'
There is one process in which we use benzol that is giving us a great deal of concern in finding a substitute. We paint the inside of large transformer tanks with paint that contains benzoL We thought out a good many ways of ventilating these tanks such as using compressed air, but so far we haven't found anything practical. We are trying to find a substitute for benzol in the paint.. We would rather use benzol if
we could.
A METHOD OF PAI.VTIXG SMALL IXTERIOKS
Mr. Horan: Dr. Eegge of Great Britain told of some of the work they
had done on benzol. He found in painting small interiors where the work
could be done fairly quickly, it you began, painting at the bottom and
came up, rather than at the top and go down, you would find your em
ployees did not breathe as much benzol vapor because of the fact that the
benzol vapor would be below his breathing surface, on the way up. If you
begin at the top and go down, you are gradually getting more concen
trated vapor in the air. Possibly, a portable ventilating system tbat
would take the air from the bottom of the transformer (assuming that
the inside of the transformer is of room temperature or cooler) might do
the trick.
"
Mr. Ashe: Those tanks are pretty large, some 10 feet in diameter.
Mr. Horan: Have you tried carbon tetrachloride instead of benzol?
Mr. Ashe: We are trying to get a substitute paint in our laboratories.
Mr. Horan: I notice that in these new shoes with the rubber soles, some of the rubber companies have found that a rubber cement made from naptha and rubber wouldn't hold the rubber onto the shoe. They have had to use benzol because there wasn't anything else that could take its place- I know of two factories using carbon tetrachloride cement. It has the disadvantage of being a lot more expensive--much less expensive, however, than fatal cases of benzol poisoning.
Mr. W. R. Webb (Eastman Kodak Co., Rochester) : What about toluol, xylol? They are less toxic, I believe.
Dr. Sawyer: Mr. Horan has spoken of the possible advantage of using
carbon tetrachloride rather than benzol. I have had some rather drastic
experiences with carbon tetrachloride used where it is not possible to
secure good ventilation. The symptoms are very real. The workers will
complain of headache and nausea. I know of a. good many cases working
around carbon tetrachloride, where; the solvent had to he changed. That
is particularly true where it is used, in wiping joints and that, type of
thing. From reports in the Journal of the American Medical Association,
where they are using carbon, tetrachloride to get rid of hookworm, they
have had four fatal cases.
.
.
Chcntical and Rubber Sections
223
Mr. C. E. Rice (Dow Chemical Co.,-Midland, Mich.) : We manufacture carbon tetrachloride. I. want to emphasize the last gentlemen's remarks. Carbon, tetrachloride is a concentrated vapor and one of the most rapid
anaesthetics I know of. I would warn you against it as a solvent.
Mr. M. Li. Champion (Clairton By-Product Coke Works): In the manu
facture of benzol at the By-Products Works, the workers cleaning tanks come in contact with much more benzol than those who use it in painting. We found the only way to overcome its effects is the use of gas masks.
We have a few hose type masks which pump fresh air into the tank
through the hose.
Chairman Kershaw: Which did you find best?
Mr. Champion: The hose type is the best. The men like it better. They have more confidence in it. It is just the ordinary face mask with a hose (about 50 feet) attached. The benzol mask would only last thirty to forty-five minutes. We get these nose masks from a company in Pittsburg.
Chairman Kershaw: I see Mr. Paine sitting over here. He has been very prominent in this work ever since it was first brought to our
attention.
THE HOSE MASK
Mr. Paine: I would like to speak on this hose mask. We did not
believe it would work, so we wrote to the company and asked them to
send us the mask. We got a couple of physicians who had been doing special research work. After submitting the mask and hose to rigid tests, we" finally put 50 feet of hose on the masks and were then in posi
tion to recommend it to one or two of our clients who had requested
help on this problem.
So, if you have ttds problem, Mr. Asbe, I would get In touch with this
company and get them to let you try it out and if It stands your tests,
as it has ours, it will fill the bill. I want also to follow along the line thaff Dr. Hamilton mentioned. You
have got to drop a bomb to get anything started and started right. We
are just skimming over the surface and the amount of material that
has been turned out on industrial diseases and exposure of employees to
the intoxicating poisons, etc., has been, in a large measure, superficial except on the part of some physicians who have been sacrificing time and
money and have had no backing. Once the bomb is dropped, you begin
to see people wake up and say, "Maybe there is something in this," then
you begin to find out how little physicians know about it, and how little
chemists know about it.
-
We called a meeting of the best chemists and what we thought were the best physicians on this subject, and began inquiring. They all stood
with blank eyes as we began to unfold the symptoms we found in these different cases which had become intoxicated by this special poison of
benzol.
1
Some time last year, after one plant had lost three girls, and it was
decided to get the best aid we could, we got the opinions of the best
224
Twelfth Safety Congress
authority in reach but they were very vague and not in any form to take
before a commission and settle something upon which hangs the destiny,
not only of a score but many scores. We finally got a specialist and he
said: "These are the earmarks of the poisoning."
We began to ferret out these cases. We buried three and found quite a
number that were affected. Then X called for an investigation.
We have only touched the edge of this thing. I am not going to scare
any one. The road looks brighter, but I am not in agreement with the
sect that says this is non-essential, nor on the other hand, the sect that
says this is a deadly poison that should be taken out of industry.
Now in that plant which had had 70 cases, with a change of ventilation
we haven't had a case.
"
We have started three or four investigations along the lines laid out
by Dr. Hamilton. The thing we are looking forward to next year, if you
see fit to carry it on, is to carry this strongly into all the industries. The
first thing we have to do is to work out a simple method of procedure on
these tests so that as these are followed out in the various plants, next
year when the report comes to you it won't be so voluminous as this
because we shall have facts. What .we state, we will state more carefully,
more scientifically and with more evidence to back it up.
As far as the use of tetrachloride is concerned, I have positive evidence
that in some cases, for painting, as you suggested. Mr. Ashe, X wouldn't
use it. During the war, we labored and labored wtth that same problem.
Mr. C. N. Young (Globe Indemnity OO : The master of protective
breathing apparatus in the report is rat&gr cmamsrvanrrew. "From it, and the
discussions here. I gather there isn't
TWWrTTi eecaftafcgfece in. any of the
chemical types of masks. It awiW t* be Che MeMsSK of opinion that
the type of applying external atr -or
i C&e eawtainer, is th
only type on which rasal Ocpc.ndefter mm be pbawB,
1 would also like the ofwtrtWB of
awgipgaft feyreaeartatires here or
xylol and toluol. Are Xbey reaK&r low jpebpanaan. as this report wouI<
seem to indicate. f
ft aePsb tfhe DMt Tbaft Se? brave a higher boilinj
point? Is it not a tact that The Wfxvr W*
a* Xt exists at the sam<
concentration is more yatsoProiMi tlMb Xfmp fhmet-
read benxol? X woul<
like discussion on vowse ocher t sTirifi: uliu weed ra mdwstry. for instane
tetraethylene.
wwtn
XTtxu.
Dr. Hamilton: A good deal eC active work has been done on tfe subject of relative toxicity of benxol. toluol and xylol. Xylol is a litt) less toxic.
On tetraethylene. the only information we have comes from German There they had to use it during the wav * a solvent for fats in a lart factory making shrapneL They bad four cases of poisoning develop wl very marked symptoms of the same kind, that is. a man with a cut, v will say would get tetraethylene in his system and nine months lat would still he suffering from a complete paralysis of the sensory pa of the trigeminous nerve which hadn't yet passed, and carried with
Chemical and. Rubber Sections
225
the loss of the senses of smell and taste. Of course, that Isn't as serious as benzol poisoning would be. I haven't seen anything else on tetrachlorethylene. All of those raw compounds of the fatty series bare an effect like that of chloroform. If prolonged, you will get anaesthesia.
Mr. E. J. Riederer (Atlas Powder Co., Wilmington) : I certainly hope the committee will be continued and give this matter more study in the future.
Chairman Kershaw: For those interested in gas masks, I would like to make this announcement. I received from the United States Bureau of Mines, paper No. 29 on the "Comparison of Gas Masks." It is one of the most interesting on that subject. It is right to the point and contains tabulations showing the relative advantages of the various types of masks. It can be secured from the Government Printing Office, or direct from tbe Bureau of Mines in Pittsburg.
Mr. Horan: If this committee Is to be continued, tbe committee isn't going out to get the facts unless there is some place to get them. Our only hope of getting facts is to get them from persons like yourself or from the industries which you represent.
What the committee needs are blood counts and general physical con
dition of employees before they get benzol poisoning. The fact that a
man has a white blood count of only 2900 oo. May 4th, when, he was
examined, doesn't mean a thing unless we ksee what hit* blood count was
two days before he went into the hefraol pfeeet-o
just how the changes
took place. If there is any se
yew can do in your
industry---not only for ywwr
bo*
iBWMiBfrBEi.' it is Co follow
these recommendatiwo*
ginwiety
perrlisty. #es- reference to new
employees and old
to E? r-eWte Of you people
will do that or get yowr #erW<ni''- 1*e 4W PI,
yer flic committee will
answer the questions yew
befiref HHWa
USece-s BwuM- adbfe be at this time.
I ask on behalf eC Qfe tiomiM'Wfrjw?
yew
" nffmlB consideration
to cooperating with m* eg. fflfe r"f>WCaBlf*ec- ft^ewMi'ifeicw!aartToBTB .*
&xn M&ssmjgm <w *m**iB3sn*
A- G. Smitw, CiHww.w
The processes ec hMcf
m** MWSW SC*
and there
are great. difference's m-
egfejSft nciMt aicralft'c? *>f wrm * VbgfedS solvents
in the industry. It Cc tbfcPWbMPb, bariWWe pc fB&.Vt'idibte fe make general
statements as to the aw>Pte eC iwifeetfib' a*
mbber industry but
rather to indicate tike dswwfeife Hfcefi? fe e*fet cftowld certain, solvents he adopted by the matmfae*rer fee pewdPaetfeO of vaurfeus types of rub ber goods.
The problem of safe handling of solvents may be attacked from various
angles. It appears that, of late, the general tendency in the industry is to create processes that overcome the necessity for nsing solvents in large quantities, or render those used less inflammable. Advance in precaution
226
Twelfih Safety Congress
ary methods in handling solvents have been mainly in the establishment of improved storage facilities, ventilation, building isolation -where the great est quantities of solvents are used, solvent recovery systems and. educa tion of employees in the expediency of giving appropriate regard to the dangers of solvents.
STOKAGB
-
The storage of solvents creates various hazards, the most prominent of which are due to the possibilities of Are and explosions. The character of installation, quantity of supply and protection against escape of liquids or vapors that may extend to surrounding property is governed to a certain extent by local ordinances and insurance underwriting regula tions. The manufacturer realizes the expediency of these safety require ments that he may be required to work to and at the same time gener ally desires to be reasonably certain of protection against damage to his own property and lives of his employees. Experience with, different kinds of installations allow the formation of an opinion relative to appropriate
locations of tanks, distributing facilities and general practices in main taining the solvents in a relatively safe manner.
The use of the underground storage tanks for solvents is preferable as they minimize exposure to ignition. The initial cost of installation for large quantity storage of solvents, however, is the deciding factor between underground and above ground systems for some manufacturers. The common practice is to keep large supplies in above ground tanks, located on ground sloping away from the plant and where there is a minimum opportunity for sparks from smokestacks, locomotives, smokers, etc. Above ground installations are commendable since leaks may be readily detected and installations easily inspected. Tanks may be painted and maintained in a good manner, thereby preventing depreciation which is more difficult to prevent for underground systems, and where also leaks may occur, unless a careful check is made of consumption, the leaks may not be discovered unless located by means of seepage which may promote a severe hazard. Above ground tanks should be provided with goose-neck shaped breather pipes fitted with a copper wire screen of not less than 40 mesh. "Variations in climatic temperatures where solvents of relatively high-volatility are concerned produce either a pressure or a slight vacuum within the tanks and this vent offers a relief. Installations consisting of a number of tanks located in a warm climate may have vents connected to a common main, terminating at a point where the solvents may be .recovered, or disposed of in the atmosphere with, the least amount of exposure to ignition. Tanks painted white, theoretically cause less evaporation oE solvents than tanks painted black or other colors.
MOW LOSSES MAY BE OVERCOME
The loss of solvents to the atmosphere by means of evaporation and the hazard of inflammable vapors being prevalent in the atmosphere may be overcome to a certain extent by use of a newly developed compound
Chemical and Rubber Sections
227
consisting of a mixture of, principally, calcium chloride, glucoses, glycer
ine. cornstarch and glue. These ingredients when thoroughly agitated
and introduced into storage tanks are not soiuhle in gasoline and some
of the other common rubber solvents. When applied abont one inch
thick the compound totally covers the surface of the liquid in the tank
and excludes the air. Its weight when made into a sort of emulsion
by agitation is about 4? pounds per gallon, being light enough to float
on the surface of the solvent.
-
"When more than one solvent is maintained in a battery of storage
tanks, valves to distributing mains should be marked in some way to
indicate when the valve is cracked open or closed. Pipe lines carrying
different solvents should be painted distinguishing colors. This ma
terially assists the attendant in charge in following the flow of solvents
at all times from the storage system through pipe lines. For example,
a red color may be used for indicating gasoline lines, yellow color for
benzol, blue color for carbon bisulphide, etc. This color scheme could
be appropriately followed out to the different departments of the plant
where the solvents may be used.
It is a good practice to have pipe lines leading from storage tanks to
pumps located within a plant or to auxiliary storage tanks, fitted with
fine mesh screens to prevent any flames from extending back to storage
tanks should a conflagration occur, even though these pipe lines are
fitted with stop valves. Motor operated pumps, when located in the
vicinity of tanks, should be housed in vapor proof compartments, and
all fuses, starting boxes and rheostats should be enclosed.
The storing of benzol during winter months introduces the need of
locating the storage tanks in heated fire-proof buildings. Benzol has
the peculiarity of freezing and solidifying at 32 degrees Fahrenheit and
does not regain a liquid state again until the temperature has reached
approximately 37.5 degrees Fahrenheit. It is possible to store benzol
above ground in outside tanks which are fitted with steam coils, because,
in solidifying, benzol does not expand and rupture tanks the way water
does. This storage practice has its faults, however, as the heating process
is liable to produce vapors that are particularly susceptible to ignition.
The most feasible means of storing It is in moderately heated fireproof
buildings.
'
Owing to the unusually great volatility of carbon bisulphide as com
pared with other solvents used in the rubber industry this should be
stored under water. Water dissolves carbon bisulphide to the' extent
of about 0.5 per cent but without imparting any dangerous properties
to the water.
.
STATIC Et-ECTKICITY
Solvents or their vapors have been ignited by static electricity pri marily because of the plant operator's disregard to the possibilities of static electricity accumulation and discharges, or because the plant oper ator does not suspect that certain conditions are likely to create static electricity. It is quite a well known fact that a cold dry winter's day
228
Twelfth Safety Congress
is most favorable for static electricity generation, but this is not the only climatic condition that may be favorable. Generally speaking any atmos phere containing a minimum amount of humidity may be just as favorable.
When certain machines, such as winding or spreading machines, are suspected of causing static electricity a simple test may be made by holding the back of the hand within two or three inches from the material going through the machine and if static is present an unmistakable tingling sensation, will be noticeable. A neon gas detector as used for testing spark plugs on automobiles is also a sensitive testing device.
There are varying precautions that may be suggested to minimize the dangers of solvent vapor ignition. One of the fundamental reliefs from the hazard in rubber goods or rubber cement .plants is to permanently
ground each moving part of the spreading, slitting, winding or re-winding
and agitating units to a common ground conduit that is positively grounded. Oil used in lubrication, insulates one machine part from another. Soldering connections do not suffice in all instances as vibra tion. is likely to sever the connection. Screw connections with lock washers and nuts are more dependable. Many thousand volts with rel atively low amperage have been known to accumulate in a machine, on a belt, or in a solution, and unless this is thrown off by grounding or otherwise dissipated, a spark at a time when the explosive range of the solvent vapors in the air is correct is likely to produce disastrous results. Another mean of preventing static electricity accumulation, or its creation, is to render the atmosphere in a room humid by distributing steam from jets uniformily located about the room, or if "a single machine
is to be relieved of any static generation a perforated steam pipe near the source of generation will dissipate the static. . Objections are raised by some manufacturers of rubber products to this practice as it is claimed that blisters in the rubber are caused by the presence of the moisture, especially when fabric is being impregnated or spread with a rubber solution.
For spreading, winding and cutting machines, metal idler rolls, hori
zontal bars having slight projections located close to the material pass
ing through the machine, metal strips on metal pulley shafts connected
to a ground, are commendable in drawing off the static. Replacement
of belts for gear drives, and the providing of metal plates for operators
to stand on when tending machines are also steps that help to eliminate
static.
'
The sifting or screening of sulphur is a source of danger from static electricity and although screens are permanently grounded it is recom mended that this operation be isolated from the main plant. This is advisable because the dust is so readily electrified when suspended in air that rapid changes in the static polarity take place, and these may he sufficient to cause a spark to jump to the screen or other objects and cause the substance to ignite. Sifting or screening machines may be so
Chemical and, Rubber Sections
229
arranged as to conduct these operations in the presence of an inert gas and thereby prevent the bad experience that some manufacturers are experiencing due to this one particular operation.
Metal top tables are preferable to all wood tables in cases where slightly plastic rubber sheets are cut to size, as the metal can be grounded to prevent static that is very likely to form when the sheet is stripped from the table. It would likewise be appropriate to remove any small containers of solvents that may be in close proximity to these tables.
CHARACTERISTICS OF SOLVENTS
When we speak of solvents having certain tendencies to produce an
explosion, we refer to the likelihood of the vapors of these solvents being
ignited in the atmosphere. The range of explosibility means the amounts
of these vapors contained in an air mixture that is susceptible to explo
sion. These limits can be varied greatly by circumstances such as room
dimensions, character of ignition, presence of moisture, temperature, etc.
The wider the range of explosibility the more susceptible the vapors are
to ignition.
.
.
Carbon bisulphide finds a moderate application in rubber plants for cement making and cold cure process. In commercial form it produces vapors that are heavier than air, therefore in instances where it is used in quantities it is particularly desirable to ventilate the department in which it may be used, by means of openings direct to the atmosphere near the floor level or by downdraft ventilating systems.
CARBON BISCXPIIIUE
Carbon bisulphide is an endothermic compound. By this it is meant that the elements forming it are in a state of chemical stress and capable of giving rise to a very considerable amount of heat by the mere action of their separation. In other words, an endothermic substance will give more heat when burned as a compound than can be obtained from burning its separate elements in the uncombined, state. It has been determined that carbon besulphide may ignite spontaneously at about 270-300 degrees Fahrenheit- This would make it possible to ignite it by its contact with steam pipes carrying a pressure of approximately sixty pounds. Particular notice should therefore be taken of storing con tainers of carbon bisulphide, handling it as a solvent or distributing it through pipe lines near power steam lines. As there appears to be considerable quantities of carbon bisulphide used as a solvent and in conjunction with sulphur monochloride in the "cold cure" process it would be particularly desirable for the manufacture to Isolate the fise of carbon bisulphide for these operations in order to obviate any bad experiences.
Carbon bisulphide is extremely sensitive to explosion by ignition when mixed three times its volume of oxygen or an amount of air containing that volume of oxygen. The combustion of the liquid or vapors by a
230
Twelfth Safety Congress
conflagration or explosion creates such irrespfrable gases as sulphurous and carbonic acid gases, and therefore introduces a serious hazard in combatting a fire of this kind.
The handling of this solvent in the plant in dip tanks, in cement solu tions, etc., should necessarily be in limited quantities, and the fumes should be exhausted or removed by ventilation because inhalation of them is extremely dangerous. They create headaches and digestive troubles, they affect the sense of vision and produce involuntary trembling of hands and legs. Continual breathing of vapors in small quantities may result in severe nervous ailments and insanity.
BENZOL
A solvent used to a considerable extent is benzol (oftentimes called benzene) which has a flash point in the vicinity of 25 degrees Fahrenheit and an explosive in air from 2.7 to 6.5 per cent by volume. Its vapors are readily diffusive in the air and susceptible to ignition, provided, of course, the amount of vapors is within the limits mentioned. Because of the agreeable odor of benzol fumes the average person does not con sider them objectionable to inhale, consequently persons working In a room where the vapors are prevalent do not always realize when they are producing toxic effects. The vapors, however, are poisonous as well as explosive. Therefore, there is need of either preventing their creation by effective ventilation, or confining the solutions while they are being used, to prevent evaporations as much as possible. Benzol vapors when inhaled in moderate quantities produce sleepiness, faintness, headaches, nervousness, muscular prostration and irregularity in pulse. S.evere accidents have been caused by persons being affected with small quan tities or benzo-i to the extent that they will stagger and fall in moving machines or be otherwise injured by loss of control of their actions. Long exposure causes marked diminution of white corpuscles in the blood and degeneration of the liver, kidneys or other internal organs.
OTHER SOLVENTS
.
Toluol, xylol and solvent naphtha are occasionally used to produce rubber solutions. Their physiological effects on workmen do not vary considerably from" those produced by benzol although they may, under average circumstances, be slightly less drastic due to these solvents being somewhat less volatile than benzol. The volatility and inflamma bility of each may be indicated by stating that commercial toluol ordinarily has a flash point -in vicinity of 45 degrees Fahrenheit, xylol 80 degrees Fahrenheit, and solvent naphtha near 60 degrees Fahrenheit.
Gasoline is being used extensively in this country as a solvent not only because it is ordinarily less toxic in its effect upon workmen but because it is generally conceded to be more efficient as a solvent. It is employed as such in varying degrees of purity. A number of manu facturers obtain good results in the preparation of rubber plastic for use In impregnating fabric or for production of certain grades of cement by using a gasoline of a gravity near 70-75 degrees Be. This kind ol
Chemical and Rubber Sections '
231
gasoline is volatile to the extent that it evaporates quite rapidly when
exposed to the air, or when fabric containing the rubber solutions
is passed over heated rolls.
. In view of this, and on account of the fact that the vapors are heavier
than air, suction ventilators are essential near the machines in order
to eliniinate the vapors from the atmosphere and to maintain safe work
ing conditions in the plant.
-
It is judged that the range of exploslbility of gasoline of this grade is
from 1.5 to 6.4 per cent by volume in air. The hazards of explosion and
toxic effects created by inhalation of the vapors are comparable to the
effects that might be experienced with other light hydrocarbons. The
vapors affect some workmen to the extent of producing headaches,
stomach trouble, nervousness, vomiting and vertigo and temporary dull ness of senses. These experiences by workmen may be prevented by
appropriate ventilation and frequent change of occupation. Some manu
facturers have replaced the use of benzol by the introduction of naphtha or gasoline mainly for the purpose of decreasing the poisoning hazard. It is claimed that wherever this practice has been introduced, satisfactory
production results have been obtained, and there is less complaint of effect
upon employees.
The solvent carbon tetrachloride has been used with a fair degree of
success in producing rubber solutions and is relatively safe to store and use in a plant because it is not inflammable. Its market price, although fluctuating, is generally higher than other solvents that are adaptable
to the rubber industry. Therefore, its use has been limited. To over come this objection some manufacturers have used other solvents such as benzol, naphtha, gasoline and blended one of these particular solvents
with carbon tetrachloride on a fifty-fifty basis, thereby reducing the in
flammability of that solvent possibly one-half and good results have been obtained from a safety and quality-of-production standpoint. In this connection it might be said, for the sake of comparison, that these
solvent solutions have about the same flash point as kerosene or in the
neighborhood up to 100 degrees Fahrenheit.
At this point, Mr. Beck took the chair. .
-
DISCUSSION
G.E. Minshull (E. I. duPoht de Nemours & Co.) : I would like to ask in regard to the propagation of flame, what size pipe do you start with to fill a tank?
Mr. Smith: I should say anything above an inch and a half. It depends upon the length, of the pipe. If you put wire screening in, about thirty to forty mesh, it would not ordinarily collect sediment.
Chairman Beck: I was extremely interested In what you had to say about the painting of pipes. I think one of the code committees is working on a standard code for painting of pipes in industry. In our organzation, we have a complete system.
Mr Horan: I was wondering whether Mr. Smith could tell us any safe mixtures for cleaning machinery. We have serious .accidents where
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Tzvelfth Safety Congress
-
people use gasoline to clean rubber rolls on printing presses. I under stand some people have done excellent work by doping gasoline with various mixtures to prevent fire.
Mr. Smith: Carbon tetrachloride is a good solvent of oils and greases for a safe standard, I should recommend it. You can also dope up a gasoline mixture containing about 65 per cent carbon tetrachloride, and have a slightly inflammable solution. I should say that the solution would be somewhat less inflammable than kerosene, probably having a flash point with in a range of about SO to 100 degrees.
Mr. Horan: Would 65 percent tetrachloride and 35 percent gasoline be ignited by a static spark?
Mr. Smith: It is rather doubtful.
*
Mr. H. Larkin (U. S. Rubber Co.) : I remember some years ago a
great many rubber concerns were using gasoline over spreading machines.
I remember one case where there was quite an apparatus established
but it was finally discontinued as being a failure. I would ask Mr. Smith
if he has ever known gasoline being used over spreading machines.
Hie object being two fold: (1) to recover the gasoline; (2) elimination of
vapor from the room.
'
.-
RECOVERY SYSTEM
Mr. Smith; The recovery system" is very good for certain purposes, for instance, to eliminate the vapors by suction from the spreading machines or the operations from which you ,wish to draw off, but personally I don't know of any particular recovery system tbat has continued to operate. In other words, the cost of operation has been somewhat excessive. I should say that if any experiments are being made with the recovery system, they should be made in a building somewhat isolated from the main plant.
Mr. Ashe: Is there any particular difference in the use of benzol, whether you spray it on or paint it on with a brush?
Mr. R. Webb (Eastman Kodak Co.) : I never had any experience with it, but I don't think there ought to be a great deal of difference. I know toluol is used as a solvent and as a matter of fact, has marked advantage because of its higher boiling point. I should think it could be applied with the brush just as well.
Mr. Ashe; In spraying it on, you might get more of the benzol.
Mr. Horan: The thought has come to me of one company that makes storage battery" boxes. They had quite a little difficulty in painting storage battery compartments. Of course they are much smaller than transformer tanks. They tried dipping thorn, hut they found it cost too much. In order to make a couple of hundred, they had to mix a hundred gallons of paint. Then they tried out a waterproof paint and filled the tank 95 percent full of water and put 5 percent of paint on top of the water. They would dip the boxes into the paint, down into the water, and back up through the paint again. They found It worked just as well as putting 100 percent paint into their tanks.
Chemical and Rubber Sections
233
ELIMINATION OP OCCUPATIONAL. DISEASES IN THE CHEMICAL AND RUBBER INDUSTRIES
Janx Roach, Deputy Commissioner ok Labor. State of New Jersey
The question of health conservation is one that not only afreets, vitally,
the welfare of our workers but also has an important bearing on the
efficiency of trade production, for the productive capacity of our country
can never assume high levels of importance while a steady and constant
waste of the labor forces that make production possible continues undi-
rainished.
.
During the past twelve years this vital and pressing problem has re
ceived the attention of trained specialists who have been employed by
industries and governments to ascertain scientifically accurate methods
for elimination or prevention of diseases of occupation that, at one time,
were thought to be inherent in industry.
The rubber and the chemical industries have received attention of this
kind and current industrial literature has received rich contributions
from several investigations conducted therein- The cause, the cure and
the prevention of industrial sickness have received attention of trained
observers and investigators whose conclusions are widely read and whose
recommendations are influencing trade processing In these Important
industries.
The whole problem of proper factory sanitation Includes the control
of dusts, poisonous and nonpoisonous, noxious fumes, excessive heat and
extreme humidity, and undoubtedly it is the most serious problem that
confronts any governmental regulatory organization having jurisdiction' over it, for the fact Is that the fight against industrial disease is practi
cally new In America and employers as well as workers formerly seemed
to accept the doctrine that certain trades were inherently dangerous and carried certain trade health handicaps that could not be eliminated.
THE PUBLIC IGNORES IIEAL.TII HANGERS
Physical risks are obvious dangers easy to see, to feel and to under
stand, while the subtle dangers to health that spring from workroom air,
polluted with dust and fumes, are not so well understood and these the
general public calmly ignores. Yet, conditions of this kind have threat
ened many thousands or our workers, sapped their energy, reduced their
working efficiency and set an economic brake on productive efficiency In
the industry affected.
Fortunately, a decade ago, the working policy in modern industry began
to substitute co-operation for command and to influence the worker, by persuasion, to make his greatest effort rather than to demand it through
fear of the loss of employment.
.
Some of the larger and better managed industrial corporations, dis
satisfied with working results achieved under the old system, after inves
tigation. of the probable cause of discontent and friction prevailing
throughout their plants, arrived at the conclusion that the constant migra
tion of labor (which severely handicaps the profitable operation of busi-
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Twelfth Safety Congress
ness) was due in a large measure to Improper working premises or methods affecting either the safety, health or comfort of their employes.
While it may be said that some of the investigations in connection with the rubber and chemical industries have lacked thoroughness, and the dramatic values have been over-emphasized when describing the risks and physical handicaps incidental to processing in these industries, still, in the main they have all been helpful and a pioneers' path has at least been blazed for investigators of the future.
VAIMED WORKER IS DISTINCT ECONOMIC LOSS
The physical care of the worker .in the light of scientific research is no longer a matter for speculation or experiment. Indeed. It Is now ranked as a matter of fundamental importance and is placed in the same business columns with the Questions of wages, hours of labor and pro duction. Fjirthermore, the index of experience has shown that even
costly alterations to plant equipment and procedure tending to improve labor's condition and add to labor's safety are successful and satisfactory investments; because of the steadying effect upon the working force, in crease in production and improvement in its excellence--factors which
lead to eventual repayment.
.
In discussing this subject, while it is proper to present it from the
viewpoint of conserving labor to make it more profitable and efficient, there is another factor of first magnitude in the matter, before which, in the final analysis, all other interests must yield. A maimed worker is not only a poor social asset but a distinct economic loss to the com munity. If his body has become weakened by exposure to trade poisons be can add nothing to our country's wealth, while his family may become
a burden to society and even though compensation should be paid him
(as in the case of accident), we must remember the burden of his support
is not lifted from society but is merely shifted to the industry and finally
borne by society as a whole.
.
Therefore, the community (which is conscious of its responsibility for
the safety and well-being of its citizens), has given concrete expression
of this interest either by the creation of labor laws or the establishment
of industrial boards which are vested with sufficient authority to make
safety rules that have the force and effect of law. But slight opposition
has been made to th'e campaign for better safety rules for, when the
essentials of proper working standards are based on reason and meet
with the general approbation of the public, the avisability of conforming
to such a practice has gone beyond the stage of discussion or argument.
The evil effects of dust, vapors or trade poisons on the human system
are gradually becoming known to our workers and they accept with
reluctance and only under the stress of necessity, employment where
careless or indifferent shop management fails to provide adequate pro
tection from health risks.
`
UNHEALTHY CONDITIONS BRED 8LXLEXSESB AND RESENTMENT
The steady flow of immigrant labor that for decades has poured Its generous flood into our industries, built our roads, tunnelled our rivers
Chemical and. Rubber Sections
235
and mountains, removed the coal and iron from the bowels of the earth and, in short, has performed the hard, eoasre labor of society so necessary to industrial progress and development, has suddenly subsided, and almost overnight we are confronted with a labor situation that requires radical readjustments.
In the pioneer days of our industrial development but scant attention
was paid by builders or architects to the question of providing proper
sanitation, ventilation or heat in factory buildings and early attempts
in this direction were not based on the products of technical reasoning.
The workers, on the other hand, accepted with apathy, primitive toilet
equipment, lack of lavatory or bathing accommodations, dusty processes
that filled the air, congested the lungs and undermined health and self
respect. They worked in barracks, bleak and cold in winter, charged
with enervating heat or humidity in summer; and experienced all the
hardships that naturally resulted from an industrial policy based on
Taissez nous faire.
*
Manifestly, the natural crop industry harvested from such unhealthful
conditions included slop work, limitation of output, accompanied by shop
disturbances and an entire absence of the spirit of co-operation which is
so necessary to the complete success of any human enterprise.
In addition to putting a brake on production, the distrust thus aroused
bred sullenness and resentment tbat often led to industrial crises of either
local or state-wide magnitude and that impelled one portion of our citi
zens to regard with distrust and dislike another group who were equally important to the successful achievement of our national purpose.
The knowledge gained by the experience of the last ten years In the
chemical and rubber industries is sufficient to warrant the assumption
that with proper care and a wider recognition of the toxic qualities of
many substances 'commonly used and bandied in these industries, that
occupational diseases can be prevented or at least kept within reasonable
bounds so that they will not constitute an alarming departure from trade
health conditions enjoyed by other industries.
The many poisonous trade substances that are-to be met with in these
industries are now well known 'or their character at least has been re vealed by several important trade studies, including those carried on by
Hamilton in the chemical and rubber industries, and Hayhurst in the
rubber industry, and, later, an excellent report submitted to the rubber
section of the Natoinal Safety Council by C. F. Horan, chairman of a
committee appointed by the National Safety Council for the purpose of
investigating "Dangerous Materials Common to the Rubber Industry."
In addition, Shepard and Krall contributed an excellent study on "Poi sons in the Rubber Industry" that has had a wide criculation.
It would, therefore, seem that there is little need to amplify data already submitted. Industry has learned to its sorrow and regret the danger that results from permitting untrained men to handle poisonous trade substances or work in places where they suffer an exposure to poisonous dusts or vapors. If poisonous substances are used or bandied.
236
T-welfth Safety Congress
their character should be explained to workmen who are exposed to their presence and. if dusts and vapors are generated, they should be collected and disposed of in such a manner as to preclude the possibility Of their becoming a menace to health.
Expert medical attention and careful plant inspection should be pro . vided and nermitted to enlist all the aids that medicine, surgery and
enginec- .:g science have created for the purpose of safeguarding the indust i J worker from the evil effects of occupational processing.
INDUSTRIAL MEDICINE QUICKENS PRODUCTIVE ENERGY
Many employers of labor have recently subscribed to the twentieth
century view, that things that retard and do not facilitate production
should be tolerated by industry only so long as they are unavoidable.
Accidental injury to industrial workers, that interrupts the flow of service
society rightly claims and should receive from its working elements, is
a handicap that should be prevented so far as possible.
Unskillful or improper medical treatment, or lack of medical treatment,
should be frowned upon. Permanent loss of functioning power due to
improper medical treatment, or lack of proper treatment, is a brake on
industry, the force of which may be sensibly felt in the competitive mar
kets of the world.
The basis of industrial prosperity is production, and things that inter
fere with production attack the very life of industry. A modern manu
facturer readily scraps old machines that are less productive than'the
new, and he quickly avails himself of scientific trade data that may mean
a complete rearrangement of his. trade processing.
.
The employer should be willing to provide the best possible working
conditions in order to safeguard the health of his employes and thereby
add to their efficiency and regularity of employment. This can best be
done by:
'
First: Providing pleasant, comfortable workrooms; notices warning
workmen of the dangerous character of compounds handled or of gases
or vapors that may be generated; physical examinations for workmen
who are exposed to poisonous substances or gases or vapors.
Second: Providing appliances for the removal of physical hazards due
to the presence of dusts, gases, heat and smoke and poisonous, trade
vapors if they are present in the breathing atmosphere.
Third: Providing appliances for lessening manual labor and reducing
fatigue.
.
Fourth: Providing intelligent and sympathetic as .well as efficient supervision over the workmen. It has been well recognized that the
efficiency of an employe is greatly reduced by constant interference on
the part of an autocratic overseer.
Fifth: Conducting an educational campaign for health and safety
among employes in co-operation with health departments. This work,
if tactfully carried on, can be extended throughout the plant and into
the homes of the workers and in this way standards and modes of living
can be greatly improved.
'
Chemical and Rubber Sections
237
Sixth: Co-operating with the health departments in any work of in
vestigative or research character which the local or state authorities
may want to carry on in the plant.
Seventh: The establishment of an available hospital or first aid divi
sion within the plant or conveniently situated thereto.
Every manufacturing plant should have some form of medical relief
available to employes. The form of relief required depends largely on
the character of the work done in the factory and upon the number of
employes. Every factory, no matter how small, should have at least a
well-stocked first aid cabinet, administered by someone in the. plant who
Jhas had a comprehensive course in first aid treatment.
A larger plant should install a dispensary in charge of a trained nurse.
The character of the equipment would depend on the nature of the work
carried on in the plant. This nurse could properly utilize a part of each
day :n "-ae visitation work, in looking after absentees and sick and
injured employes.
Vbsenteeism has been greatly reduced where this
work has been carried out in an intelligent manner.
MEIIIC.VI. S L'PEBVrSIOIY ESSENTIAL TO PLANT Ol'KK.VTIOX
A large factory should have, in addition to the nurse and dispensary, a physician who should always be on call. It would be better yet if this
physician were employed as a full-time man who could devote the time not needed in the dispensary to a study of plant conditions and processes,
determining the hazards connected with each process as well as the type of employe best suited to tbe work to be done. Physical examinations of all applicants for employment in all plants should be conducted, and
as rapidlj as possible physical examination of old employes should he
carried out with periodical re-examination of the entire plant personnel.
In ' his way
would be possible to put the right man on tbe right job.
and to a very . ge extent prevent a recurrence of the mistake of putting
a v irlanan ar. a task unsuited to his strength.
V here a n imber of small plants are located close together. It would be dvisril; or them to join in the establishment of a central dispensary
in harg nurse and at least have a doctor on call who would care
for the
di >1 needs of employes. The cost of this dispensary could
be net c> t
capita basis, and I believe if this suggestion were intelli-
gei ily ci. ie out it would provide reasonable care for a large number
of indus' ;ai orkmen who now have no care of this kind.
?.!an.'"
i s larger concerns In the chemical and rubber industries
nr-
to Jar the expense of providing trained medical supervision
, ii< emp oyes, but a large number of smaller plants, many of which
;u .K ting substances that are dangerous to health and life, because
of he trailed amount of business, are unable to provide satisfactory
m ic: i supervision and if plants of this kind were to combine in groups it wouit. be entirely feasbile for them to surround their workmen with reasonable safeguards that are the result of competent medical super
vision.
.
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Twelfth Safety Congress
Many of the occupational disease reports that reach the office of the department of labor of the State of New Jersey refer to cases of poison ing in small plants where there is no medical supervision and where the supervising authority neglects to warn the workmen of the dangers obvious to trained eyes.
Furthermore, occurrence of occupational diseases in industry can only be prevented by sincere and earnest co-operation between plant manage ments, workmen employed and competent governmental regulatory agen cies whose business it should be to provide industry with the very latest information on the subject.
The extension of workmen's compensation payments to victims of occu
pational poisoning should also prove a factor of very great importance
in any preventative work that may be attempted, for experience has
shown that since industrial accidents have become compensatable, ex
traordinary measures have been taken in industry to prevent the occur
rence of accidents due to violence and which are covered by the Work
men's Compensation Laws.
'
NOTE: The literary contributions referred to in this paper were made by the
following:
Alice Hamilton, A. MM. JD., Bureau of Industrial Hygiene, Harvard Uni
versity.
:
Emery R. Hayhwrst, A. M., jPh. Z>., M. D., Director, Division of Industrial
Hygiene, Ohio State Board of Health.
C. F. Horan, Rubber Section, National Safety Council.
Norman. A. Shepard, and Stanley Krall, Research Laboratory, Firestone Rub
ber and Tire Company, Akron, Ohio.
ADJOURNMENT.
Chemical Section
October 3, 1923
S. R. KERSHAW, Chairman
Safety Engineering Division, Hercules Powder Company, Wilmington, Del.
E. J. RIEDERER, Ylce-dialrman
Director, Inspection Division, Atlas Powder Company, Wilmington. Del.
G. E. MDfSHHLIi, Secretary
E. I. du Pont de Nemours & Company, Wilmington, Del.
HAIRMAN KERSHAW: Mr. Kepner, Chairman of our Membership
C Committee, reports:
"At the close of the last annual congress of the National Safety Coun
cil, the Chemical Section had 119 members. Since that time, we have
had eight cancellations, and we have been able to obtain fifteen new
members, so that at this time we have 126 members in good standing,
and I trust that these 126 members will endeavor to get one new member
each during the coming year."
I just want to remind you of the splendid bit of work done by the
Industrial Poisons Committee, reported at the joint meeting yesterday,
and I am sure we all appreciate the work that has been done by the
committees during the year.
.
I appoint as Nominating Committee, Mr. Riederer, Mr. E. C. Rogers
of the Grasselli Chemical Co., and Mr. H. F. Webb of the American
Cyanamid Co.
.
THE SAFE TRANSPORTATION OP ACIDS IN . CARBOYS AND DRUMS
Maubice P. Cbass, Grasseuli Chemical Company, Cleveland, Ohio
No safety engineer would attempt to limit his work to safety propa ganda; work on the elimination of hazards, mechanical and otherwise, claims much of his attention. It may be considered axiomatic, therefore, in. an industry commonly if not erroneously supposed to present unusual hazards, that the packaging and shipping of acids would, and of right should be considered a safety as well as a transportation problem.
The Bureau of Explosives, whose regulations are supported by the authority of the Interstate Commerce Commission, and thus given the effect of law, classify most acids as dangerous articles, which when
239
*240
Twelfth Safety Congress
shipped, must against undue handler.
bear the white acid rough handling and
-
label, which protects the package also serves as a warning to the
Containers used for the transportation of acids must combine in them selves the necessary strength to endure reasonable transportation, strains and ability to withstand the action of the product. Glass bottles come within the latter range and the jacketed carboy is used generally because it meets the two requirements mentioned.
The carboy cannot be considered a fragile container, but there are
definite limits to its shock resisting strength, and a broken carboy en route
means possible damage to merchandise as well as danger to workmen
who may not be informed as to the proper method of dealing with such
leakage.
The insistence, therefore, has been for a stronger, better-conditioned
carboy and the adoption of regulations wbicb would automatically elim
inate the unfit. The Manufacturing Chemists' Association of the United
States, upon invitation by the Bureau of Explosives, undertook a study
of the problem.
.
Up to this time the bureau.required semi-annual dropping and swinging strain tests, but these were shown to be ineffective because, with the old type of swing apparatus, the tests were susceptible of such manipulation as to make them unreliable. As a result, some carboys were in use which could not be considered other than sub-standard. The investigating committee devoted much time, pains and money in determining:
First: A machine that would give an approximately perfect swing strain test.
Second: Exhaustive experiments to determine a reasonable strain test requirement.
Third: Conditioning of carboys, perfecting of seals, etc.
DEVELOPMENT OP SWING TEST MACHINE
'
After exhaustive tests, a swing test machine was developed that is practically fool-proof in operation, giving an accurate gauge on the shock resisting strength of the package. This machine became officially opera tive on January 1 of this year.
With a standardized testing machine developed, it became nectesary to determine the shock to which carboys should be subjected as a minimum requirement. This was a difficult matter, for it was necessary to consider:
First: The elimination of a large number of carboys in circulation, which were not equal in strength to other or better-conditioned types.
Second: The reasonable average strain to which these better-con
ditioned types should be subjected.
.
In approaching this problem, the committee synchronized (.by means of service tests) reasonable shocks sustained by railroad cars with shocks sustained on the swing testing machine.
Chemical Section
241
This information was obtained by loading a ear of carboys (carboys filled "with water) braced according to the best practice and bumping it at varying speeds against a substantial semi-rigid obstacle, consisting of a string of cars with brakes tightly set.
The test car was provided with a sensitive shock recording machine. The speed of the test car was accurately determined, for each shock test, so that records were obtained at speeds ranging from 5 to nearly 10 miles per hour, at which latter speed the impact was so great that the truck king pin of the test car was sheared off.
The result of these tests, when applied to the carboy swing testing machine, was the determining of a swing test component of 55 inches--
equivalent to a railroad speed or collision, shock of nearly eight miles per hour. I believe that with this brief description in mind we can state reasonably that the carboy can no longer be considered a fragile container.
It had been definitely determined through study of actual practice over an extended period, that much of the material damage, as well as burns sustained by workmen, were caused by defective or inadequate seals. The old method of placing a vitrified stopper on the lip of a carboy bottle, covering it over with a cast made of plastic clay or calcined plaster, then covering it over with burlap, secured with twine, no longer sufficed. This seal had the appearance of solidity, without the necessary strength; it was also convenient as a hand rest for moving the carboy, which added to its hazard.
After careful and exhaustive tests a new type of seal was developed, which has been made standard. This may briefly be described as follows:
First: A compressible gasket of acid resistant material. Second: A porous earthenware stopper, which is acid leakage proof, but permits of no pressure being built up in the carboy. ' Third: A metal mechanical seal, which effectively secures the stopper in place.
This gives a seal which is strong, safe and reasonably free from damage, at a nominal cost.
A further source of danger to both workmen and merchandise was in the use of carboys with chipped lips; such a carboy could not be sealed with entire safety. A machine was developed which will surface away the depression in the lip, thus leaving a perfect surface on which to seat the stopper and gasket. The time is very close at hand when damaged lip carboys will be barred for transportation service.
Conformity to I. C. C. regulations governing the conditioning and seal ing of carboys is now assured by the revised regulations, which became operative the first of this year, which provides that one of the semi-annual service tests required shall be made in the presence of a Bureau of Explos ives inspector.
These tests are - mandatory at all Plants or Stations where carboys are
repaired and filled.
`
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Twelfth Safety Congress
- DRUMS FOB ACID SHIPMENT
It might be commonly supposed that a steel container would embody,
in itself, the maximum of strength and efficiency in the course of trans
portation. There are many variables, however, which must be taken into
consideration.
-
First: The drum must be made of metal of sufficient gauge to with
stand severe strains and the deterioration incident to its service.
Second: It must be free from carbonized or oxidized spots in the
welded seams.
.
Third: The inspection and testing service before filling should be
efficient and carefully supervised.
Occurrences are exceptional where a drum sheet or head gives way in the metal. The 12 gauge requirement for 110 gallon and 14 gauge for 55 gallon 5-A drums is deemed ample protection. Careful operators, how ever, provide for natural wear and tear by placing a minimum weight at which drums are automatically retired from acid service. This should be common practice.
It has been found through recent tests that drums constructed of dis similar metals, are subject to electrolytic (galvanic) action, which greatly
accelerates deterioration of the metal. It is, therefore, important that the
drum sheet, welding metal, collars and plugs be of similar metal. Reg
ulations governing construction of 5-A drums will probably provide for
this.
A smooth inside surface of drums, free from corrugations for rolling
hoops, is desirable as these depressions tend to hold drippage from emptied
drums and thus localize deterioration.
Coarse threads should be cut for plugs and drum collars as a better
resistant against acid action and providing a stronger seal. Caskets
made of acid resistant material, such as asbestos, should invariably be
used under the plugs.
.
All users of acid in drums should scrupulously observe the rule of
storing filled drums in a cool place and never expose to the direct rays
of the sun. Acid Is volatile; liquids of any sort expand under increase of
temperature and danger of explosion will be avoided with the exercise of
this ordinary precaution. Full drums when stored for any length of
time should be stored with plugs up and plugs loosened frequently to
release any pressure which may have accumulated. Many explosions have
resulted through neglect of these simple rules.
' DISCUSSION..
Mr. M. C. Goodspeed (General Electric Co., Erie, Pa.) : I would like to ask whether dangers incident to storing of drums in the sun applies equally to carboys, or does the special sealing that you just described relieve the pressure so that the sun doesn't have the same effect on the
carboys? Mr. Crass: The comparison Is not similar, for the reason that the use
of this porous earthenware stopper would prevent volatilization of the
Chemical Section
343
acid due to the application of heat from the rays of the sun. All careful fillers of carboys will not fill a carboy fuller than the level of .the top of the carboy box, and that allows enough air space to take care of any ordinary pressure that is built up. But with the use of the porous stopper, there is no pressure generated at all; it is relieved automatically as fast as It generates. I would be glad to give information to any who are interested as to where these stoppers . can be procured. They can be purchased just as cheaply as the old. vitrified stopper. They are patented, but given to the public at no charge.
There is a. misconception in regard to the handling of drums. A good many concerns, in times of depression when they store the drums, wash
them out and put them away. You couldn't do a worse thing than store a drum with the drum-plug out. The drum-plug should be put into the drum Immediately after washing or be kept in the drum- before washing, and if I were to store drums, I wouldn't wash them out. Sulphuric acid pickles the drum and reduces the. corrosion or destruction of the metal. If you wash them out, you form a distillate, and that will destroy the drum much more quickly than if you had stored it with a little sulphuric acid in It.
. Mr. Ira V. Kepner (Pennsylvania Salt Mfg. Co., Philadelphia) : We had a number of acid drums during the war which were shipped to various small powder industries. They were brought back to our plant and takbn out of service, washed out with water, and stored away.
During this year, we had occasion to ship some caustic soda liquor from one of our plants to another. We loaded this caustic liquor into these drums. When it left the process, it was probably about seventy degrees Fahrenheit, and it slowly passed along into a trough and dropped into this drum. We loaded about fifteen or eighteen of those drums, putting an ordinary wood bung in them, because it crystallizes. We just tapped it in lightly with another bung. These drums had been loaded into cars and had been shipped from our Pittsburgh plant to our Phila delphia plant. We had probably shipped forty or fifty prior to this. The men who handled them were ordinary gang laborers. In this par ticular shipment, we had loaded seventeen drums. The eighteenth drum had been loaded probably ten or fifteen minutes, and-a couple of work men threw the drum over on the side and started to roll it. They had rolled it fifteen or twenty feet when it exploded.
I have written to all my friends in the chemical Industry to have thejoa. explain to me the cause of that accident. It puzzles me. I would like to know if there is anyone here who can give me an idea as to what- the trouble was: I thought possibly they might have used that drum in some small plant to store some other product in for 'the time, probably nitroglycerin. But the drum had not been used for three or four years; the drum was rusty. We just shook it around and knocked the rust out.
SUB-STAITDARD DRUMS
.
Mr. Crass: I think you will find, if you investigate those packages, that they were-sub-standard. We had an occasion somewhat similar to that, drums that had been stored, an accumulation from the time of the
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Twelfth Safety Congress
war. They were only used once. We attempted to use them again about
six months ago, and we found practically the entire lot to be unfit.
An ordinary twelve-gauge drum will weigh about 215 pounds. When
that drum deteriorates to around 190, it is time to look out for it. I
think if you weigh those drums, you will find they are pretty close to
190 or 180 pounds. Secondly, after a drum is repaired, we always subject it to a hydrostatic pressure of 15 pounds. If it will stand that, it will
take care of any ordinary expansion of acid due to change in tempera
ture, and that is an important thing to do when drums are repaired in
any case. X want to give you a word, of warning regarding the repairing of acid
drums. You know the effect of sulphuric acid on hydrogen gas. which
is very explosive. We ourselves had a number of explosions before w
came to the point where we put down definite rules guiding the repaired drums. Where a drum is repaired, we forbid the use of an-open ftasoe. whether oxy-acetylene torch or electric torch or any kind of xa open flame. We do not allow an open flame to be near the dram, eew a lantern, and we repair the leaks by means of a soldering from. M ftm
can't repair them by means of a soldering iron, you had better Owner
them into a scrap heap, because hydrogen gas will shatter a dram fet
pieces. If an open flame in the hands of a plumber or a lead twrineir
happens to get near an open seam, or possibly the drum plug is owe yowt
are taking a long chance on an explosion.
'
Chairman Kershaw: Supplementing what Mr. Crass has Just said. Z
would suggest that all of you gentlemen who have drums in your plants that are apt to be picked up by the repairmen for use as water tames and things of that kind, be very careful about the practice of steaming
and washing out the drums before a man ever uses a cutting torch on
them. We have had one or two explosions such as Mr. Crass speaks of
in our plants.. I can recall one in which a man was cutting a drum outside of a repair shop building, 'and the thing let go and threw part
of the drum into the repair shop through a window. Fortunately, In that case, as I recall it, the man was not injured, but he had a very
narrow escape.
.
.
Mr. Kepner: I would like to know what I can do with something
like eight hundred drums. I have still got those seven or eight hundred drums. Would you junk them? Would you steam them out, clean them out, put them under pressure? What can we do with them?
Mr. Crass: I would subject them to hydrostatic pressure to determine their fitness. Also neutralize what acid remains with a soda-ash solu tion, so as to leave no taint of acid base in the drum for possible com
bination with any product you put in.
DANGER IN SCRAPPING
Mr. E. J. Kiederer (Director, Inspection Division, Atlas Powder Co., Wilmington, Del.): The point was. brought up by Mr. Kepner that if the drums were not good enough to use for the soda solution or caustic, possibly they ought to be sold for scrap. If there was anything in the drums which might cause trouble to the party intending to sell the
Chemical Section
245
drums, and they sell them for scrap and ultimately some trouble arises in the hands of the scrap dealer or some other concern having bought them from the scrap dealer, the responsibility will come back to the party who sold them to the scrap dealer. A concern I know of had a case of that kind. They sold some material, and it went through three hands and then caused trouble, and the responsibility came back to the party who originally sold It. It cost them between thirty and forty thousand dollars.
I would recommend, in this particular case, not knowing what the drums might have been used for, to wash them thoroughly with soda solution, then fill them up with water to clean them out, and then steam them.
Dr. F. A. Hodge (National Aniline Chemical and Dye Co., Buffalo) : I Just want to call attention to one thing more that might be in the drums. If the drums were used during the war, they may have been used for the transportation of spent acid which had been used in the nitration of gun cotton, and some of that cotton mfgbt be sticking around inside of the drum. I am not prepared to say offhand Just what the action of caustic liquor would be on the gun cotton. I think it wonid be however.
Mr. C- EL Stevens (Merrimac Chemical Company): SSgfit at presenr. we are having considerable experience with the handling of old drama. We are disposing of quite a few that we have in oar yard, and had a junk dealer come down there to look at them. They are perfectly witl ing to take them without our cleaning them or washing them. This junk dealer wanted to know what the idea of ow washing them was before we gave them to him. In opening those drome even now-, there is an enormous pressure in some of them. The men have to be ex tremely careful in taking a bung out. They stand it up on the end and have a long wrench and get out of range of the bung when they open it. Some of those bungs will be blown for a distance of 15 or 20 feet- We then wash the drums out; take a pick and break in numerous holes in the ends of the drum, so that they are thoroughly washed, and there will be no chance for any gas to generate in.there before we let the Junk dealer take them from the ward. I am pretty sure that that method of handling them is giving them to the junk dealer in a good, safe condition.
A SAFETY CODE FOR CHEMICAL LABORATORIES WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO EXPLOSIVES LABORATORIES
Henry N. Marsh, Technical Department, Heeccles Powder Company,
. Wilmington, Del.
The invitation to present this paper on a Safety Code for Chemical Laboratories arrived while we were busy preparing such a code for use in our own plant laboratories. It seems that safety receives all the atten tion possible in the plant while the laboratory, with its many very real risks, has 'been somewhat overlooked.
It has been the practice with our company to send out bulletins, from time to time, covering unusual conditions that come to our attention in-
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Twelfth Safety Congress
volving risks to the chemist; and the manuals of Analytical Methods call the chemist's attention to conditions that must be observed in certain operations to avoid accident but we thought it would be well to bring together these precautions into a code that would be of particular value in instructing the new chemist; for the first thing we must teach the new chemist in an explosive laboratory is safety
Our .safety engineer, Mr. Kershaw, submitted to us a rough draft of his ideas on the subject and, from this as a starting point, we have, with the assistance of other members of the Technical department and our experimental station, drawn up the code which we are submitting to your attention. This code applies particularly to our own conditions but we hope to develop, from discussion, other points we may have overlooked and hope that others may obtain some suggestions and Ideas for their own use.
In this presentation we have rearranged the subject matter to place those items of more general interest first and to outline more briefly those rules peculiar to our own risks, later.
-> 1--BDUDING
In laboratory buildings having more than one room, care should be taken to see that the rooms in which there are flash, fire and explosion possibilities, are not located where the effect of an accident would cut off
escape from the other rooms. In such rooms the apparatus most likely
to cause such accidents should it practicable, he placed as tar as possible
away from the room exit.
.
'
Unobstructed egress facilities should be provided on at least two oppo
site sides of each floor of each building.
'
Sufficient natural or artificial ventilation should be provided to keep the laboratory free from harmful fumes. Hoods should be used for acid
digestions and all other operations liable to produce harmful fumes. Adequate illumination, both natural and artificial, should be provided
l'or all rooms. Drain pipes should be of acid proof, high silicon iron or
of lead.
'
" 2------HOUSEKEEPING
It is essential, from a safety and efficiency standpoint, that the labor atory be kept in neat and orderly condition. Floors, shelves and tables should be kept free from dirt and all unnecessary apparatus.
Apparatus which is infrequently used, should be kept in the stock room and that which is of necessity kept in the room where the work is being performed should be arranged as neatly as possible.
Apparatus should be set up well back from the edge of the bench. It leaves more room for work and there is less possibility of upsetting.
3------STORAGE OF CHEMICALS AND APPARATUS
Heavy articles should be stored as near to the floor as possible. Glass
apparatus should be stored so that the ends do not project beyond the
shelves. Glass tubing should he stored horizontally and should be kept
off the floor.
'
Chemical Section
247
Shelves should be provided with copings to prevent chemicals and ap paratus sliding or rolling off.
Laboratories in which explosives are handled should have magazine facilities properly located as to distance and barricades and all explosives should be removed to the magazine at the end of the day's work. At least once a week, the chief chemist should inspect the magazine and remove all samples, the analysis of which is complete. Not more than 100 pounds of explosives may be in the magazine at one time. Especial care must be taken to keep this magazine scrupulously clean.
Bottles of volatile inflammable liquids should not be placed in direct sunlight or near artificial heat.
4------FIBE FIGUTIXG EQUIPMENT
Adequate chemical fire extinguishers should be provided and placed, preferably, in the hallways. If placed in a room they should be near the door and away from the principal fire hazard. Extinguishers, made by breaking the tip of large burned out electric light bulbs while im mersed in a container of carbon tetra-chloride, permitting them to fill, then, closed with sealing wax; if placed around a laboratory at frequent intervals provide a cheap and effective means of extinguishing small blazes before they become dangerous. Such extinguishers should not be placed in rooms devoted to dynamite and nitroglycerin, analysis.
Always ventilate a room promptly after using carbon tetra-chloride extinguishers as poisonous gas forms under certain conditions.
Carbon tetra-chloride extinguishers should be tested at least once a month to see that they are full and in good operating condition.
Soda-acid type extinguishers should be emptied and recharged at least once a year. A tag showing date of last charge should be attached.
Wool blankets should be provided for use in clothing fires, especially in laboratories handling highly inflammable liquids.
5-----GAS StSTEM
-
Where gas systems are used to supply bunsen burners, etc., frequent inspections should be made to detect leaks and all laboratory employees should report immediately the odor of escaping gas. On account of the wide range of explosive mixtures of acetylene and air, this Is or especial
importance with such outfits.
In the case, of gasoline gas machines, he sure to close the valves in the main gas line and the air supply line and then vent the tank before
attempting to re-charge.
Drums of gasoline should be stored in isolated buildings protected from the heat of the sun. and artificial heat. Drums should not be opened until ready to charge and care should be taken to see that the vapors from the operation axe not exposed to flames and sparks or other hot objects. If possible, the machine should be charged early in. the morning
and, even then, beware of pressure when opening.
-
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Twelfth Safety Congress
Be sure all gas-burners are turned off at night. It is good practice to turn off main gas supply line outside the.building at night.
6------COMPRESSED GAS CTLTNDEK
Cylinders of compressed gases, such as oxygen, carbon dioxide, etc., should be stored away from artificial heat.
When opening such cylinders always stand away from the face of the
reducing valve.
.'
Avoid even traces of oil on reducing valves on oxygen tanks.
7-----LABELING OF BOTTLES
All bottles containing chemicals should be plainly labeled. (Material found in unlabeled bottles should be thrown out unless it can be identified positively.)
All violent poisons such as cyanides should be kept in bottles dis-. tinctively labeled with the usual skull and cross bones and the word POISON in red capital letters at least-1% in. high.
All bottles containing explosive material, except hard rubber nitrogly cerine bottles, should have affixed thereon a white label bearing the word EXPLOSIVE in red capital letters. Bottles containing explosive materials should be kept separate from non-explosives. Cleaning solution should be kept in stoppered bottles so labeled.
S------GLASS TUBING CONNECTIONS
The ends of all glass tubing should be fire-polished. Before inserting tubing into stoppers or rubber tubing, be sure that the hole is large enough to accommodate the glass. Moisten the tube and stopper thoroughly except when necessary to avoid moisture as in nitrometer set-up. Hold the stopper between thumb and fore-finger; not in the palm of the hand. Grasp the glass tube close^ to the end that is to fit in the stopper and push the tube with an even pressure.
9-----DRINKING FACILITIES
One or more drinking fountains should be installed. The practice of
drinking from beakers is dangerous and has caused death.
^
10------DESSICATORS
The well of desiccators containing sulphuric acid as a drying agent should be encased in a metal guard lined with asbestos cushions.
Vacuum desiccators, before use. should be tested under a higher vacuum than, is normally used, if possible. Vacuum desiccators in which sul phuric acid is used should be placed in a four mesh galvanized screen basket or wooden box before evacuating. (See Fig. 1.)
Chemical Section
249
Fig. l, Guard for a vacuum desiccator. The desiccator should be placed In
the box before evacuating. A galvanized screen basket might also be used for this purpose.
11-----FILL1SG PIPETTES AND STARTING Sll'JIOXS
,
Pipettes should be filled by the use of a suction- bottle containing bicarbonate solution or by bulb, never by sucking with the pipette in the mouth. The same equipment should be used when necessary to start
a siphon by suction. (See Fig. 2.)
Fig. 2. Always ubo a suction bottle to fill a pipette or to start a siphon. This will prevent serious burns and poisoning.
' 12-r-=-ACID ATTALTSIS
Sample bottles should at all times be carried to and from the laboratory and from place to place on the plant in standard wooden box type sample bottle carriers with stout handles. (See Fig. 3.)
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Twelfth Safety Congress
Fig-. 3. Standard -wooden box type sample carrier for acid samples..
Rubber gloves should be used when" mixing and blending samples.
Tables for acid blending and storage of samples in the laboratory before
analysis should have lead tops with upturned edges to keep spilled acid
away from the clothes of the chemist and to prevent sample bottles from
rolling off.
The laboratory should be equipped with a safety shower for use in
case of acid burns. In lieu of this, one water spigot should be fitted with
a large rubber tube, so that a heavy stream of water can be directed
on the body in case of burns. The severity of strong acid burns can be
reduced by prompt application of copious amounts of cold water.
It is advisable to keep several bottles of sodium bicarbonate solution
available in case of acid burns and two per cent acetic acid solution for
caustic burns. These should be kept in distinctively colored bottles con
veniently placed about the room. Never apply the bicarbonate solution
to a strong acid burn until the acid has been washed off with water. (It
is not safe to use acetic acid solution stronger than three per cent in
the eye.)
"
.
Where standard solution bottles are placed on overhead shelves, the
bottles should he surrounded with a strong rail or otherwise secured
from falling due to ordinary vibration or- explosion on the plant or in the
laboratory.
-,
Carboys "which contain strong acid should be set in a good carboy
inclinator. Where carboys are carried, a safety carboy carrier or truck
should be used.
13----NITROMETER
A comfortable and effective face mask should be worn by operators using the nitrometer. It Is desirable to wear a rubber apron while con ducting this operation.
Chemical Section
251
Under no circumstances should the lower stop cock of the decomposi tion bulb be closed after a charge is introduced until no further evolution of gas Is evident.
If nitrometer acid is kept in a bottle fitted with a siphon or spigot,
the bottle should be set in a strongly secured box not more than four
feet above the floor.
v
14----DRYING SAMPLES
Ovens used to dry samples of explosives or highly inflammable materials should have the latches removed from the doors. This eliminates danger of wrecking the oven in case of explosion. Materials containing volatile inflammable liquids should be dried in steam ovens only.
Ovens used; to dry samples of explosives should be enclosed in sub
stantial screen cages designed to retain missiles in the event of an ex
plosion. (See Fig. 4.)
-
Fig. 4. Left--A. substantial screen cage placed around a constant tempera ture electric oven which is used to dry samples of explosives. In event of an
explosion in the oven, missies and flying piece of glas are retained. Right--
The same cage open, giving ready access to the oven. Kotc in this picture
the 60 mesh brass wire screen placed on top of heating element to prevent
particles of inflammable or explosive materials falling onto the hot wires of
the element.
-
It is advisable to install a 60 mesh brass wire screen over the heating element of electric ovens used to dry explosives and highly inflammable materials. These screens should fit snugly to the walls of the oven.
Stand to one side when opening the door of an oven containing ex
plosives or highly inflammable materials.
,.
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Twelfth Safety Congress
15------VOLATILE INFLAMMABLE LIQUIDS Distillation flasks, where feasible, should be heated over a sand or water bath in preference to an open flame. An open flame should not be per mitted in a room in which either, acetone or alcohol is being distilled. Distillation flasks should be surrounded by a metal or transite board enclosure with wire glass windows.
16----NITROGLYCERIN SAMPLES
Standard hard rubber sample bottles with soft rubber stoppers should be used for all nitroglycerin samples. They should always be carried in the standard nitroglycerin sample bottle carrier with the locking cover. (See Fig. 5.)
Fig. 5. nitroglycerine sample bottle carrier. Note that raising the handle to carry, locks the cover in place. All nails and screws used In the construc tion of this carrier are of brass and a wooden peg sliding In a wooden groove locks the cover.
Nitroglycerin should never be placed in glass containers with glass stoppers. . Nitroglycerin in glass beakers should be stirred with hard rubber rods only. In other words, contact of glass to glass in the presence of nitroglycerin is to be avoided.
17--dynamite samples
No open flames are permitted in dynamite laboratories. As far as pos sible, iron apparatus and instruments should not be permitted in dynamite laboratories. Clamp stands are especially objectionable.
Chemical Section
253
Dynamite samples should be collected and carried in special wooden box typecarriers in the construction of which no iron is used. A carrier divided into compartments serially numbered is desirable to collect mixed samples.
If wash bottles containing acetone or any solutions other than water are used, they should be so labeled and plainly marked to prevent con
fusion with water bottles. Windows should be fitted with actinic glass or should be shaded.
18------DISPOSAL OF REFUSE
A fibre bucket without metal bail should be used tor waste explosives.
It should be distinctively marked with the words Woafc Powder Only
in large capital letters and should be used for no other purpose. Sufficient
sawdust should be kept in the bottom of it to absorb any liquid explosive
that might be present.
Solvents used in the analysis of explosives should be mixed with
enough sawdust to absorb them and sent to burning ground. Under no
circumstances should they be flushed' down the drains.
*
Acids and strong alkalies should be thrown into the sinks and flushed
down with water. Such materials should not be put in refuse jars.
Refuse should be collected at the close of every day and not be allowed
to accumulate. Liquids should be . drained from the refuse, except in
the waste powder buckets, before hauling to the burning ground or dump.
Waste explosives must be taken to the burning ground and disposed of In
a safe manner as is outlined for that operation in plant rules.
19-----DYNAMITE TESTING GROUND
The shooting ground should be fenced off with, preferably, a wire fence
to prevent anyone venturing too near at a time when tests are about to
be made. All paths leading toward the shooting ground- should have
warning signs posted at least 100 yards from the enclosure. Substantial shelter or barricade must be provided from which to fire
shots.
a.
The sand or cinders used on the shooting ground should be carefully
screened to remove stones and large pieces, to prevent missiles flying and to provide proper bed on which to shoot the tests.
All tests should be fired -with electric blasting caps. No safety fuse
should be used. ' The firing line should be equipped with two plug
switches and a spring switch. The plugs are to be removed by the
operator and carried in his pocket and he must be sure that he has both
of them with him before connecting the detonator to the line.
A blasting machine should be used in preference to dry cells but the
use of such a machine does not obviate the necessity of equipping the
firing line with plug switches which must be used as described above.
Before a shot is fired every precaution must be taken to see tbat no one is close enough to be in danger from flying missiles. The use of a
large gong rung for at least ten seconds before firing is a desirable pre
caution.
.
Chemical Section
255
acid, sample. We had the wooden box with the compartments in it, and, being rather clumsy, very often the men did not like to use it, so we went
from that to an aluminum container which, seemed to be quite a con
siderable Improvement. It stands up very well against any slopped acid
and it is very much lighter, and, being soft enough metal, doesn't have
any tendency to wreck the bottles of acid.
'
In connection with the oven for drying nitrated cotton, instead of
having the front door of the oven arranged without a latch which, in
the event of a sample of cotton going, would blow the door outward into the room and perhaps burn an operator who might be loading another
oven nearby, we have arranged to have collapsible backs. The front
door is very thoroughly latched, and the collapsible back is simply held
in place with a very loose catch, simply balanced in place. In the event of any cotton going, it exhausts into a chamber which is connected with the outdoors with adequate vent. Of course, that dead air space is kept locked, so that no one can get into it.
Mr. John H. Vogt (New York State Department of Labor) : As one who has been connected with the Department of Labor for the past
fifteen years, there is no one who realizes more keenly than I the danger
which is prevalent in the chemical laboratory. I myself have seen many injuries occurring in plant chemical laboratoi'ies and I would like to ask the gentleman who so ably got up this paper if he has any informa tion in relation to the number of accidents and character of accidents. I have seen some serious accidents in relation particularly to the posi tion and placing of different chemicals where they have been knocked off the shelves and explosions have occurred. I believe the gentleman
ditl not touch on that particular point.
Mr. Marsh: I don't have any statistics. We haven't had, so far as I know, in the five or six years that I have been connected with this work, any large number of serious accidents. There have never been any fatal accidents in any of our laboratories. There was a case where a man lost the tips of two of his fingers iti the explosion of material that he was grinding. . Probably the most serious cause of trouble has been the breaking of bottles in the laboratory, where the man breaking the bottle spills strong sulphuric acid on himself or something of the sort. I would be glad to tabulate such Information as we have on that and . send it to you if it will be of any help to you.
PBO hibition of hatches in .LABORATORIES
There is one thing there that is not mentioned in the code which applies to all explosive plants, and that is that there are no matches permitted anywhere on the plant, and there are no matches permitted In the laboratory except where Bunson burners are used, and we are
working toward the elimination even of the use of matches in that place.
That was so obvious to me that I completely forgot to mention it in the code. It should be there.
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Twelfth Safety Congress
Mr. Riederer: The use of water bottles in direct sunlight very often produces the same effect as a lens, and several fires have occurred from the lens formation of the liquid contained within a bottle. Our com pany has made it a practice, and followed it very closely, to have all windows in the laboratory which are struck by the direct sun rays either painted or protected in such a way that the sunlight can not pass through the windows. Even the window itself may produce a lens formation, and in that case/an explosive being in the focus will cause a fire.
Mr. H. F. Webb (American Cyanamid Co., Niagara Falls, Ontario) : Assuming, Mr. Chairman and Mr. Marsh, that this code is prepared for the new man in the chemical laboratory, and seeing that you have dealt more in explosives than anything else, I am wondering whether or not it wouldn't be a good plan to say something of the safe clothing that the chemist should wear. For instance, we all know that the chemist who works in an explosives plant Should not have any nails in his shoes, and it is a good plan not to wear cuffs in. his trousers.
Then again, in speaking of the building, there is the matter of the floor. That has considerable bearing in an explosives laboratory. Of course, if there is a wooden floor in there, these steel nails shouldn't be used or they should be countersunk and done away with'. Also the wood floor will absorb nitroglycerin if there is a spill there, or will gradually absorb some of the powder, or whatever it may be, and that will render it very dangerous to the employees.
Another point that might be mentioned is drinking facilities. It is a mighty good plan to have drinking fountains of the bubble type. That has not only the advantage of being extremely good as far as sanitation goes, but it is especially valuable to a man that gets an acid splash in the eye. If he should get a siflash of acid in the eye and run over to the drinking fountain and hold his eye over the bubbler, he will get a whole lot better service than if he has to do what I had to do one day, and that is dive head first in a barrel of water. Regarding the placing of shading over the windows, we have conducted some experiments recently with a new type of plate glass which has been put on the market known as Actinic Glass. Those experiments have not gone quite far enough for us to say positively that it is an absolute protection, hut we have found that it is impossible, even with a carefully prepared lens, to bring the rays of the sunlight behind a sheet of this glass to a sufficiently sharp focus to ignite nitro-cotton. We believe that that type of glass is going to be a particularly desirable thing to place in the laboratories and in buildings on high explosive plants.
' AMBER GEASS
Chairman Kershaw: This glass that Mr. Marsh speaks of was in
vented during the war. It is an amber-tinted glass which can be pur
chased in large sheets of all kinds, even corrugated wire glass, I under
stand., and its effects are very interesting.
r
Chemical Scciion
257
Mr. J. H. Barnholt (E. I. du Pont de Nemours Co., Wilmington, Del.):
I think this, Mr. Chairman, is sufficiently important to start a Safe Prac
tice Pamphlet of the National Council. Is it possible to start that here through Mr. Marsh's paper in some way?
Chairman Kershaw: It seems to me that it would be quite in order to make a motion to the effect that we ask the Headquarters Staff to consider a pamphlet to contain such points as are of general interest to laboratories in chemical industries.
The motion, was carried unanimously.
Mr. A. B. Clark (National Aniline Chemical Co., Buffalo); Our acci dents have almost exclusively resulted from utter carelessness on the part of the laboratory operators, such as, for example, caustic spills or splashes and that sort of thing. We do have a very embarrassing situa tion to meet in the disposal of comparatively large quantities of highly inflammable solvents--benzol, toluol and all of the nitro products and aniline. If anyone in the room has had any experience with disposing of large quantities of these materials, I would appreciate suggestions. I was in the Bureau of Chemistry when we blew out all of the plumbing
by throwing ether down the sinks.
Mr. H. F. Webb: We have one method of taking care of solvents. Of course, it may not be applicable to other plants that are not as advantageously located as we are, because we have our own distilling department. All waste solvents are kept in proper containers. Any waste benzol, for instance, is kept in a friction top can, that is, a can that is practically hermetically sealed. It is taken`out periodically and delivered to the distilling department where whatever recoverable values there are, are recovered. So we have, insofar as the laboratory is con cerned, no trouble from that standpoint.
Chairman Kershaw: We have another very interesting subject on the
program, and that is "Chemical Burns," which is right in line with this
question of laboratory hazards. I am going to ask Mr. Watson, who Is
chairman of our industrial poisons committee, and who has a big burn
problem in liis plant, to act as chairman of the meeting while this dis
cussion is in progress.
'
CHEMICAL BURNS
Mr. A. hi. Watson (Hooker Electrochemical Co., Niagara Falls, N. Y.) :
Let's have a real round table discussion on chemical burns. In order
to start the thing off, I notice in Mr. Marsh's safety code for chemical
laboratories, that he suggests the maintenance in laboratories of acetic
acid in bottles for neutralizing caustic burns. Can I hear some dis
cussion on the relative value of acetic acid as against zinc sulphate, for
instance, in neutralizing caustic burns?
.
Mr. Clark: We use large quantities of water and immediately apply
it and let it go at that. It is very rare that a man gets a serious enough
splash in our laboratory to warrant more than washing. If it Is more
serious than that, it is a hospital case.
.
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Twelfth Safety Congress
Mr. J. J. O'Leary (Atmospheric Nitrogen Corp., Syracuse, N. Y.) : We have been very successful in using the acetic acid immediately and very
freely. We haven't had a hospital case yet, and that has been our only
treatment.
.
Mr. Richardson: When I worked with the caustic, we always had a pail of diluted acetic acid in water, and men repeatedly, particularly in working about the caustic furnaces, would go and wash their hands and even their faces to remove the sting, the bites, as it were. Our pipe fit ters used the protection of rubber gloves. Invariably they had well ex amined rubber gloves to use in handling their tools and in placing fittings in pipe lines. Those two things were really effective. We very seldom had caustic burns of any serious nature whatever.
Mr. Watson: The reason I brought up the question is that in- the concern with which I am connected we have used for a great many years a zinc sulphate solution for neutralizing caustic on the shin or in the eyes in preference to the other material. Perhaps there is no choice between them, but I thought possibly someone here might have some data on the relative merits of those two chemicals. '
Mr. R. E. Vanatta (Pittsburgh Plate Glass Co.): We have a lot of caustic burns and use the acetic acid; also a weak solution of sulphuric, I think, and we use the solution that you have just mentioned; also a lot of water. I think the chief advantage in the use of any treatment in the caustic burn is the idea of getting at it quick and using it often. I know when we first sent most of our caustic burns to the doctor, and they were treated, say once or twice a day, they- extended over a very long time, but since our nurse has learned that frequent treatment is really the thing, and they treat them six and seven times a day, two or three times in the forenoon, keeping the scab off a caustic burn, they seem to heal up much more quickly. For any kind of an acid burn in the eye she uses a little oil of some kind, keeping that from drying up, and it makes the burn .heal a lot quicker. We handle practically all ot our eye cases right in our first aid hospital, and we have better success than in sending them out in nine cases out of ten.
Mr. Watson: If there is no further discussion on that particular point, can we hear something in reply to Mr. Richardson's question?
. UflBOME BORES
Mr. Richardson: As all chemists know, chrome doesn't really burn, but when it gets into-an injury it prevents healing, and the serious char acter of the sore which results from that prevention is a cause of great concern to factories which have the handling of processes involving chromium in some of the products.
Those things become very serious at times. For instance, a mere cut on the hand will produce a permanently disabled member if it isn't taken in time and if it doesn't get the proper treatment even though taken in time. Perhaps some members may have an effective method of handling those situations. It is a doctor's job really.
Chemical Section
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Mr. Grass: I think that matter is best treated in a pamphlet which I obtained from the English government through their printing depart ment, and I submitted the treatise which they forwarded to me to Mr. Kershaw, I believe, this past year. I haven't the data here, but if any body is interested in this information pertaining to any of the chrome compounds, they would find that pamphlet very interesting and very Instructive.
In connection with the production of bichromate and other chromium
compounds, we have found that cleanliness Is the test preventive. We
absolutely insist upon the men changing their street clothing before they. go. to-work. .We insist upon their washing, and then before they
eat their meals, we keep their dinner pails and insist upon their passing
through a washroom so they wash their hands and faces prior to going
to the diningroom or to their pails. If they go to aiiy other point out
side of their work, we insist upon their washing their hands, so that they won't contaminate any portion of their body because of any chrome compound on their hands. Then we also insist upon a thorough shower bath with soap. We furnish the soap and furnish the towels. That bath is compulsory prior to the men leaving the plants. Then they change the clothes that they use during the course of their employment and change to their street clothes which are in a separate locker by them selves prior to going home.
We were very seriously troubled with chrome sores and itch prior to taking these precautions, and since insisting upon this enforced cleanli ness process, we have practically dismissed that as one of our troubles.
Mr. Watson: Will Dr. Slater tell us a little bit about the Kodak's practice in mixed acid burns, both body and eye barns? I think that will be quite interesting to everyone.
Dr. W. A. Sawyer (Eastman Kodak Co., Rochester, N. Y.): Our prac tice is to have the drinking fountain type of irrigation with reducing valves, so that a man who turns on the water won't strike the eyes with too great force. At another place, there Is a large tank for the men who are burned with the acids to jump into.
My conception of an acid burn or a caustic burn, either one, is that they essentially have the same action on the tissue. My conception of the proper treatment is, as this gentleman over here pointed out, prompt ness. The amount of tissue destruction is directly dependent upon the time that the agent is burning, the amount of the agent, and my feeling is that if you cau get copious amounts of water very promptly, that is the very best thing that you can. do.
With the drinking fountain type of water, you are getting clean water.
It is better than throwing water out of a pail which has been standing
around the department and which may have a lot of dust and dirt and things of that sort. For the acid burns, we use a solution .of. sodium bicarbonate, and I have found that there Is -a great tendency not. to . use
enough of the solution.
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Twelfth Safety Congress
We see a fellow come into the dispensary with a little reddening- of the skin and a little elevation, and we feel that the burn really doesn't amount to anything, and I have found that the next day that acid burn may extend very deeply into the skin, and instead of having what we call a first degree burn or a second degree burn where just the skin is destroyed, that, after all, the acid has burned down and gotten into the deeper tissues underlying the skin, and you have something which is important. We keep them soaked in bicarbonate solution, and actually by putting sodium bicarbonate on; the nurse for a half hour to an hour does nothing else but that;
As to the treatment of the burns, I am sorry to say, after they are firmly established, there aren't any specifics. I believe that you may use an oil if you know that the oil is sterile. I don't believe in using carron oil; there are some people who do. I don't believe in it because I have found that it is not sterile, and, after all, a burn is a wound in exactly the same way that any other agent may injure the tissue, and
the thing that the surgeon has got to look out for is cleanliness. -
Mr. Watson: What oil do you use?
Dr. Sawyer: I use a borated vaseline, which has the antiseptic action of the boracic acid together with the' whole thing being sterilized. I am using that not as a specific against the burn at all, because I don't think it is -a specific, but I use it simply that when you change the dressing the man won't complain of the pain because of the adherence of the dressings to the skin.
Recently in the Rochester General Hospital we had a very unfortunate
experience where a man was burned on practically two-thirds of his body.
He was one of the fellows who lit a match when he was getting some gasoline. I have never seen anything so horrible in my life. He had
just one-third of his skin left. We had a great opportunity to study the
various agencies in burns, that is, the paraffin wax and the vaselines and
the unguentine and all of that. The general impression is this--use as
few dressings as possible and keep the dressings changed often enough
to keep the wound sterile.
BURXS ARE HEALED ONLY UX MATURE
There isn't anything in the world that is going to heal burns. A burn is healed by nature itself just exactly as any other wound is healed by nature itself. When an appendix is taken out, there isn't anything rubbed on to heal the skin,' to heal the wound. The appendix is taken out, the man .is sewed up and the wound goes ahead and heals. There are no salves, no ointments, no grease, nothing at all except sterile dressings over the wound. Ninety-nine out of a hundred of our uncomplicated appendix cases, that is, where there is no pus, heal perfectly without the assistance of any oil or grease or anything of that type. If I use a borated vaseline, it is not with the idea at all that I am healing anything. I am using it simply so that when the dressing is removed, the man won't suffer from the pain.
Chemical Section
261
I think it is a great advantage, as has been pointed out, to change the
dressings frequently, so that the secretions which form from the burn may be promptly removed and not reinfected. I would urge all of you to insist that the acid burns he neutralized for a long period of time. If you don't, you will find that a seemingly trivial burn the next day has become a serious burn. -After all, our experience is not large be cause we don't have many serious burns. We have had a few fellows that have spilled acid on their feet. The very peculiar thing about the caustic burn is that it just simply bores a hole down wherever it touches, and it will scoop a hole out of the top of a man's foot just the size of a quarter and go right on down through until you get it neutralized.
Mr. Riederer: Might I ask Dr. Sawyer if he has had any particular experience with nitric acid? We use a great deal of very strong nitric acid, up to ninety-eight and a hundred per cent. We have found--I tried it on myself several times--that after it is neutralized with bicarbonate of soda for a considerable length of time, the hard scab forms which one of the gentlemen here referred to, and the wound from nitric acid re quires from three to six weeks to heal. If you remove that hard scab on the second or third day, it is painful, but just tear it off and let it bleed and the^wound is liable to heal in less than a week's time.
I had my entire face burned with a mixed acid six years ago and the wounds were all covered with scab. After a week's time, it began to Itch so that I shaved, contrary to the doctor's instruction. I did that on Saturday, and on Tuesday, my face was healed. Have you had experi ence similar to that?
Dr. Sawyer: I have noticed, the exact thing that you speak of, that there is a slough of charred tissue that gathers on the wound, and as you look really down into it, you will find that slough there, and I''have always (considered that it ought to be removed. You can put a little novocain around the wound and pull it off without a great deal of pain to the. man.
As a matter of fact, I don't feel that a deep burn will heal in a week. I don't think it will heal in much less- than three or four weeks, and some of them will take possibly six weeks, because there is so much tissue there that has to be reconstructed. But I do think it is a good plan to remove ` all slough.
PROPER USE OF WATER
Mr. Crass: May I have one more word? Whenever I hear of anyone
speaking of the use of water in connection with acid burns, I want to
emphasize it. I have known of acid burns where a man has gotten his
leg or arm into it or gotten a splash over a large area of his body and
they have used water but they haven't used enough, and the result of
that has been a chemical reaction of the water upon the acid and a sort
of cooking effect. The burn resulting from it has been worse than the
acid burn. The word "copious" should be emphasized if possible. If it
is on the trousers or coat or shirt, don't wait to unbutton, but pull them
off and immerse the man in water.
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Twelfth Safety Congress
Mr. c. C. Rutledge (General Chemical Co.) : In handling strong sul
phuric acid, we have had experience where we couldn't get enough water
on it to prevent the burning from the heat generated by the water, and
we find it is safer to wipe off the acid with a dry cloth first and then
apply water. I think that is an important thing, especially when acid
is as strong as 100 per cent.
Chairman Kershaw: I am going to ask Mr. Kepner, of the Pennsyl
vania Salt Co., to take the chair.
Mr. Kepner: Gentlemen, for the last four or five years, the various
concerns that manufacture and sell safety devices have come to the
various congresses of the National Safety Council for the purpose of interesting the chemical engineer and the engineers of all other sections
in what they have to sell.
While the National Safety Council is not boosting any particular firm, these various individuals that have come here year after year to exhibit
their products always have something of value to the safety man in
the industry. For instance, we have-just had a discussion on burns,
what a person would do in case of a burn, whether to jump into a tank of water or under a bubbling fountain.- We have Mr. Chester who has
an eye. applicator for burns or Anything in the eye, and I would just
like to have him demonstrate for a moment what he has. Mr. Chester: You gentlemen who are coming in contact with acid
burns of the eyes may possibly be- interested in learning of this instru ment. We have here an attachment for the ordinary' faucet in which we furnished different shaped rubber inserts for an attachment. We
have here an automatic over-flow, so that you do not get the entire
pressure as you turn it on, but just sufficient for the work that the instrument is devised for. At the same time, in here, if it is thought necessary at any time, medicated tablets, such as your plant eye specialist
or physician may prescribe, may be placed; or where you are using
in our first aid hospital an irrigation stand, we have a separate attach ment for that purpose which naturally hasn't any overflow feature, and in that irrigator you would then place your medication. For the purpose
of burns, where you want to use pure water, that medicant would be unnecessary, but the feature is there* if you want to use it- The result
is the water passes up into the body of this instrument, and from a
number of little, tiny needle-point holes around the eyes on both sides,
it throws a fine needle spray all around the eyes, giving them a thor
ough flushing or irrigation, which this tubing in turn carries away and back down the basin,' so that if you wished, you could put anywhere
from a few pints, quarts or even gallons of that water or liquid around
the eye to ameliorate the suffering from those burns. On the other
hand, if there be any small particle of dust, grit, dirt which has got in
there and yet which is loose and difficult to find, this instrument will
flush it out. Mr. Watson:
_ I have one criticism to make of that apparatus--at
least I consider it a criticism. You use an inverted open vessel to
contain the liquid that is to be washed.through this instrument into the
Chemical Section
263
eyes, and it occurs to ine that with that open vessel standing in a room for an indefinite period, it would he very unsanitary. I think it would be much better if that open vessel was replaced by an inverted bottle or something of that sort that would be closed and keep out dirt and other things.
Mr. Chester: This can be attached to any wall pocket or vessel of any kind that you may wish to use. Of course, in using an irrigator stand even, a nurse in charge of the hospital will naturally fill up her tank fresh when she is up against an eye case.
ADHESIVE TAPE
Mr. Kepner: Are there any other questions you would like to ask?
We next have here an adhesive tape. There are a whole lot of different ways of giving first aid in the plants, especially "we will say a cut on the nose. This adhesive tape is sold by a large number of concerns that sell safety equipment, and they merely cut off this small piece of ad hesive tape, take it back, pull it out, and put it on the nose or finger, and it takes care of those small cuts until you can get to a doctor. If a man were to tie a rag around it, it would be in his way.
Next we -have goggles. In the chemical plants they use different kinds. There are probably fifty different concerns represented here and almost every concern uses a particular type, and they standardize on a particular type that they like themselves. But we are always alert
to getting these boys that hqve something pew in the goggle line to bring it up and show it to us. At this time, I would be glad to hear from Mr. Larsen who has a special goggle to demonstrate.
Mr. H. J. Larsen (Willson Goggles, Inc.): It is needless to say that there has never been a satisfactory device fdr protection to be worn over spectacles. We have worked for a number of years on such an article, and we believe we have at last something very satisfactory. I have my own correction made up in a frame that Is necessary for this device, a forty millimeter rod frame, and it can be had in metal or with a shell rim. It it fitted with springs on the inside. You . will note that I now have protection to my eyes and also protection to an expansive pair of lenses, which means quite a bit in most operations. My spectacles are not distorted in any way; the vision is absolutely normal. In removing them, all I have to do is take them off and go home. Every part in it is replacable and is made to withstand heavy treatment. I am going to leave it on the table in case any one wishes to look-at it.
Mr. Kepner: We would like to hear from Mr. Mutt. may have something to say.
I believe he
Mr. B. W. Nutt (Safety Equipment Service Co., Cleveland): I just have one or two things I want to show you. We have been giving considerable attention in our company in the last year to providing some sort of protective clothing which might be useful in the chemical industry. It is a rather difficult problem because there are so many different operations and also so many different chemicals and acids and
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Twelfth Safety Congress
one thing and another to contend with, and, as we have found true in goggles, you can't find one kind of clothing which will take care of all different needs.
The thing I want to show you now is a helmet which we have developed, and which has heen proving fairly successful to prevent splashes on the head, neck, face and shoulders. This is made of a rubberized cloth which is more or less acid-proof. I got over saying it is absolutely acid-proof because as soon as X say that, somebody comes along with something I never heard of, and there are a great many of those thing*, I will admit. But this has been found to be very useful in a great many cases.
This helmet is constructed over a frame which is adjustable so that it will fit any head and fit it comfortably. The construction is of light metal frame in which is fitted a head-band. This bead-band may be adjusted so it will fit the head of any ordinary man. This gives the helmet form and allows the covering to rest over the head easily and not bind and also allows a free circulation of air, as much at least as is possible on a helmet which Is not intended primarily to be supplied with fresh air. We might say, however, that this helmet can be supplied with fresh air by putting a firesh air line to the top of this thing and in that way allowing a free circulation of air underneath it.
In order to keep the band from slipping down too far on the bead, we put a strap inside which takes up the weight. This paruknshar ooe I* fitted with a piece of mica in front, but it can also be tfczted with glass if required and can be made renewable by taking this pfcicw eox. The attachment for air can b^ made through the top. and this baa given very good satisfaction.
PROTECTIVE SUITS
We are also producing complete suitp of this material, etxfeer a one-
piece or a. two-piece suit. It has a draw string around the arm and
around the leg, so that a man may wear boots or gloves in connection
with it. We are also producing sleevelets, which come from tbe arm np
to the shoulder and which may be used over the ordinary type oC add
glove such as this.
.
Another thing we have found useful is a legging which may be pro
duced of the same material. This is the type of legging we use; It is our foundry legging but it' has been adapted to this same purpose by covering
it with the acid-proof cloth. This has two fiber boards inside which give
form to the legging and enable it to be put on the leg and keep a per
fectly smooth surface. This is fastened around the leg in this fashion
and is held in position by a spring which comes on the outside of the
legging. That, in this particular instance, is covered with this material.
If you want to get this legging off in a hurry, simply pull the spring
and it drops off. We are adapting this to other classes of work by
lengthening it up to the hip.
Mr. Kepner: Next we would like to hear from Mr. Seagraves. He has just a few things he would like to demonstrate to you. One of the first things is a gas mask which we all use in the chemical industry, or the majority of us do.
Chemical Section
265
Mr. H. J. Segraves (Mine Safety Appliance Co., Pittsburgh): Those who were at the meeting last year where we discussed respirators remem ber Mr. Watson's paper, and I have been in touch with him a few times about his home-made respirator. One of the plants that I furnished with a model which Mr. Watson loaned me wouldn't make up the home-made respirator, and they had us make up some. I wanted you to know that in case you wanted some of those.
I mentioned at that last discussion a dust mask. In the chemical warfare service, the flat filter was found to be the best medium of remov
ing dust from air. This is the dust mask. It has a large filter. The
dust-laden air passes through and spreads itself over the entire surface,
and there is a corrugated screen inside which allows the free circulation of air underneath this covering. We take our air supply then from between two of these filters right up into a large, free, breathing outfit with a regular exhalation valve.
In connection with this outfit, or in connection with the gas mask
with which you gentlemen are very familiar probably, I want to show
a dust hood or a chemical hood. This can be made up of light rubberized
fabric or heavy rubberized fabric, in order to cover a man's neck or ears.
That.has been one of the troubles with gas masks in such a case as
strong ammojaia fumes.
'
Mr. Kepner: It looks funny, boys, but for anybody that has any work to do in handling bleach, it is fine. We use them, and they are splendid.
Mr. Segrave: The jumper is put on the outside. We have rubber
goggles in which we have a smaller orifice and a shaped cup, and we put
water inside here. In case the goggles fog up, just a shake of the head
deflects that water against the lens and keeps it free from the collected
moisture.
.
FOGGIXG Of GOGGLES
'
'
Mr. Kepner: That is something new that is just out. There has been
a great deal of trouble in the mines because of goggles fogging up; also going through your bleach chambers where the heat hits your goggles and fogs them up on yon.
Mr. Segrave: This is the dust-proof respirator in which we use a filter of felt inside of the pressed cotton filter or the sponge. This was
tested out in the Bureau of Mines unofficially and found to be at least as good as any other filtering medium they have on an ordinary respirator.
We use it in connection with an aluminum respirator with a pneumatic cushion. The felt disc is held between two copper screen discs of 150 mesh with a little larger than the space in which it fits, so that there is a slight bulge, and we get a bearing all around the outside, and all the dust-laden atmosphere will go through the felt. There is a small rubber
relief valve.
These are all replaceable by means of snap fasteners which makes it
mighty convenient.
266 Twelfth Safety Congress
This is the combination mask in which we may use a cannister of our all-service gas mask type or size, connected directly to two lengths of hose. The cannister is on the back in this case. We can substitute for
the cannister a length of hose which runs to outside air, for cleaning tank cars, etc. At the same time, the .harness consists of a safety belt which has tested hardware and a ring tested to fifteen hundred pounds tensile strength. This belt when worn will permit a man to be raised
in an upright position. held in this harness.
There is a picture that shows how a man is ,
In ease you have to drag a man out of a trench or a man-hole, very often with an ordinary life belt or rope,, the rope either cuts the man or he is mutilated in getting through the opening. This holds him upright and lets him get through any space that his shoulders will go through.
Mr. A. U. Barnes (Standard Safety Equipment Co.): About our only item of interest would be the wide vision go,._le which has been gener ally adopted by the chemical industry, I believe, and which gives a 490 degree range of vision. I believe some of the largest chemical com panies in the land have tried that out and made a test of throwing a bucket of water against the goggle with the idea of seeing if the water would filter through, the idea being that if it was acid it would burn the eye, with the result that no water trickled through, and enough of the larger companies have adopted it so that it has proven itself practicable. The ventilation at the top and bottom tends to prevent condensation,
which is a draw-back in some of the older attempts at goggles. I will leave a sample here on the desk if anybody wants to see it.
Mr. Edward Terry (Safety First Supply Co., Pittsburgh) : Although we have just this one thing with us, we handle everything that you might think of in the safety and first aid line. This is just a small board showing how we put up stock, and it measures twenty-five by twentyseven in the door here, that is, the glass opening; and the stock board is thirty-two by forty. We make two other designs, too, in stock boards, but we are willing and ..ready at all times to make any special board that you might need. The lettering in the glass is sand-hlasted. It is -cut right in that glass and filled in with paint. The hoard itself is made of twenty-six gauge galvanized iron and painted with a coat of enamel iron paint.
j\Ir. Kepner: I want to thank all these different exhibitors for coming up here and waiting so long, and I thank you gentlemen for your
indulgence in staying until it was over.
REPORT OP NOMINATING COMMITTEE
Chairman Kershaw: Gentlemen, I will detain you only a minute, to hear the report of the Nominating Committee.
Mr. Riederer: The Nominating Committee begs to report as follows:
Chemical Section
267
Chairman:
A. L. Watson, Hooker Electrochemical Co., Niagara Falls, N. Y.
Vice
Chairman: B
M. F. Crass, Grasselli Chemical Co., Cleveland, Ohio.
Secretary:
Mr. McNaui Fibre Silk Co., Buffalo, N. Y.
Upon motion duly made and seconded, it was voted that the report of the Nominating Committee be accepted, and that the Secretary be author ized to cast the unanimous vote.of the Section for the gentlemen named.
Mr. Watson: I am deeply appreciative of the honor, and I hope that,
with the assistance of the past officers of the Section and the new officers
and the new committees, we will be able to do as good work as the Sec
tion has done in the past.
'
ADJOURNMENT.
Chemical Section,
267
A. L. Watson,
{Hooker Electrochemical Co., Niagara Falls, N. Y.
* Vice
Chairman :
M. F. Crass, Grasselli Chemical Co., Cleveland, Ohio.
Secretary:
Mr. McNaui Fibre Silk Co., Buffalo, N. Y.
Upon motion duly made and seconded, it was voted that the report of the Nominating Committee be accepted, and that the Secretary be author ized. to cast the unanimous vote.of the Section for the gentlemen named.
Mr. Watson: I am deeply appreciative of the honor, and I hope that,
with the assistance of the past officers of the Section and the new officers
and the new committees, we will be able to do as good work as the Sec
tion has done in the past.
'
ADJOURNMENT.
Cement Section
October 3 and 4, 1923
HEIfBI A. RENINGER, Chairman
Special Representative, Lehigh. Portland Cement Company, Allentown, Pa.
H. 6. JACOBSEN, Secretary
Manager, Bureau of. Accident Prevention and Insurance, Portland Cement Association, Chicago, 111.
WEDNESDAY MORNING SESSION
HA1RMAN RENINGER: We have been trying to carry on the work with member plants of the Portland Cement Association through the
committee on accident prevention and insurance, of which Mr. Tagge is chairman,, and through'the Bureau of Accident Prevention and Insurance of the same association, of which bureau our secretary of the Cement Section, Mr. Jacobsen, is the manager. We have been doing safe, sane safety work in the cement industry and from all that I can gather I feel that the cement industry as a whole has done more in safety work, and has got better results than, any other industry. The statistics we compiled in Chicago are being used now by insurance companies to get their ex perience on accidents in the cement industry. There is no question hut that we have aroused a great deal of enthusiasm throughout the industry since the Portland Cement Association has appropriated $1,500 for a trophy to the mill making the best record with the lowest accident figures on the basis of man-hours worked during the year .1923. At this morning's session Mr. A. C. Tagge, vice president of the Canada Cement Company and the chairman of the committee on accident prevention and insurance, of the Portland Cement Association, will preside.
(Mr. Tagge assumes the Chair.)
Chairmaif Tagge: It is very pleasing to those who are interested in safety work in the cement mills to get as good a gathering as this of men whose daily work it is to look after safety of the men at our plants.
As members of the nominating committee I appoint Mr. Frame, from
the Alpha Cement Company, Mr. Huth, of the Universal Company, and
Mr. Furkhiser. of the Lehigh Company.
.
Major Reninger (Lehigh): Gentlemen, we have with us Sir Thomas Oliver, of England. Sir Thomas has been kind enough to come in here and give us a short talk.
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Twelfth Safety Congress
SIB THOMAS OLIVER SPEAKS'
Sir Thomas Oliver: I thank you, gentlemen, for the very kind reception you have extended to me. Really I have only a few words to say, because I have never seen in the cement works any serious illness traceable to the occupation. Cement making is a dusty occupation, hut somehow or other the dust that is inhaled does no harm to the individual.
You can easily understand that there are various kinds of dust. There are certain dusts which are soluble. There are certain dusts which are soft and there are others in which' the particles are extremely hard and angular.
The soluble dusts, unless you are dealing with what you would call poisonous substances, really do very little harm. The soft particles under go some change in the secretions in the respiratory passages. The hard angular particles inflict injury upon the lung.
Although cement-making is a dusty occupation, the workers are remark ably free from any lung trouble, and that obtains not only in this country in the cement factories that I have visited, but also in Europe, in those which I have seen in my own country- One can only believe, that the cement dust undergoes some change so that it is not harmful.
The only criticism which I think cement-makers might suffer is in the exposure of great heat of some of the men in the burning department and I understand that the men sometimes suffer from what you call heat prostration, but that is not confined to cement-making alone, because it also occurs to men who are out in the open air and exposed to the direct rays of the sun. We can therefore not regard that as a hazard peculiar to cement-making. The only thing to do in cases of heat prostration asmany of you know, is to have the patient taken at once to a hospital and
treated, because one of the effects of prostration is to cause the tempera ture to rise very rapidly. The normal temperature of the body, as you know, is 98.5, but under heat prostration it will run up to 105 and 110, and the only thing to do is to put the patient into a cold bath, and keep him there until his temperature comes down to 103, or something like that.
Now, as I said before, this hazard is not confined to your trade at all,
because it occurs particularly, too, in stokers of large ships. I don't see
that there is anything special in cement-making that brings it under the
category of what you would call dangerous trades, nor do I find that in
cement-making, there is anything like what can be called an occupational
disease. I think, on the whole the longevity of the cement-maker is ijuite
equal to that of the average of other people, and therefore, I don't regard
cement manufacturing as a dangerous occupation.
Major Reninger (Lehigh) : I move that we give Sir Thomas1 a rising
vote of thanks.
.
. ..
- -
(All arise.)
': `
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*
Chairman Tagge: We will now proceed with the regular program.
Cement Section
271
SAFETY FROM THE EXECUTIVES' STANDPOINT
Cor-. E. M. Young. Vice President, Lehigh Portland Cement Company,
Allentown, Pa.
We are living In a wonderful country. Sometimes we forget to fully
appreciate the advantages we enjoy. Our nation is all the more remark
able because of its rapid growth and development. The population of the
IT. S. In 1850 was less than 25 millions, in 1880 It had only increased to
50 millions and today the total reaches 110 millions. It is only 90 years
ago that Chicago was incorporated as a town and four years later as a city.
The estimated worth of this country in 1912 was 188 billions, and 1923, 300
billions.
.
In the same manner the cement industry has had a remarkable and
rapid growth. Only 33 years ago, which is well within my recollection,
the production of Portland Cement in the United States was less than half
a million barrels. In 1900 it had risen to 8,482,000 barrels. During the
next ten years there were many plants built and by 1910 production had
risen to 76,549,000 barrels. Last year, 1922, showed the largest quantity
produced, namely 114,789,984 barrels, and 1923 promises to exceed 1922
by at least 18 million barrels, bringing the total for the year to probably
132 million barrels. Is there anywhere so remarkable a record of growth
in the industry within so short a time?
.
'
Cement companies in -the earlier days conducted their business and
operated their mills in a very simple manner. Few understood costs and
none realized the tremendous wear and tear of heavy machinery. The
words, depreciation, obsolescence and depletion made only a hazy im
pression on the minds of those in charge. The result was many failures.
Companies which survived, slowly and gradually began to realize' the.
necessity for better methods in all directions.
''
The placing of a federal tax on incomes of corporations had much to do with proper accounting, with consideration for depreciation and other items of loss. Competition brought about greater mill efficiency.
Workmen's compensation laws adopted by almost all states brought the attention of manufacturers to the serious dangers to which employes were exposed In cement mills. The slogan of ``Safety ' First"- began to be heard. Devices to minimize accidents were placed at all points of danger, with the result that today all properly equipped plants have safe guards wherever necessary.
, HUMANITARIAN ASPECT OF SAFETY WORK
Compare this with conditions 10 to 20 years ago and the contrast" is most striking. Many executives and managers for years failed to take the subject of "Safety" seriously considering it more or less a silly fad, but gradually the importance of this wonderful movement has impressed
itself on the minds of all competent and progressive manufacturers. -Safety work is above -all* humanitarian. What a harrowing sight-it is
to-have a husband, father or son brought home on a stretcher maimed; dythg or dead. Anything to lessen distress should appeal to the hearts
of-all-men.- Safety work pays financially.
-"
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Twelfth Safety Congress
If a company carries its own insurance, then naturally the lower the number of accidents the lower the cost. For the same reason a company which covers with insurance receives a low or high rate according to its record.
Safety work improves efficiency. Nothing has ever been introduced into cement plants which has touched the hearts and spirits of employes as has the interest of the management in their physical welfare. The work of the safety committee, the prizes for good records, the rivalry between plants for the least number of lost days bring about an esprit de corps which could not otherwise be developed.
The Lehigh Portland Cement Company was among the first to recognize the importance of this great movement. All its plants have long since been organized along safety lines; committees are regularly selected and a reasonable sum is turned over yearly by the company to each committee. This money is used in many ways--a portion perhaps for a dinner to those who have been active in safety work. A careful record is kept of all lost days and the rivalry between plants is simply remarkable.
Because of the constant effort of the safety committees to prevent acci dents, it has become a sort of monitor which not only wields an influence over the men but does not hesitate to call to account a careless foreman or indifferent superintendent. The safety committee interests itself in keeping the mill clean and sees to it that all unnecessary obstacles are removed.
The Lehigh Company three years ago decided to carry its own compen sation insurance in all states other than Pennsylvania. Bach year, there is credited to a reserve account an amount equal to the premiums which would have been paid to insurance companies.
By reason of the splendid work of the safety committee and the enthu siasm of the men, this reserve has grown to a very tidy sum and in the course of a few years, with the same experience, the amount credited each year can be materially reduced.
SAFETY RECORD OK I.KI1IG It COMPANY
The Lehigh Company is very proud of its 1322 record as compiled by the Portland Cement Association. Out of 94 plants reporting, all of Lehigh's mills were among the first 30, and Lehigh was given a rating of 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 5th, 7th and 12th for its six best plants.
A Safety Committee is held one month of each year, and June was the month selected. Any mill going through this month without a lost time accident is awarded a prize. Safety Campaigns have been held for the past three years with the following result;
1921, the prize was a large mill pennant, won by 5 mills. 1922, the pri. was a beautiful American flag, won by 10 mills. 1923, the prize was a large silver cup, won by 11 mills. At the end of each year there is a trophy awarded to the mill making the best record for the year. The trophy offered for the last two years by the company is a beautiful bronze tablet. 4% by 15% Inches. This trophy was won in 1922 by the West Coplay and Tola plants--there being
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a tie, the trophy was left at each mill for 6 months of the year. In 1922 the trophy was again won by West Coplay, and remains with this plant as it was one of the rules governing the contest that "the mill winning the trophy two years in succession might retain it.
The Safety Committee at each plant is also given a cash gift each year to do with is they see fit, each individual safety committee'spending the
money in whatever way they wish.
The Portland Cement Association has appropriated $1,500 to be expended for a trophy to be given to the employes of the plant having the least number of days lost for 100,000 man-hours of work during 1923. This provides a new and added incentive for greater effort for safety.
In my opinion as an executive, safety work has become as necessary and essential to the successful operation of a cement mill as a boiler house or a laboratory.-
You men who give particular attention to this department should con
gratulate yourselves upon the importance of your work. You should take
hope and inspiration from this convention and go hack to your plants
filled with the kind of enthusiasm which will be contagious among your
men.
'
DISCUSSION
Chairman Tagge: Gentlemen, I am sure we all appreciate the very fine paper Colonel Young has presented to us this morning. It should be a great encouragement and should stimulate us to greater effort- to know that the executive of one of the largest companies is so thoroughly convinced of the value of safety work, and considers it an essential of the work of cement manufacture.
The Mitchell plant of the Lehigh Company operated 17 consecutive months without a lost time accident. That is certainly a very marvelous record. I have some figures from one plant with which I am familiar that shows a remarkable record also, and one that should encourage us. I have, some figures covering the years 1920, 1921, 1922 and nine months of 1923. The accidents for those four years at that, particular mill have gone down in this way: 51, 31, 15, and so far this year, 5. It is a large plant, producing some 10,000 barrels, a day, and employing 600 or more men. We consider that a very good record.
Other things that stand out are the no accident months; that is, the months of the year in which there were no accidents; in 1920 there were no months that were perfectly clear, some accident, more or less, each month; in 1921, there were two months in which there were no accidents; in 1922, there were four months in which there were no lost time acci dents, and in 1923, out of the nine months so far, seven months have had no lost time accident. I think that is a remarkable record.
Another thing in connection with this is the efficiency, the production per man-hour, or the man-hours per barrel, as I think most of you reckon that. We find that at this plant the efficiency has gone up.right along and has kept step with the clearance from accidents. That- is, as the
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number of accidents decreased the efficiency of operation, the barrels pro duced per man-bour increased. These are facts that tbe executive cannot get away from, and he must be convinced by these figures that the acci dent prevention work, even from the standpoint of - dollars and cents, is a paying proposition.
Mr. Frame (Alpha): I have some figures here bearing out what has just been said about the rates. At the same plant where there has been such an improvement in the accident record, the cost of accidents has also decreased. In 1920 the cost of accidents, that is, the compensation paid, together with legal fees and all other expenses was 1.33 per cent of the payroll. In 1923, for the first nine months of the year it has been reduced to 0.4 per cent or practically 30 per cent of what it was, a saving of 70 per cent in the actual cost to the company.
Colonel Young (Lehigh) : I am going to add this thought. We see little children learning to swim with these little water wings or little life pre servers. They ought always to be sure before they go into deep water that they have learned to swim. This question of self-insurance is similar. I would not recommend for anyone, for one minute, to take up self-insur ance who does not feel competent and willing to look after the safety work, to instill enthusiasm in the men for it, and to follow It up every day in the year. Self-insurance, in those plants where we carry it, has paid, and we are well ahead of the game. In fact, I think you would be surprised if I gave you the actual figures, they are large. But, they would not be large, if we did not follow up the safety work every day in the year and every hour of the day at every one of our plants. In other words, don't start self-insurance unless you have enough confidence in your work along safety lines to win out. Better stick to your insurance company if you are not strong for accident prevention.
Mr. San Souci (Glens Falls) : I have a plant that is not as good as it should be, I will admit; it is an old plant. I just want to ask if there are any fakers in your part of the country. I got along about two months without an accident. The next month we went along until the 30th of the month, and a man comes along and says he knocked his elbow against a crusher. We have to take his word for it and call the doctor. The doctor looks him over and finally the case goes before the Compensation Board. The Board allows him three weeks, but they also add there is a
possibility that the man is faking the pain. We have no doctor. We
stimulate all the enthusiasm we can in safety work, but about every month I have an accident or two.
.ISSTASCES OF MALISCEHSC
Mr. Robertson (Canada): That is something we very often run into. We call it malingering. We get a man who tramps his elbow and comes m saying he is feeling pain. The only thing to do is to examine that man and convince him that is not so. We find malingering mostly among new men who have been at the plant maybe only two or three weeks. If we had a big turnover of labor we could not show as good results as we do. The company encourages men to stay with ns and probably to that is due the loyalty to the company on tbe part of the men. You will
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find the older men around the mill will watch the new fellows and see that they are not malingering. We had a case where a man said a belt
had broken and struck him on the head. We had him down to the doctor and found nothing. When we traced the case we found the belt had broken, turned over and touched him slightly. without injuring him the slightest. He had received compensation three times before. We found that in reality he was not after compensation from us but he had per sonal accident insurance and that is what he was trying to collect on.
The great problem lies in the men. The safety engineer must have their cooperation and when the executive believes in the work you can generally convince the men. If a man has reported at our hospital for treatment and is not at. work at 7 o'clock the next morning we go right out and investigate. One man was found taking his double windows down. He was supposed-to have a hurt back. Another fellow was repair ing his Ford. He was supposed to have an injured arm.
Major Reninger: We had one accident where a man was killed. An other man had been caught in a stone bin with him. This man claimed an injury to his arm--permanent total disability. Our doctor denied it, ex amined him, xE-rayed him, and could not find a thing. We sent him to Indianapolis twice to two specialists. They all pronounced the pian a fake. Even that did not satisfy him. .We asked for.a hearing. The hear ing was held and the Compensation Board denied him any compensation. They had their own specialists examine him and decided that the man was a malingerer. On the basis of the past record of our company in regard to handling claims they placed the costs of the hearing on the man.
The main reason that malingering has been stopped almost entirely in our plants is due to the safety men keeping in touch with the injured men.
Mr. Saas (Universal) : In regard to having trouble in getting men to report, every man in our plant is given a talk before he goes to work. He is shown where the hospital is. He is told what to do. He is told to report any scratches, no matter how small,' to go to the dispensary and be taken care of. We tell the man about the clothing he wears. We tell him to try to save money., This system has worked out very well for us, and it might be a good thing for you to give the new man com plete instructions before he goes to work. Don't let him come to work until he listens to tbe talk.
We have a lodging house at our place. When a man goes in there he is compelled to take a bath. He has to have a change of clothing. Otherwise he doesn't go in. Of course once in a while we get a refusal. We have some very nice lodging houses, two men to a room, two separate beds in each room, a recreation room, one for colored men and one for white men.' We have a radio there. If a man wants to sit in the recreation room until 12 o'clock at night. It is all right. The -lights go out at 12 in the recreation room and at 10 o'clock the lights go out In the rooms, and nothing is left burning except the lights in the halls, washrooms and
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Twelfth Sdfety Congress
toilets. We only opened up the new lodging house the first of September. We found the men that caused the greatest" disturbance in the other place had gone and the better class had stayed.
Mr. Fritz Johnson (U. S. Smelting Company): Our conditions are quite similar to the cement industry in regard to dust, acids, reactions on the skin, etc. In regard to malingering, about 90 per cent of our employees are located within a radius of ten miles of the plant. They practically all axe owners ot small (arms. Seven years ago, when I first came to the plant, the condition of malingering existed. If a man had anything to do at home, if he had an acre to plow or planting to do he always managed to do some injury to himself so that he could take advantage to the com pensation and farm at the same time, and malingering was very serious. We made a rule that when a man was injured and we figured he was malingering we absolutely refused to have anything to do with him. We fought him and gave that publicity in the plant, especially in the depart ment where be was employed. Before the Workmen's Compensation Board of Utah the entire burden of proof of injury is upon the man. He is the plaintifT and the company is the defendant. In a six-year period my company has lost two cases before the Accident Board. The pub licity given in the plant to the men that has malingered and tried to put it-over has stopped all malingering. Today we practically have no malingering whatsoever in the plant.
We do have rupture cases. The Supreme Court of the state of Utah has made two rulings from different angles. Moorehead, who is recog nized as an authority on traumatism, says that, in his experience of 10,000 cases of hernia, he never observed a truly traumatic hernia caused by injury. We base all our conclusions upon this fact, that when a man is operated on for hernia it is always found that there is a sac into which the intestine comes down. That sac has been there for years, ready to receive the intestine when it comes through. It was not formed in a moment. If you accept a man with a rupture and the man is doing Heavy lifting and he strangulates the hernia, it is up to you to compensate. It is very, very seldom we have strangulated hernia. We operate on the man and send him back better than he came to us. Hernias are prac tically a tiling of the past in Utah.
Chairman Tagge: Mr. Jacobsen is unfortunately ill this morning so we will postpone the discussion on Powdered Coal Hazards.. We are fortunate in having Mr. Purkbiser with us this morning, who will switch his paper over to this time. Mr. Purkbiser talks on "The Human Ele ment--the Important Factor in Safety."
THE HUMAN ELEMENT, THE IMPORTANT FACTOR IN SAFETY
H. H. Pcekhtsek. Mastek Mechaxtc. Lehigh Otxncrr Co_ Mitchell, Iktd.
It seems to me that the question of personal safety in any other industry resolves itself at once into the personal element and the mechanical element--the man and the machine.
Geme-nt Section
277
This is true, however simple the machine or equipment, for a man with
a pick and shovel presents the same principal elements in simpler form, that are presented by a man and an automobile, a man and a grinding machine, a screw conveyor, and engine or any other equipment or mechan ical appliance.
There is a very important difference between these two elements in that the one may be considered as having a more or less constant value and. varies only from causes which can be seen or which can, with reasonable care and forethought, be anticipated.
A well guarded machine in good repair does not usually and un expectedly become a poorly guarded and unsafe machine without some visible and usually preventable cause. But how about the human element? The very many things that may occupy the mind of an individual, matters foreign to the work at hand at the time, and which can not be known or anticipated by any one else, make of that workman a very inconstant and variable factor in the matter of his own personal safety or that of his fellow-workman---unless a proper guard can also he placed on him that shall, so far , as possible make him a less variable and therefore
less hazardous factor.
'
'
The few remarks I shall make are based almost wholly on our personal experience at Mitchell where we employ from 500 to 700 average men in two. average cement plants, and the results we have obtained bave led ps to believe tbat our methods bave perhaps some merit to them.
Like most, if not all, organizations who have undertaken an intensive personal safety program we considered first the matter of safe-guard ing all machinery and making all places of employment safe places for our workmen, in so far as well guarded machinery and good equipment could make them safe, notwithstanding the fact that we had usually re ceived a "clean bill of health" and many compliments in addition from state factory inspectors. We recognized even then that the education of
our men in safe -practices, in methods of carefulness, was an important
matter but while we frequently talked to our men along these lines we had about come to the same conclusion that so many others had already expressed "As long as we employ large numbers of men in any industry we'are going to have a good many accidents which can not be prevented." The number of days lost then by our employees as a result of injuries from accidents due to carelessness on their own part or on the part of fellow-workmen is a record of which we are not at all proud now, and even then we ranked fairly well with other cement plants.
The interest manifested in reporting unsafe practices among workmen led us to compare the records of the groups of workmen in the several departments and under the different foremen, some of whom had already made splendid records of many months without a single time lost acci dent, and right here is where we got the different foremen awake, by showing them their individual records for the past several months (num ber of accidents to men under his supervision), explaining that we ex pected to continue to classify according to the foreman iii charge, and
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that their efficiency would be judged not only by the amount of work done, but also by how safely they could do it. This idea seemed to be satis factory and each one pledged to work, for the best record, for not only did each foreman not want to have the worst record but all knew that they would have to account to the Safety Committee in some satis factory manner for the larger number'of accidents reported from their department or among their group.
And may I say that the foremen have a man's size job in training men in the Importance of safety.
They should be sincere in every way and at all times. They should make safety rules absolute and paramount, and commend those who follow the rules even to the simplest degree.
STAXDrXG OF DEPABTATEXTS
A classification of accidents by departments and groups brought out
some astonishing records which hardly any one up to that time had
realized, for it developed that some departments had gone .well over a
year without a single lost time accident, and this furnished another
opportunity for interest and friendly rivalry, which we thought would be very helpful so we began to make bulletin^ showing the length of
time each department had gone without an accident. The following list
shows the standing of the departments as of October 1st:
'
Department General Repairmen................... Raw Department ...................... Kiln Department ................... Sparksville Quarry.................. Coal Grinding Department Power Department................... Shop ............................................................... Clinker Department................ Woodworking Department
3. Men 8
37 17 24 13 24 60 27 12
No. Days 1376
1349 1350 1047 982 958 907 896 791
Another plan we used was that of listing the causes from which our most common accidents occur, and we discovered that grinding wheels,
cutting and chipping, and small holes in the bottom of cement bags were the causes of most of our eye injuries. We at once agreed to make it compulsory to wear goggles when grinding or cutting and chipping, and also to wear goggles and gloves when pouring hot metal. Since that time we have not had another accident from these sources, and as to the holes in cement bags, it required only a few inspection trips by the committee to find that the bag sorters' were unaware of the importance of not passing any bags to the packers with holes, especially in the bottom. With proper instructions that fault was soon corrected, with the result that we have had no more accidents scoring against us from that source.
The menace of coal dust explosion, outstanding as it is in many cement plants as the source of many serious accidents, has been entirely eliminated at the Mitchell Mills, due wholly to close observance of safety rules.
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At last we had "rung the bell" for we had reached the men in. a way
that made them take an active interest in our safety program so that
when on June 1st, 1921, we began our first No-Accident Campaign nearly
every man was unconsciously a "watchdog" for unsafe practices. Right
here let me say that you do not get a good start In a No-Accident Cam
paign unless you have created a live interest before the date when the
campaign starts and after it has started keep in mind that there can be
no "let up" In your efforts because the minute you do yon begin to
drift and you always drift down stream, not up, and for that reason we
decided to adopt the school plan of holding regular classes for safety
instructions. This ; we did, meeting once each week and bringing from
30 to 40 men together according to the number we could spare without
interfering with our production, and there we reviewed the history of
our safety work, explaining to each man that guarding the machinery
did not reduce the number of days lost due to accident one bit, and made
it plain to them that protection must be the first law and should be the
motto of every man, pointing out that there is no justification for care
lessness In an industrial organization and that they would get nothing
out of accident prevention without putting work and life into it, telling
them that we were going to watch and see whether things were being
done right or wrong, that we would appreciate every effort for safety.
This, I think, got "under the skin" and all through our meeting we tried
to appeal to the men in such a way as to actually make them feel that
they would be responsible for the accident if they knew the conditions to
be dangerous and did not make an effort to correct same or report it to
the foreman or a member of the Safety Committee. We often asked how do we know how many lives we have saved, families kept together, and
ambitions prevented from being shattered, by our safety Work. If any of you ever had the unpleasant experience of removing a fellowman
from a screw conveyor or .helping dig him out of a coal or cement bin,
or have been so unfortunate as to have to notify his loved ones of the fatal
accident, 1 am sure you would agree that it is time to do something to
prevent the recurrence of such a tragedy."
.
A man who is careless and takes a chance with his own life can not be
depended upon to protect machinery and property, but on the contrary if he is a thoughtful and careful man you can rest assured that he is a man who can be trusted with the care of machinery.
SAFETY MEETINGS AS DYNAMOS
I like to think of our safety meetings as a dynamo which is continually generating safety current to. every man in the mill, which keeps them active and alert at all times, and for that reason, we have never postponed or cancelled a, single meeting for' several years.
As long, as the mill continues to make a record which is worth while it attracts not. only the attention and interest of the men employed, but also the entire community, and men usually like to have a part in doing things worth while. To my mind there is absolutely no question about the statement that accidents can he prevented, as is shown by the record
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of Mitchell Mill No. 2 for the past two years. In June, 1920, during , our "No accident*' month we had just one accident and that by "horse play" --one of the most persistent and also most inexcusable obstacles in the path of a good safety record. A water boy and fireman in the coal grinding department had a wrestling match, falling on the concrete floor and fracturing a bone in the arm of one of the men. Then in July and Auguist of that year we felt that the campaign was over and did not make any special effort to prevent accidents, consequently we had more men hurt than in any other two months of that year.
In making up the 1922 safety program we agreed that we should
analyze the reports of all time lost accident of previous years that we
might know better along which line to work, and to our surprise we found
for the past four years we did not have an accident which a mechanical
guard would have prevented, and that all our efforts had been toward making conditions safe for men, rather than making the men safe for the conditions.
I am thoroughly convinced that the greatest lesson that can be taught
to each individual workman is to keep his mind constantly on what he is
doing and where he is going, which is just as important, if not more so,
than safety devices-
-
The article written by Arthur Brisbane and published in the November-
December, 1921, Accident Prevention Bulletin expresses my sentiments
very forcibly.
It stated, "There is never going to be any guarantee
for the safety 6f human life that is not based upon the human factor. It is well enough to invent safety devices but the best safety device in the world is intelligence. No amount of signs, notices, red lanterns
machinery or policemen can save an absent minded man who will not
look where he is going, from breaking his neck. Safety, in other words,
along with many other things we think we can get by cleverness, can only be gotten through education. There is no short cut."
The ultimate aim of any safety committee should be to arouse an active
conscious interest among all the workmen for a sufficient length of- time
to develop the habit of thoughtfulness and carefulness, for we are all to
a large extent creatures of habit and do the right thing or the wrong thing as we have formed the right habit or the -wrong habit. It is only as
thoughtless, careless habits among foremen and workmen are wiped out
and replaced by thoughtful, careful habits of doing work that any
permanent value in safety and accident prevention is accomplished, for
when once developed It is just as easy and natural for foremen and
workmen to look about them and be. in a sense, unconsciously careful,
as it is to begin and continue the work in a careless, thoughtless manner.
Thus step by step we enlisted the interest and active cooperation of our men until we feel we have developed among them to some extent at
least, the habit of carefulness to which we attribute mainly our large
reduction in all accidents, especially the more serious accidents, and we believe that we have awakened among them a deeper human interest in each other's personal safety and welfare, to prevent keen suffering .
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and keep their fellow-workmen's wives from becoming widows and their
children from becoming orphans, and at the same time establishing
a record which we think is unequaled today in that of operating a mill
employing 4S0 men, working 1,383,475 man-hours for a period of 17
months without an accident causing the slightest inconvenience to a
workman.
FOREStAN XS irCB OF SAFETY WHEEL
We work through the foreman. We put the responsibility squarely up to the foreman in such a way that he is the man that leads the group. A foreman must be a man who is a friend to the men, who can meet John and Henry and ask about the wife or the kiddies or the folks at home. He should have ah individual message for the man when he meets him. A foreman should consider himself an inspector, hourly going from de partment to department to see whether the work is done right or wrong, and be able to;tell the man how to do it right. A foreman*should he an inventor, constantly trying to simplify the work and make it safer and easier for the man. He should be an organizer who can hold his men and hold his place as foreman, of those men. He has to he a hustler, a mechanic, knowing every phase of the work, so he can tell a man that the Sob is being handled wrong and why it won't work to do it that way. He must be a teacher, a leader, able to train the men in safe practices. We tell the foreman that the Lehigh in anxious to make all the cement possible but we don't want to make cement at the cost of his blood or the blood of others.
The foreman is in constant supervision of his men, with them at all * times. If something Is required he sends some one else to the store house, but he stays with his men.
We convene, say, every fourth Tuesday at 9:30 for a safety meeting, with every man on the Job. We can't give tbe safety work on spare time and get anywhere. All of our most important men have time to come.
THURSDAY MORNING SESSION
Chairman Reninger; The first thing on the program this morning is the Report Of the Nominating Committee that was appointed b}' 3VIr. Tagge
yesterday.
.
Mr. Frame: We take great pleasure in nominating Major Reninger, of
the Lehigh Portland Cement Company, and Mr. H. G. Jacobsen, Manager,
Bureau of Accident Prevention and Insurance, Portland Cement Associa tion, to be our chairman and secretary respectively for the ensuing year.
Chairman Reninger: That is rather an embarrassing tbing and I am going to ask someone else to take the chair.
(Mri Huth took the chair.)
Chairman Huth: Are there any further nominations for the office of
Chairman? (There were none.) There being no further nominations.
Major Reninger will be chairmen of the Cement Section for the coming
year.
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Twelfth Safety Congress
Are there any further nominations for the office of secretary? (There being no other nominations, Mr. H. G. Jacobsen will be our secretary for the next year.)
(Chairman took the Chair.)
Chairman Reninger: I certainly appreciate the honor of being here again for the second term as Chairman of the Cement Section. I really appreciate it for the simple reason that I am absolutely sold on this safety game, and I believe that the cement industry, as a whole, is doing more good work in accident prevention than almost any other industry in the country. As far as I am concerned I shall endeavor to do all I possibly can to keep up the interest in the sectionr and in conjunction
with Mr. Jacobsen, as manager of our Bureau of Accident Prevention
and Insurance, and under the leadership of Mr. Tagge, Chairman of the
committee on accident prevention, I feel that the work is going forward
and we will lie able to do even better work this year than we did in the past. I hope that all of you have made careful examination of the Study
of Accidents, as given in the July-August Accident Prevention Bulletin
of the Association. You will learn from that Bulletin that we are im
proving right along.
-*
.
The majority of the cement plants are doing a great deal of work, and 1 feel that when the report for 1923 is prepared by the Association we are going to see a great reduction in time lost during that period. I think that the trophy as offered by the Cement .Association to the mill making the best record for 1923 has caused a great deal of rivalry among all the companies, and 1 know half a dozen companies that have done more work this year than they did the last four or five. It is going to be a close race.
I am sorry to say Mr. Jacobsen is still confined to his bed; his illness prevents him from being here today. Mr. Jacobsen's paper on "Powdered Coal Hazards" will' be read by Mr. Frame of the Alpha Company. Mr. Frame is particularly able to cover this subject because the Alpha Company has always made coal houses a specialty and have some of the finest in the country.
POWDERED COAL HAZARDS
H. G. Jacobsen*, Manager, Bureau of Accident Prevention and Insurance,
rr.n.Portland Ceneknt Association, Chicago,
Coal, dust explosions have taken place since the beginning of mining of bituminous coal, but such explosions were always attributed to gas
and not to dust.
_
The controversity on the explosibility of coal dust is interesting and particularly to safety men because it shows how difficult it is to uproot an old'ingrown idea.
In the published account of an explosion in a coal mine at Wallsend, England, on September 3, 1S03, J. Buddie, chief of the Newcastle coal miners says: "The workings were very dry and dusty and the survivors
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who were most distant from the point of explosion were burnt by the
shower of red-hot sparks of ignited dust which were driven along by
the force of'the explosion."
.
Professor Faraday, the famous chemist and.physicist, remarked in his report on the Haswell mine explosion September, 1844: "In' considering the extent of the'Are from the moment of explosion it is not to be sup posed that fire damp was its only fuel. The coal dust swept by the rush of wind and flame from the floor, roof and walls of the works would instantly take fire and burn if there were oxygen enough present in the air to support its combustion."
On. September 8, 1880, a terrible explqsion occurred at the Seahaiu mine. County of Durham, England, which attracted general attention to the subject of coal dust.
In other countries, particularly France, Germany and Austria, In vestigations had gone on simultaneously with those in England, but as here without definite results.
ENGLISH REPORTS.
On March 15, 1886, the British Accidents in Mines Commission reported
the following facts as conclusively established:
"1. The occurrence of a blown-out shot in working places where
very highly inflammable coal dust exist in great abundance may,
even in the total absence of fire damp, possibly give rise to vio lent explosions, or at any rate be followed by the propagation of flame through very considerable areas and even by the com
munication of flame to distant parts of the workings where ex plosive gas mixtures, or dust deposits in associatioh with non
explosive gas mixtures, exist.
.
"2.
The occurrence of a blown-out shot in localities where only small proportions of fire damp exist in the air, in the presence of even .comparatively slightly inflammable or actually non-inflammable but very fine, dry and porous dust, may give rise to explosions, the flame from which may reach distant localities where either gas accumulations or deposits of inflammable coal dust may be inflamed, and may extend the disastrous results to other regions."
In February, 1891, a Royal Commission on explosions from coal dust in mines was appointed and began hearing evidence. In its final report the Commission summarized their conclusions in the following words:
"1.
The danger of explosion in a mine in which gas exists, even
in very small quantities is greatly increased by the presence of
coal dust.
_
"2. "3.
A gas explosion may be intensified and carried on indefinitely by .coal dust raised by the explosion itself. _ .Coal dust alone, without the presence of any gas at all may cause a dangerous explosion if ignited by a blow-out shot or
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Twelfth Safety Congress
violent inflammation. To produce such a result, however, the conditions must be exceptional, and are only likely to be pro
duced oh rare occasions.
"4. Different dusts are dangerous in varying degrees, but it cannot
be said with absolute certainty that any dust is entirely free fi-orn
5.
risk.
There appears to be no probability that a dangerous explosion
of coal dust alone could ever be produced in a mine by a naked
'
light or ordinary flame."
Although explosions occurred from time to time in various sections
of this country it was not before 1907 that we had an appalling series
of great wide-sweeping disasters. On December 6, at Monogah Mines,
W. Va.. occurred what was probably the greatest- disaster in the history
of coal mining in the United States, when 358 lives were lost. On Decem
ber 16, at the Yolanda Mine, Alabama, 56 men were killed and on
December 19, at the Dorr Mine, Pa., 230 men were killed. In this black month of December, 648 men were sacrificed, chiefly from the effect of coal dust, which if not the initial cause in all cases was the agent
carrying death.
-
The coal dust question in this country cannot be said to have.awakened
widespread interest until the terrible disaster of December, 1907. In response to a demand by those interested in coal mining throughout
the country. Congress, in 1908, made an appropriation for an investiga
tion of mine explosions. A testing station was at once decided upon and was established at Pittsburgh, Pa.
While it is probable that for several years the leading mining men
in this country believed in the explosibility of coal dust without the
presence of fire damp, yet, until the public demonstrations were given at
the testing station at Pittsburgh during 1908-1909 and reports were re ceived of similar tests made abroad, a large proportion disbelieved.
The question of the day is no longer "Will coal dust explode?" but
"What is the best method of preventing coal dust explosions?" Tn coal mining there is a diversity of opinion as. to what the term
"coal dust" means; that is, how finely coal must be divided-to be termed dust. Coal dust that will pass through 100-mesh screens is frequently
accepted as iuine dust. This fineness was adopted at the Pittsburgh test ing station as standard. It must not be thought, however, that there is
no danger in coarser dust. At Pittsburgh it has been demonstrated that
propagation can be obtained with dust that will pass the 20-mesh screen.
In mines dust is a waste product and much is done to prevent its formation. In the cement industry coal'dust is a' manufactured product and its fineness is high, at least 80 per cent passing through the 200-^
mesh screen, which is equivalent to dividing a cubic inch into about
S,000,000 pieces.
It is a well known fact that when we start a fire the rapidity of combus
tion depends upon the surface exposed to the air. For this reason we chop our wood fine and see that there is a good draft when we kindle a fire
in our stove.
Cement Section
285
COMBUSTION- OU COAL DUST
Aii explosion is in reality nothing but the rapid combustion made pos
sible by the material being finely divided and the presence of enough
oxygen to support combustion. In explosives such as dynamite and gun
powder, the oxygen is supplied artificially through the chemical com
position of the explosive material.
'
If we take a cubic inch of coal and ignite it it will burn very slowly even
under the best air supply conditions. But if we take another cubic inch
of coal and divide it into 8,000,000 pieces, supply air and ignition, then
combustion of all the pieces will take place simultaneously and we have
what we call a coal dust explosion.
`
While the idea of using powdered coal for fuel is not entirely new--
we hear of experiments having been made with it as early as 1818--it
can truly be said that it was not before its application in the cement in
dustry in this country that its use was considered with any degree of
seriousness. Prior to 1897. all cement was burned with oil. Mr. Hurry,
engineer, and Mr. Seaman, superintendent, at the Atlas Portland Cement
Company's plant at Northampton, Pa., after much experimentation in
troduced powdered coal into the cement industry in that year. Its
use in other industries is rapidly increasing and during the last three
or four years quite a few power plants have made use of it as boiler fuel.
The cement industry - is the fourth largest industrial consumer of coal
in the United States and by far the largest user of pulverized coal. The
annual consumption of coal by the cement industry is exceeding 8,000,000
tons, of which more than 5,000,000 tons are pulverized and used in the
kilns.
Having handled vast amounts of this dangerous material since the time
when coal mining people were, still disputing the fact that coal dust would
explode without the presence of gas it is not surprising that we have
records of quite a few accidents. That we do not have more can be
attributed to the vigilance continually exercised in the cement industry
against this hazard.
In the early years of the cement industry the coal mills were not so
constructed that they could be kept cledn without some effort and that
undoubtedly is one of the reasons for several explosions at that time.
Many coal houses have since been remodeled and new ones have been built
so that. In respect to housekeeping, improvements have been continuous.
The coal mill should be in a separate building of fireproof construction,
well ventilated and well lighted, both artifically and by daylight. Too
much thought cannot be given to the design of new coal mill buildings or
to remodeling and changing of old existing buildings.
Without going into detail, it should be stated that the drier room should
be entirely separate from the mill rooih by a fireproof wall; that this has
not been done universally has been the reason for several explosions and
fatal accidents.
The entire building should be of fireproof material; all walls should
be smooth with no projections of any kind, and the design should be such
that beams, trusses, etc., can be entirely eliminated. Platforms and stair-
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Twelfth Safety Congress
way should be of metal of some open designs such as subway grating so as to prevent the lodging of dust. To increase light and cleanliness It is a
good plan to paint the coal house white inside.
.
The motors driving the grinding mills should as far as possible be
placed in a special room separated from, the mill room by a fireproof
wall and emergency stop buttons should be place outside the building as
well as at various places in the mill room.
'
The grinding mills should be dustless and all screw conveyors and ele vators should be so. constructed that little or no dust can escape. In designing a new coal mill, provision should be made to place all conveyors except the one carrying the coal dust from the grinding mills, and ele
vator stacks on the outside of the building.
'
DANGER POINTS
.
Coal dust explosions at cement plants have taught us that we have several outstanding danger points to watch with particular care.
1. Cleaning of coal houses is dangerous because if the men per forming this work are not extremely careful, it is very easy to stir up just enough dust to produce that critical mixture of dust and air which will cause an explosion even with the slightest spark. * This spark may be generated by the coal
, itself through spontaneous combustion, or by careless handling of electrical equipment, or by the fire in the drier, if the previously mentioned precaution of separating the driers from the mill room by a fireproof wall'has not been taken. Many lives have been lost in explosions which took place while mill rooms were being cleaned, the most horrible example being an explosion in 1911 in which nine out of ten men cleaning a coal house were burned to death. Many dust explosions occur in two stages--first a primary explosion, which is usually local; and second, a much more extensive and destructive ex plosion which results from the disturbance of the accumulated dust by the first explosion. "When an explosion occurs fn a clean plant where proper dust control methods are in use, noth ing more serious than local damage usually results, but in a dirty plant the explosion may be propagated from point to point and result in extensive destruction of property and seriohs loss of life.
2. Numerous explosions have occurred while repairs have been
made-on some part of the coal house machinery. During such work it is very easy to disloge a considerable amount of dust and the danger is enormously increased because the repairmen frequently need an artificial light close at hand. The danger is still further increased by the fact that many repairmen do not seem, to have been instructed in the danger of coal dust. Not very long ago, we received a report of an explosion which took place while a repairman worked on an elevator, in the
.
Cement Section
287
coal house with an open torch. Incredible as it may seem,
this practice is not uncommon and the conclusion must be
drawn, that the men have no knowledge of the. danger to which
they expose themselves and others. Needless to say that if
artificial light is necessary, only an electric flash light or a
fully enclosed and protected incandescent light must be used.
3. Carelessness in operating the coal mill is another point of
danger. It may be carelessness or ignorance or a combination
of both that sooner or later leads to trouble.
,
The coal drier which is found in the coal mill of every cement plant is
entitled to the most Careful attention because of the possibility of over
heating the coal while it passes through the drier. The only way to keep
close check on. this danger is to take regular temperature readings; in
fact, a recording thermometer should be used. Frequently coal houses
are dustier than necessary because conveyors, elevators, grinding mills
and other equipment are not kept in proper, dustproof conidtion. A
conscientious mill operator with any regard for his own and his fellow-
workmen's safety will not permit such conditions to exist.
.
It is well for the coal mill operator to rememi^r that many of those
explosions for which there are no proven causes have occurred immedi
ately upon starting the machinery after a shutdown. The explanation to
this may be that coal was over-heated in the drier during the shutdown
or that the coal dust in some part of the system was ignited spontane
ously. Many grades of coal will develop spontaneous combustion with
unbelievable rapidity under such conditions as are present after even a short'shutdown. Undoubtedly the most severe coal dust explosion in the
history Of the cement industry occurred some twenty years ago under
such conditions. A small fme was discovered in an elevator. The fire was smothered by throwing pulverized stone dust over it. After a short
time it was thought that the fire was out and the elevator was started up.
Immediately a terrific explosion took place killing a do^en men.
SAFE PEACTICE IN THE KIJLN ROOM
>_
The danger of coal dust presents itself not only in the coal mill proper, but also in the kiln building where the fuel is used. The coal conveyors and tanks should be given the' same careful attention that similar equip ment is given in the coal house. The conveyor should be tight and care should be taken that the tanks do not overflow-. In the kiln room there is the added danger due to the ever present fire in the kilns. A number of severe accidents have been caused by coal dust being ignited either from the kiln directly or from the hot clinker.
' ' Quite a few cement plants have never experienced a coal dust explosion. We like to believe that thl3 is due to careful operation. There is, however, also reason to believe that at some of those plants coal is used which is not highly explosive. It Is a well known fact that two kinds of coal are of the same chemical combination. One kind may be highly explosive in pul verized form and another may. be almost non-explosive under normal
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Twelfth Safety Congress
working conditions. The contents of volatile matter has a very important bearing on the explosibility of coal. Coal containing 32 per cent and over of volatile matter is particularly dangerous and the danger generally
increases with the percentage. From this we must, however, not draw
the conclusion that' there is such a thing as coal dust which will not
explode. All coal dust will explode under favorable conditions and to
prevent accidents at cement plants this fact must be impressed upon
the men.
,
In no department of a cement plant does the human element play a more important role than it does in the coal mill and education of the
men to a proper realization of the dangers involved so they will handle
coal dust with the same respect and care that they would, give to dynamite, is necessary if coal dust explosions are to be prevented.
. DISCUSSION
Mr. Frame; We had a very bad explosion in the Lehigh Valley district last spring. Four men were fatally injured. We would like to have some views and discussions on hazards in connection with coal pul verizing plants.
Mr. Frank L. Wanzer: In our plant where we pulverize the coal and then have elevators lifting it to a higher level, naturally dust is col lecting all the time, and it is a source of anxiety and. trouble to us. We try to keep the mill as clean as we can, but the dust is always col lecting. I would like to- hear from others as to what their practice is In respect to housekeeping.
Mr. Ball t (Lehigh) : Before you start cleaning see that there is no fire in your drier. Close your drier doors, then sweep the dust up carefully.
Several years ago one of our men went to toast a piece of meat under 0 drier and while doing that a hig blast went off in tbe quarry. The dust in the coal house was shaken down and ignited by the drier fire. The man was badly burned and lost one eye. Good housekeeping is the idea. Keep the coal houses clean.
I have told my men that the first one I catch sweeping in coal houses with open doors on -the driers will get his money at the office quick. I have caught some men smoking in the coal house. I didn't fire them but 1 had a good mind to lick them. A man smoking in a coal bouse might as well be in a powder magazine.
Mr. Purkhiser: We take every precaution in our coal drying department. Once a day at a given time each morning we stop the department, close the drier doors, don't allow any smoking or flame throughout the build ing, and we clean down our coal house. We have it open so that very litle coal dust accumulates. We keep our mills closed as tightly as pos sible and by strict observance of our rules we have been able to prevent accidents from coal. dust explosions. For twelve years. I don't think, there has been a single time when we even came near having a coal dust explosion, hut that is because we have stayed on the job and watched it and have been very cautious of the danger.
Cement Section
289
rittiNti nvTSinis ok coai. ijok-sk
Mr. Hess: I am glad to say that we never had an explosion. When
I came to the Dexter, 23 years ago, they had the drier fired inside the
coal house, but it was not long before I said, '`This must be changed; the firing must be outside/' We fire from the outside and have no fire inside whatever. The thing is to keep the fire away from the inside of the coal house. We don't have windows in the .coal house, it is all open and there are ventilators in the roof. If a man is cold he can warm himself outside by the coal drier fire. We have a little room there for them to go to. Good housekeeping, as John Ball says, is the only solution.
Mr. Frame: In the Alpha Company, in all our nine plants a long time ago we took all the motors out of the grinding room and put them in a special room. I think we all admit that it is a dangerous practice to have a motor operating in the grinding room. Many companies have gone further; they take all the coal.house motors outside of the building itself. There may be a few special cases due to previous conditions, which will not permit taking motors out, hut as a general rule, every one appreciates that a motor should not be operating where it can come in contact with coal dust.
Chairman Reninger: 1 agree with you. All but one or two of bur motors are out now. We have never had any explosions that we could trace to the motor or any electrical hazards, but we are putting all our wiring in conduits and enclose, all our electric lights.
Mr. Roth (Pennsylvania) : The plant I am most familiar with has its motors, and, if I remember correctly, also switches outside the grinding room. Of course there would be no object in removing the motors and leaving the switches.
Mr. Frame:Are those motors DC or. AC?
Mr. Roth: AC.
'
Chairman Reninger: One of the greatest hazards you can have in your coal houses Is platforms, corners or angles where there can he an accumulation of coal dust that can be shaken down.
We have removed all woodwork, and today the only thing- we are using on walkways where there can be an acumulation of coal dust, is subway grating. We find that gives a very satisfactory walkway that is fireproof, and no dust can accumulate.
In regard to our lighting systems, we are not quite complete with our coal houses, but expect to have all electric wiring in conduits and lights enclosed. The coal houses are open entirely, all the way around.
Mr. Frame: It may be of interest to some of you gentlemen to know
that the Alpha Company has just ordered a complete dust collecting equip
ment of the Clarli type, which is to be installed at our No. 3 plant. We are
going to watch the results obtained from this system very carefully, and
I feel pretty sure that if it comes up to expectations we are soon going
to have a complete dust collecting equipment in everyone of our nine
coal houses.
-
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Twelfth Safety Congress
Mr. Purkhiser: At Mitchell, our conveyor which carries the coal dust
from the elevators over to the kilns, the elevators, doors and discharge
openings, all have gaskets. We try to confine the dust by using gaskets in
all cases.
'
Mr.
I
Robertson
DISCUSSION OF MB. PUSKHISEB'S PATEB
,,
_ ".
'
(Canada): Mr. Purkhiser, I think you mentioned
that
whenever a hew man is employed he is told what he has to do and safety
is brought before him. How do you go about explaining what they
have to do? We have a dual system of languages; quite a number of
our workmen are French, but we can get at them all right for most of
us know a certain amount of French, but there are Italians, Russians and
others as well.
Mr. Purkhiser: At Mitchell we have very little foreign labor, 98 per cent of our men being American bora, speaking the- English language. We do not give any -safety instructions when a man. is hired. We leave that to the foreman. We expect our foreman to sell the safety Idea to each man coming to his department; before he is given a job or told what to do, the foreman instructs him in safety and goes with him and shows liim the job and how it is to be done. Then we expect the foreman to follow up that particular man and see that he is doing the work in the way he instructed him.
Mr. Palmer: How do you sell Safety First to your foreman?
Mr. Purkhiser: We sell it to the foreman almost like we teach our children. We dwell on it to the extent that they cannot get by and not enact safety. We first call our foremen together and explain the respon sibility the foreman has In taking care of his men. When we have an
accident we investigate, and the foreman reports how the accident occurred. If he says that he does not know, we tell him he is not per forming his duty. He must give us full particulars, and in a short time we find each one is trying to keep his record clear. We don't handle it from the executive standpoint. We leave it to the Safety Committee. We make the foreman account to the Safety Committee. Of course, that does not come with one, two or three meetings; it comes after
years of training. -
'
We had a meeting, a foreman's meeting, last Friday, a week ago tomorrow night. Out of 36 foremen, that includes every foreman out
of two mills and quarries, five of them had been with the company
more than 20 years, 17 more than 15 years, and practically all of the remainder had been with the company more than 10 years. It is
letting the foremen know that we judge their efficiency not only by
the amount of work done, but also by how safely it is done that we
have come to the point where we feel that the foremen are really carry
ing on our safety work.
-
Mr. San Souci (Glens Falls): All companies don't give the Safety
Committee authority to deal with the foremen. The Safety Committee men get it in the neck, to be plain. I have been awfully discouraged
Cement Section
291
and if I get any gleams of hope from this gathering I will be glad. We may have six or seven of our foremen sold on the Safety question, but two or three look you over and give you the smile.
Mr. Robertson: The greatest importance lies in getting your execu tives in line. This work must start at the top or it will not grow and become a success. I use the electricians as safety engineers, or sort of inspectors, but of course, the superintendent of the plant is the boss. We have a fairly large mill. Each department has a foreman and sub-foreman. We operate a three-shift mill. We have meetings of the general foreman regularly. We talk safety first and then produc tion.
It nay seem like a big statement, but we were solidly of the opinion at the plant that if our accidents went down, our production would go up. I think we have proved that. The men get interested. The central safety committee and then the mill safety committee meets once every fortnight. The men are given a lot of safety information, are told to keep everything in good repair, and if they have any machines that seem to need a little fixing up they are asked to let the foreman know about it immediately. If our machinery is in good shape our produc tion is all right. Our work has brought a good feeling between depart ments, one department cooperating with another.
What has interested the men most is the three-month no-accident Idea. We tried one month, and we had no trouble with that. Then we thought we would go to three months, but it took us quite a long time to get the three months' period without any accident at all. When we go one month Without an accident we hoist the flag on the pole. Everyone started to inquire what it was for and it gave us the opportunity to telL them more about safety. Finally, when we ran for three months with out an accident, we had a special flag put up. Then we went another month and then did three months more. We now have three flags flying and hope to. have another. Our aim is to go twelve months without an accident.
ADJOURNMENT.
Construction Section
October 2-3,1923
F. A. DAVIDSOX, Chairman The Patent Scaffolding Company, Chicago, 111.
TV. F. AMES, Tice-Clialrman
Manager, Insurance Department, McClintic-Marshall Company, Pittsburgh, Pa.
. C- H. ALMSTEAP, Secretary Dwight P. Robinson & Company, Inc., New York City
TUESDAY MORNING SESSION
HAIRMAN DAVIDSON: The Chairman wishes to report that during
C the past year we have had a few members who have shown signs
of considerable interest. In general, we cannot brag about the increase
in membership. A| good many construction men have been so busy con
structing this past summer that it has been hard to get them to lend
ear to organized safety activities.
..
We Will not consider this a report, but will pass on to the next item--
Report of the Secretary.
REPORT OF THE SECRETARY
A meeting of our Executive Committee was held at New York City. October 10, 1922, at which there was a general discussion of matters relating to the Section, and another at Chicago on July 6th. the principal discussion being the preparation of our program for this Congress.
The Section has been trying to have a Safety course incorporated with a building construction course in one of our leading universities and I take pleasure in quoting from a letter dated August 20, 1923, received from Charles II- Warren, Dean of Yale University, Sheffield Scientific School:
"I find myself entirely in sympathy with your suggestion that the subject of Safety should be incorporated as a subject of in struction in our new course of Building Construction. We have not as yet made the appointment of a man to definitely take charge of this work but as soon as that is done, I shall place your suggestion In his hands."
293
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Twelfth Safety Congress
I hope that if there are any members here who can further this idea, they will give their full co-operation. '
Chairman Davidson: It has been our custom from year to year to have, on our program a speaker from the city that is our host and this year will be no exception. I take great pleasure in presenting Mr. A. J. Elias, of Elias & Son.
COMPENSATION LAWS
DISCUSSION Mr. A. J. Elias: Prior to the enactment of the Compensation Law there was a great deal of discussion in regard to the matter, not only from the standpoint of employers and employees, but also from the stand point of the general public. The argument in favor of the Compensation Law was that each industry should take care of its own casualties and accidents. On the other hand, those opposed to it felt that that would impose unnecessary burden on industry- and at the same time would have a tendency to make employees very careless, and make them look at it in this light: that if they became injured, the employer would have to take care of them anyway. I think that both of these arguments have proven true. On the one hand, tbe employers have been obliged to go to great expense in' getting machinery that is thoroughly safeguarded; sometimes the guards inter fere to some extent with the efficiency of the machine. They also have been obliged to go extensively Into welfare work. So far as manufacturing plants are concerned, I believe the operators are taking every means they possibly can to prevent accidents, because it is to their interest to do so, irrespective of the humanitarian aspect of the case. It occurred to me. in thinking this thing over somewhat, that it might be a good plan if the architects in drawing up their plans for construc tion of a building would include also in their specifications the methods along which that construction could proceed and the appliances that should be used, not necessarily specifying any particular appliance, but stating that certain appliances should be used, or others equally as effi cient. That, I think, would put the contractors on a better footing be cause a responsible contractor would naturally figure the expense of using safety appliances while the irresponsible contractor--who probably expects to have one or two jobs and quit--would not figure in his estimate of cost all of these contingencies that the responsible contractor would. So if the architect specified the method of construction and went into some detail along that line, I believe it would be beneficial to the con tractors. Accidents in construction so far as I have been able to notice have been mostly due to the use of Improper scaffold planking, carelessness in allowing old boards and things having nails in them lying around, and carelessness of men in standing under loads that were being hoisted. T have also noticed a good many accidents occur in excavations by reason of the sides not being properly shored up.
Constmcti&n Section
295
There is no question in my mind but that the Safety Council has done a great deal of very good work in preventing accidents and the slogan "Safety First" which you see all over the country is no doubt the result of yonr efforts. "While the Annual Congress is being held in Buffalo, the results that come from it will not be local by any means but the result will undoubtedly be universal safety throughout the United States.
I>r. L. W. Chaney (U. S. Department of Labor): It seems to me the. suggestion of Mr. Elias with regard' to the co-operation of the architects in dealing with this problem is an eminently good one, and that if this Section were to send the American Institute of Architects an expression of their opinion with regard to what the architects might do, it might be very useful. I want to urge that you don't let that suggestion which really has a good deal of force in it, dro pright here.
Chairman Davidson: That certainly is one of the outstanding points that impressed me, too, as Mr. Elias spoke and I am glad Dr. Chaney brought it up. As an 'official way of putting that' before the American Institute of Architects, would it he proper tor this group to pass a reso lution that we could in some formal manner send to that organization? If that suggestion is thought well of, I would be very glad to have some
one move that such a resolution be sent.
Dr. Chaney: r offer a motion that the officers of the Association be in structed to communicate with the American Institute of Architects with regard to the incorporation in architectural specifications of some pro visions with regard to safety.
The motion was regularly seconded and carried. .
CONSTRUCTION CODE
DISCUSSION
Chairman Davidson: The balance of our session today will be devoted
to the' Construction Safety Code. This code comes under the auspices
of the American Engineering Standards Committee and is part of a very
large plan, not only covering safety, but many other fields. Our particular
portion is safety in the construction industry.
-
Since the compensation law started great stimulus has been given, to
the application of safety methods by states and one after another the
states have worked Out codes of one sort or another. Other states are
falling in line right along. Obviously, there was a danger that even a
series of adjacent states would have conflicting codes. The purpose of
this work was to standardize such legislation and also to offer a model
code for states which had not yet started to work on codes. We want
to be able to say to those states,
"Here is a model code which has been found good In other places. Why spend three or four years making Investigations trying to get out a code that will be different when you have right here a code that has
been designed to be followed, and is being followed In other states?" This -code work is carried out on a sponsorship plan. The National
Safety Council was the sponsor for this Code. It was their business to
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Twelfth Safety Congress
organize the Code Committee and to get on that Committee interests
from all over the country representing the different groups that would
properly beT interested in such a code such as architects, engineers, con
tractors, legislators, and so forth. -
.
That Committee was organized at Milwaukee in 1920 and this we see
here is the development that the Committee has made up to date. It is
approaching the final state and we- aim to have here what might be
termed a public hearing for the sake of getting at this time as many
final suggestions as' possible.
At the time the Code Committee was organized, Mr. P. E. Hurlbutt
was elected chairman and he has continued in that post. It is therefore
proper for me to turn the meeting over to Mr. Hurlbutt.
Mr. K. L. Hurlbutt, Chairman of the Code. Committee, assumed the
Chair. ...
Chairman Hurlbutt: The first portion of the Code that you have the
galley proof of applies primarily to building construction, that is, the
erection, alteration and removal of scaffolds and other building equip
ment. It was the intention of the Committee when appointed in Milwaukee
to ultimately get out several other portions which would deal with high
way construction, hydraulic work, dam 'work, bridge building--covering
the general field of construction as thoroughly as it seemed necessary
to do. In these various branches of construction there is a great deal of
similarity, but there are certain specific hazards, particularly on hydraulic
work, where there are essential rules to be laid down which perhaps
do not properly fit in Part One. So it is the intention of the committee,
following the adoption of this Code in its final form, to start on another
one of the branches of construction safety work.
SAFETY EDUCATION
The Committee was faced at the outset with the question as to whether they should include in this Code safety education. That is a pretty broad subject. Some people will argue that it has been standardized. Certain methods have no doubt been standardized in some industries, but cer tainly not in the construction industry. The question came up as to whether or not that properly belonged in a code of this kind and the Committee, after giving it a good deal of consideration, decided that it did not. They did feel, however, that they could properly include in the Code an appendix which would give suggested practices--good con struction prhctice--and let it go at that, feeling that such bodies as the insurance companies and the National Safety Council, who have gotten out a great volume of literature on safety work in the construction industry and industry in general, could more properly give this informa tion to the contractor and to the states than a Code could. I don't think, from my own experience, the average state wants to include safety edu cation in its code.
Mr. E. W. Bush (Aetna Casualty and Surety Co., Hartford, Conn.) : The purpose of the Code is to prevent accidents on construction work and it seems to me we should by all means, have an appendix which outlines
Construction Section
297
to the uninformed superintendents, foremen, and contractors what they should: do to prevent accidents on construction work, instead of merely giving them an arbitrary code stating that all scaffolding shall be of a
certain size and strength. Unless you can get the idea of safety over
to the man, you have missed your point. The matter of organizing Safety
Committees is a very, important thing. We have standardized practice
regarding organizing for preventing accidents in industrial plants but
we have nothing along that line in construction work. Very few con
tractors around the United States put up any bulletin boards. The large
contractors, like Thompson-Starrett Company, James Stewart, Dwight
P. Robinson, and others, are thoroughly sold on safety, and you will find
them very well organized, but we find that the average contractor who Is handling from 6ne hundred thousand to one million dollars worth
of work a year is not organized. The insurance companies haven't any standard on construction work, that is common to all the companies. '
We should include in the appendix something as to how safety com mittees should be organized and take up, I think, certain distinct depart ments of construction work and offer suggestions for the prevention
of accidents with regard to that, very much along the line of what has
been so admirably prepared by this Committee in the appendix.
c.Mr. E.
Harding (Ferro Concrete Construction Co., Cincinnati): Any
code will more or less fall flat nnless you can get it over to the individual
workman. ..You might publish volumes of mandatory orders, suggestions and principles to he applied, and followed out in the construction industry,
but if you haven't the cooperation of the men themselves--the individual workmen, the carpenter, the laborer, the bricklayer--I think it is likely
to fall flat.
.
Just the other day 1 was out on one of our smaller jobs. The carpenters had a pair of brick horses which were about a 10 to 12 foot span,, and on that they put a 1 by 10 scaffold plank, and a man was going to get
out on it. I said to him, "Is that strong enough?" He said, "Yes, it looks pretty strong to ' me." He got up - on it and
tested it out. There was a little crack in it.
.
I said to him, "Don't you think you had better put two on there?"
He said, "Well, we are going to use this just to put this beam up in
place."
I said, "Yes, and suppose that breaks when you have the load of the beam on there in addition to you."
He said, "Well, I never thought of that." I think there is one of the places to start. It is true we are going
to have a safety code in Ohio. If that thing goes over in its present form, the contractor is going to suffer for the negligence of his employes. So that I think the most important work of a Code Committee, as far as
the contractor is concerned, is getting over the safety idea to the man himself. The superintendent on the job orders the scaffold to be built; he may look It over in general. He doesn't see the hidden knot; he doesn't
see the dry rot or whatever may be in the planking. It is the man who
does the work himself that we have to get to first.
.
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Twelfth Safety Congress
Chairman Hurlbutt: The National Safety Council is the one source which can put out literature, bulletins, and what not, of information to the workman. That is distinctly beyond the scope of a code.
Mr. S. J. Williams (National Safety Council) : Mr. Bush, would you advocate the safety committee on construction jobs?
sapErr committees on construction jobs
Mr. Bush: Not always. I think sometimes if we appoint a good level
headed, experienced carpenter and call him the Safety First Man, and let him go around and make trips at stated intervals, it is just as well. He could go abound in the morning and in the afternoon and see that
everything looks well; he would be a committee of one. On larger work,
it is very desirable to have a meeting of the foremen, of not only the
main contractor but all of the subs.
I have seen; that worked out in one or two cases where the steam-
fitters, for instance, came on the job without any scaffold planks and they picked up odds and ends if they needed scaffolds;' they would swipe
the boards from the other contractors and put up some pretty queer
and weird looking constructions to do their work. They were invited to
attend this meeting, which came at eleven o'clock every Friday morning.
And when this foreman of the steamfltters, who was a sub-contractor,
got acquainted with the other foremen, and they were all working for safety, there were comments made on the appearance of their scaffolding and so on, and the next week conditions improved. The second wwk the sub-contractors were using just as good scaffold lumber and ttoey
were borrowing it, hut they were borrowing the good stuff rather than
swiping the poor stuff. The safety of the job was improved as a result of Uteae towwi
meeting, and they also did a good deal to create esprit de corp* aanaftc the entire bunch of workers to the end that the building prannaWMHl
faster, that is, the building work.
(The chairman then read and explained the various provision* of the
code and these were generally approved.)
Dr. M. G. Lloyd (U. S. Bureau of Standards) : Mr. Chairman, might I call attention to paragraph 150? I want to suggest that there be added to the items specified there, "The spread of the legs of the horse to be.
say, not more than one-fourth of the height."
Mr. Bush: I would suggest that the Code be so worded that this spread
at the bottom is a function of the maximum height to which the extension
can be made.
'
Mr. Robt. McKinley (General Builders- Assn., Detroit) : I think we
should,put a limit on the overhang of the plank, because if you have a 6-foot span, between brackets, some one is liable to come along and put
on an S-foot plank and then walk down to the end of It and tip it.
Mr. W. A. Dearborn (Federal Mutual Liability Insurance Co., Boston, Mass.) : Mr. Chairman, tinder 54, the use of squares is limited to three
tiers in height. Wouldn't it be wise, under 151, to indicate some limit
in the number of tiers, as a safe practice for horse scaffolds?
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299
Mr. Nash: Our New York Code forbids the use of horse scaffolds more
than. 14 feet high.
.
Mr. Woedtke: I recommend to the Committee that instead of limiting the number of tiers. It consider a maximum height of all tiers combined, as Mr. Nash has Just brought out as the practice in New York State.
Chairman Hurlbutt: I would suggest that we put in both because every time we build a tier of horses, there is the possibility of inequality in the length of leg.
SCAFFOLD SWAYING
Dr. Lloyd: Mr.-Chairman, shouldn't there be something in Section 17 to prevent the suspended scaffold from swaying out from the building?
Chairman Hurlbutt: That is a good point. However, in most cases
of suspended scaffolding, the weight of the scaffold and the material and load upon it are such that even with a pretty high wind you get ery little sway from the building. It is the simplest thing to lash it
because the framework which houses the drums can easily be tied
through a window.
'.
air. Bush: Section IS states the size of the planks that shall he used.
Wouldn't it he well to state that at least two planks shall be the- minimum
width of a riveter's scaffold?
-
.
Mr. Enoch. Carlson (Chicago Bridge & Iron Works) : Two planks are
customary for scaffolding for riveters, except that they will naturally
remove one In order to save time. It is a perfectly rational thing to
ash for--two planks.
Mr. Bush: Section 19--if you get a lot of clay on runways in damp wreather, you will have a slippery condition. I would suggest putting a cautionary note in there that they he kept clean and sanded, if slippery.
Mr. Owen Robert Jones (Aetna Life Insurance Co., N. Y.): With re gard to the location of these boilers, in New York City we have a great many accidents due to the location of these boilers in the street. There is attached to these boilers the hoisting engine, and that means the hoist ing rope is extended from the building across the sidewalk into the street proper. I think in formulating this Code we ought to specify very explicitly the location of these boilers. They ought to be, if practicable, in the building and xe should make a general statement as to location. I think we should say that this boiler and engine should be removed from the street as quickly as possible. We have the additional hazard of all kinds of vehicles coming in contact with the boiler.
Chairman Hurlbutt: I see no objection to meeting Mr. Jones' sug gestion In tliis way: we could insert a sentence which would say where local conditions are such that it can't be placed any place except in the street, proper guards surrounding the boiler shall be provided, in the form of railings or whatever Is felt necessary.
Mr. Bush: Especially covering the transmission rope.
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Twelfth Safety Congress
HOISTING MiCHISES
Mr. Lloyd: In Paragraph. 301, there is a requirement made for the brakes of k hoisting engine, which appears to - indicate the minimum torque of the brake. I would suggest if that be covered at all, the value should be more than the load which the engine may carry, or its rating, say. In similar cases such as crane rules, and such places, the value is usually put at 150 or 200 per cent of the load.
Mr. McKinley: I see in Paragraph 302 you have a clause "Protection
of Operator." I think the entire machine should be covered, and more
especially the cables where they lead from the drum, the shift and the
tower.
,
Chairman Hurlbutt: That is what we are going to answer in covering Mr. Jones' question.
Air. Jones: Mr. Chairman, I think we ought to require that each tower guy should be fashioned with independent dead men. I notice here that it specifies one guy for each post every 32 feet. If all the buys are fastened to the same dead man and something happens to that particular dead man. that tower is going to fall.
Chairman Hurlbutt: As a matter of fact, I really think when that Paragraph .313 was drafted, we paid more attention to the tower that adjoins a bpilding, 5 or S feet from.the building. But I still think your point is absolutely right and we want to put it before the committee to include such a provision.
Mr. Bush: Mr. Chairman. I had in mind to offer a suggestion that we show a few well-designed dead men and then make reference to it in this clause here- and on hoist towers, and also on derricks.
Chairman Hurlbutt: Will you be good enough to try and give us a
sketch?
1
Mr. Bush: I will do something on it.
'
Mr. Cedric B. Smith: Mr. Carlson says we can get a number of pictures of dead men.
Chairman Hurlbutt: Will you be good enough to send them to Mr. Williams?
Chairman Hurlbutt": Mr. Williams, will you make a note to have the
committee consider the possibility of establishing a minimum angle for
tower guys?
`
Mr. Dick: Bear in mind in specifying any angle of guys that a great
many times you put a post under the guy In order to get a quick break
into the ground or into your dead man. so that angle of the guy doesn't
mean anything.
'
Air. Williams: We recognize that towers can be designed to carry a bending moment or anything else you want to throw into it. On the other hand, many of the smaller contractors would put up a tower with out any bending moment, and then might buckle the tower by throwing the-transverse strain into it. I think we could easily re-word paragraph
Construction Section
301
317, without discussihg the exact wording here, so as to cover both of those cases. That is, this transverse load should not be thrown onto the tower unless the tower is designed to carry it.
Mr. Dick: One of our superintendents in the last few days gave me a recommendation on a combination toe board and sliding bar, on the open side of the material hoist. We haven't tried it out hut it sounded to me like it would be practical.
PLATFORM HOISTS
Chairman Hurlbutt: The next paragraph is also an essential one; I am going to read it: "All cars of platform hoists shall be substantially constructed and shall be provided with covers either solid or of wire mesh, of not less than. No. 10 wire and not 'over 1% inch mesh. Sections of the cover may be arranged to swing upward for handling bulky material. The floor Of the car shall be at least 2 inches thick."
Mr. McKinley: I don't see why it is necessary to cover a hoist if you are not allowing the men to operate on it. I think you are Just putting an additional hazard on the hoist by putting a cover over the top of it.
Mr. Williams: How about the man loading wheelbarrows on that hoist, at the bottom? He has to put his head nearly out into the opening. That is the reason for the provision.
Mr. McKinley: I see the reason for it. We had an accident not so very long ago where; a fellow rode on a hoist against orders, and as they started down, he Jumped off and the roof of the hoist caught him and killed him.'
Chairman Hurlbutt: I think we would be likely, however, to prevent
more accidents by putting the grille on than by leaving it off. I think the type of accident you mention is less likely to occur than .accidents to men who are putting stuff on the platform.
Mr. Nash: That is a requirement in New York State.
Mr. Bush: What is the committee's requirement in regard to men
riding on hoists?
*
Chairman Hurlbutt: That is covered in the next paragraph: "No
person shall be permitted to ride on any hoist, concrete bucket, scale box,
derrick hook, or any other hoisting device, except as provided in Para
graph 325."
That is a hard thing to enforce always, gentlemen, and the Committee would like an expression of opinion from you as to whether it is entirely feasahle to attempt to put it across. The Committee feels that it is.
Mr. Dick: Mr. Chairman, I have thought a lot about that, and' I have
always felt that we would eventually work out something that can be enforced. If you don't enforce it, you can't put enough safeguards on an elevator to stop accidents.
Chairman Hurlbutt: Am I to take it that that is the consensus of the
meeting? Apparently so.
.
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Twelfth Safety Congress
Mr. Bush: Mr. Chairman in 330 you state, "Holding down guys should
be installed, to avoid pulling off the gooseneck." Why can't you pull
oft the spider at the top, if you have a very long boom?
Chairman Hurlhutt: Perhaps one of the two gentlemen from the Chi
cago Bridge Company can give us some data on that.
Mr. Carlson: I will say that as far as the gooseneck or the master-
plate, or whatever kind of derrick you happen to have is concerned; I
never saw one pulled off.
`
Mr. Lloyd.: Mr. Chairman, I have a suggestion to offer to Mr. Mitchell--
to substitute the word "pintle" for "gooseneck."
Mr. Williams: To answer Mr. Bush's suggestion, there is this difference
theoretically at least: that the spider on the guyed derrick is held down
by guys in all directions, which would at least help to keep it from com ing off. Of course, you might if you put enough force on It lift the spider up anyway, but your guy is pulling it down.
Mr. Bush: If your guys are slack and you are hoisting with a high boom, if the booms are longer than the mast, you bring a strain on all
the fittings at the top mast.
WEDNESDAY MORNING SESSION
Chairman Davidson: The first subject we will take up this morning
will be one that was postponed from yesterday morning--Report of Statistical Committee and Discussion of Comparative Records df Con struction Section Members.
For a number of years, we have been working toward obtaining some system of compiling accident records whereby various construction com panies could be put on the same standard system of rating so that we could get together and compare results and see whether we were making
progress, see whether we were better with respect to accidents than the other fellow, or as good. And those who had been keeping records of their own in various ways, when they came here and. tried to see how their records matched up with the other fellow's, had a feeling of dis appointment from year to year; they couldn't tell what they were doing.
But aEter working at it over 'a period of three or four years, we finally arrived at a standard system and last year was the first year that we were able to send out in advance of our meeting and get accident records
from construction companies, and have them before us on a comparative
basis.
'
Therefore, this report of the Statistical Committee is of special interest
because it represents something that we have never been able to do
before. The Secretary will read that report.
'
REPORT OF STATISTICAL COMMITTEE
C. H. AiMSTEAD
1. Statistics show executives the number and causes of accidents which are occurring and enable them to grasp clearly the waste and loss of efficiency which accidents represent. Only when facts regarding accidents are presented in an exact concise form Instead of in a general
Construction Section
303
way can busy executives be reasonably expected to realize fully the importance of tbe accident problem and its bearing upon the well being
of their employees and productiveness of their business.
2. Statistics show operating executives and safety men where acci- "
dents are occurring and from what causes, so that they may know where
to concentrate their efforts for prevention. 3. Uniform statistics will enable members to compare their accident
records and promote friendly rivalry among different members to achieve
good accident records.
4. Proper statistics will show the causes responsible for the greater
number of accidents which will help to direct our effective prevention
measures and make, headway in reducing the frequency of accidents.
5. Concerns which have been most successful in securing the interests and co-operation Of executives, foremen and workmen in accident pre vention are practically, without exception, those who have a thorough system of recording accidents and who have devised means for presenting
these records in an interesting form. 6. With accident records of all members on a common basis, the com
bined experience of all members can readily be analyzed In a scientific manner and the principal hazards in the whole construction field could
be fairly definitely determined. At the meeting; of the statistical committee held in New York on
February 13, 1923, there was a discussion relative to more co-operation in obtaining uniform statistical data, so that the section would have an effective method of comparison. It was also thought advisable to stand ardize on an accident report form. In addition to enabling members to prepare their accident records in a uniform way, it was thought such a
form could be used to advantage in creating friendly rivalry among the members of the section. It was also decided that the chairman of the statistical committee write to the members of the section and bring this
new form to their attention and ask that more co-operation be given this
important subject.
.
Shortly after the meeting in February, the chairman of the statistical
committee resigned, so that the matter- of statistics was, perhaps, pot
given the attention it should have had.
'
During April and May, the chairman of the section communicated with
the different members asking them to send their accident statistics to the
National Safety Council for publication in the National Safety News.
As a result, seven construction companies and five structural steel
erectors and fabricators responded and the first tabulation experience of
Construction Section members was published in the "National Safety
News" for July, 1922.
STATISTICS ABE PRE8EKTEU
'
In going over the totals for the seven general contractors we find the average number of employees totaled 7,i88.
Number of hours worked................................................................................ 17,527,467
Number of lost time accidents................i........................._ _______
1,268
504 Twelfth Safety Congress
Xumber of days lost ......................................................................................... Frequency rruo or number of accidents per hundred
thousand man-hours worked,........................................................... Severity rate or number of days lost per thousand man
hours worked........................................................................................................ Number of deaths ...............................................................................................-Number rif permanent injuries ......................................................................
101.214
72.37
5.775
11 12
The totals and averages for the five structural steel erectors and fab ricators who reported statistics for 1922 are as follows:
Average number of employees.....................................................................
1,509
Number of hours worked ...................................................................................3,949,445
Number of accidents ...............................................................................................
564
Number of days lost.................................................................................-.............. 21,421
Frequency rate or number of accidents per one hundred thousand man-hours worked.................................................................. 142.82
Severity rate or number of days lost per thousand man
hours worked ........................................................................................................ Number of deaths ........................................................................................................
5.421 2
Number of permanent injuries .....................................................................
5
It will be noted that the number of companies covered is not large in comparison w;xth some of the other sections. Unfortunately, there is no method of comparison with other years, inasmuch as this is the first record of this kind compiled for the construction industry. The average rates, both frequency and severity, are higher than the rates for any in dustry tabulated by the National Safety Council. It would appear, there fore, that the Construction Section has not given enough, attention to safety, as compared with manufacturing industries. If we console our selves with the fact that our work is so widely scattered and constantly changing in location and character and presents a different problem from a permanent plant operating at a fixed location; then we should put more effort in our accident prevention program.
The statistical committee for the years 1920 and 1921 presented some very interesting reports on uniform accident statistics and a list of causes for use in classifying accidents on construction work. These reports covered the subject very thoroughly and we.owe it not only to ourselves but to the committee who prepared them to make the best possible use of them. Surely, with a uniform method of compiling statistics and by keeping systematic records, we can arrive at the principal hazards of the construction industry and can then concentrate our combined efforts on effective accident prevention.
Some of us will recall that yast year at the Detroit Congress a paper was presented to the Section entitled "Keeping Records of Accidents Ac cording to Causes." It was brought out in this paper that only seven members were classifying accidents- according to causes and that five were using the standard classification adopted by the section.
I sincerely hope that more members are adopting the standard method of compiling Statistics, for if we want to attain success in our accident
Construction Section
305
prevention program, let us accumulate adequate accident statistics, so that we will be in a better position to "reduce our present high frequency and severity rates.
To do this effectively, we need more than the co-operation of seven construction companies and five structural steel erectors and fabricators --we need the co-operation of the entire section.--and members are urged to look into this important subject, so that when we answer the 1923 roll call for statistical data all members will be included i^ the tabula tion with their records on a standard basis.
CONTRACTORS' ASSOCIATIONS' ACTIVITIES IN THE REDUCTION OF ACCIDENTS
Ralph
A.
MacMullan,
Secbbtarv, General Detroit, Mich.
Builders
Association
of
To some of you I presume this talk will be largely repetition of previous messages to the National Safety Council from the General Builders Asso
ciation of Detroit. Our association was very enthusiastic and active in the formation of the construction secton at St. Louis, and since then we have been diligent in our attendance at the subsequent conventions at Cleveland, Milwaukee, Boston, Detroit, and now at Buffalo. We believe that since "eternal vigilance is the price of success," what might be regarded as repetition may properly be understood as confirmation of our conviction that safety methods for the construction industry are not only humanitarian, and economically correct, but practically obligatory after you become convinced, as we are, that organization along this line and the control of accidents is the surest and most indispensable step toward efficiency of production, and efficiency of production is necessary
in the present situation of labor shortage.
,
The General Builders Association of Detroit is composed of seventeen
members who have become so completely and permanently sold on the
subject of accident safety and prevention that they are imbued- with
the common interest of working together in complete co-operation. The
Association has a safety committee composed of one man from each mem
ber firm, the secretary of the association, the insurance representative,
and the chief inspector. This committee holds periodical meetings, both
regular and special, for discussion of all matters that have to do with
safety. The scope of its deliberation is broad enough to include amend
ments to the compensation law, important decisions on the subject of
public liability, owners' and contractors' contingent liability, the subject
of equipment, materials, and methods of handling them, and the like. It
was this committee that actively prepared, approved and adopted the
safety code of the General Builders Association of Detroit, which has
been used as a creed by our members and with which many of you are
familiar because it has been re-published and distributed rather generally
throughout the United States and Canada.
'
To promote familiarity with our safety code and its intelligent applica
tion to safety problems on the jobs, our association appropriates, each
30G
Twelfth Safety Congress
year, a sum of money to be expended in bi-monthly installments as prizes for the best answers to questionnaires embracing ten questions that are distributed among superintendents, foremen and others on the jobs. These prizes range from ?15 down to ?1, with additional prizes given for helpful suggestions whether they apply to the code or not.
KEEP ABREAST OF LATEST METHODS
.
The result of this questionnaire has been exceedingly gratifying and indicates that men on the job are very much interested in helping their own situation, to say nothing of the helpful propaganda of convincing the employees that their employers are actively interested in them as evidenced by the attempt to save life and limb and preserve the men to their jobs. We cannot afford to overlook any possibility of betterment of our safety work by suggestions from the men actually on the job, and, further, the' very thought given by the men to suggestions gives them what might be termed a "safety consciousness," whether their particular suggestion is of value or not.
The program of our safety committee is one of constant change to keep abreast of t^ie best and latest practices and methods, and particularly
designed so that the subject shall not become commonplace or stale, and naturally is too extensive to permit of detailed reference here. One of the first and best details of that program, however, is the practice at time:, of bolding periodical first aid classes showing practical methods of caring for accident cases and the education of one of the foremen or superintendent on each job in first aid work as well as that feature, perhaps more important, of impressing the participants with the convic tion that an. accident is a mighty good thing to prevent before it happens, and, how to minimize the result of it when it does occur.
As a valuable adjunct to the work of thq safety committee is our welfare department wherein a trained nurse visits the home of each workman whose injury requires hospital attendance. This nurse prepares a form provided for the purpose in which is noted information relative to the size of the family and general information about home conditions. If need of special financial or other help is indicated by the information gathered, we proceed from that point according to the merits of the case Thus, a woman is given the task of breaking the news of the accident to the family of the injured workman, as only a woman can do. Next, the nurse visits the hospital and informs the patient that she has been to his home and has rendered such comfort and aid as has been necessary, and gives the patient such -assurances that he is relieved from worry about his family and home.
In case of an accident of more than ordinary gravity on any job, whether it be attended by severe results or results only potentially severe, the association convenes a board of inquiry consisting of the secretary, insur ance representative, the chief inspector and the safety committee man in the employ of the member firm on whose job the accident occurred. As soon as practicable after the accident, the board visits the job, whether
Construction Section
307
it be in Detroit or elsewhere, and takes informal testimony from eye. witnesses, the injured workman, if possible, the foreman and superin tendent. I use the word "informal" because we invariably begin by stressing the fact that all present are there for the purpose of discovering how such conditions may be promoted as will effectually prevent a repe tition of such an accident and therefore they may all speak freely. The effect Of this practice is very excellent in many ways, particularly in re establishing confidence and, therefore, efficiency on that job.
CO-OPERATE WITH COUNCIL AND TJ. S. DEPARTMENT OF LABOR
I.
All of tile foregoing will Indicate to you that the systematic methods that we have developed and adopted for the control of accidents have resulted in a sort df unwritten book of standard rules and processes among the association members, and the various jobs of each member. Standard methods, plus discipline, its first cousin, must surely result in efficiency, and it follows just as naturally that efficiency based on organization and system makes for minimum accident occurrence. This, in a word, is success which in safety work means humanitarianism, economical as well as physical safety to workmen with a resulting speed and. economy to both the owner and the contractor.
Without statistics of a high order, our work in safety methods could not be capable of being measured. To this end, we have worked carefully with the United States Department of Labor, the National Safety Council and others to perfect and adopt standard methods of accident accounting, and the adoption of forms with standardized nomenclature of cause and result of accidents with standardized penalties in elapsed days for fatal and permanently disabling accidents. I believe a great deal of credit for these standardized methods of accounting is due to the National Safety Council because it is now possible to make results in one section com parable with those elsewhere, and is an inestimable help to those who are making a sincere and intelligent effort to reduce industrial accidents and their results in the construction industry.
I wish to repeat what I said In the beginning; that our members have been so completely sold on the subject of accident prevention among employees through the methods outlined in the foregoing that they regard it as an essential, department of their business along with economy and efficient handling of any other department. Safety is not the privilege of the large contractor, for he has no patent or special advantage -over the small contractor. Nor do we agree that the phrase I dimly remember, "a death a floor" should be stoically accepted, for while we occasionally have deaths, we have completed many multiple story buildings on which the death column in the accident record is blank. We have both large and small contractors^ and I am convinced through my knowledge of accident occurrence in the construction industry that accident prevention Is exactly as important, no more and no less, to the small as well as to the large contractor, and that the methods of controlling and minimizing accidents are as much available to the one as to the other.
80S
: Twelfth Safety Congress
We have had a small measure of success in preventing- accidents. But it is a matter of common discussion in our committee that our work has only nicely begun and that "every day in every way" we expect to become better and better.
PRACTIQAXi ACCIDENT PREVENTION WORK AS CARRIED ON BY POST AND MeCORD
B. W. Delaney, Claim Agent, Post and McCohd Inc., New York Cm
The . only practical way', known to Post and. McCord, to prevent acci dents in the construction field is as old as antiquity and at the same time seems to hold good against any other form of safety as yet introduced. It is embodied in two divisions:
The exercise of eternal vigilance, or personal surveillance; and the use of the best equipment procurable. It has been the experience of Post and McCord during the past ten years, in which the firm has carried its own insurance, that over ninety-five per cent of the accidents occuring among employees working on the many' steel structures erected during that period have been due to the carelessness of the injured or to that of his. fellow workmen. This in itself emphasizes the necessity of constant watchfulness on the part of both employee and employer, and is supplemented by tbe fact that many of the most serious accidents which occurred during the period mentioned were due to the momentary carelessness of expert workers; men who had had years of experience in their trade and who were well known as the most careful and competent in their particular line. Hence it is con sidered necessary- to keep in constant and intimate touch with the men in the field. This program is personally' conducted by the Vice-President, Mr. Frank B. McCord, and by the Superintendent of Erection, Mr. William H. McCord, through direct contact with superintendents, foremen, sub-foremen, time keepers, gang bosses, etc., on the various jobs. Every job is visited daily by either of the above men who carefully inspect and analyze, with the superintendent hnd his assistants, each operation and problem involved in the progress ;of tbe work, and so become acquainted with all the men and all conditions. Suggestions and criticisms are invited; infractions of rules detected; penalties inflicted; dangerous practices eliminated; and. in a word, the whole organization kept on its toes both for efficiency in production and prevention of accident. This, the firm believes, makes every man a separate unit of safety. Of course, this system of super vision is supplemented by various efforts to get the men to think safety, but when it comes to influencing the human element the principal de pendency is on; the verbal contact established between employer and employee in the way above mentioned.
PROVIDE BEST EQtlr.MENT
In the matter of equipment,' it has always been the endeavor of Post and McCord to provide the best and most modern machinery and tools obtainable for construction work. In fact, I think it may be said without
Construction Section
309
fear of contradiction that the erection plant of Post and McCord is the
most complete outfit of its kind in the territory of New York City. This
does not merely mean that the plant is large and capable of handling
big work, but rather that every tool and piece of machinery, from the
drift pin to the fifty-ton derrick, was selected with the predominating
tftought of Safety First.
%-
.
I believe it is alpo a matter of history that Post and McCord were the
first contractors in New- York City to use steam hoisting engines and
compressors in the erection of steelwork, and were likewise the first to
abandon steam when electricity had been proved a more desirable power
for hoisting and hir compression. The substitution of steel for wooden
derricks was another forward step in which the firm was a pioneer.
As a safety factor* however, I think the company's greatest achievement
was through the introduction of wire rope slings for hoisting. For many years prior to 19X2 the most serious accidents encountered were caused
by the breaking of chains used in hoisting. Despite the closest inspec
tion and most rigid care a chain would frequently break with disastrous
results. Therefore, a substitute for chains was often the subject of grave
discussion among various engineers and members of the firm. Through
these discussions the matter was finally brought to the attention of the
John A. Roebllng's Sons Company, the firm which, after exhaustive experi
mental work, developed the present day wire rope sling and enabled Post
and McCord to be the first in New York to use this valuable factor of
safety.
'
In this respect the firm makes no claim to altruistic motives, simply
considering a wide margin of safety the best of insurance protection,
a plain duty to th<e public in general and especially to the employees who
have to entrust their lives to the proper performance of the equipment
furnished. Merely purchasing good equipment and putting it on the job does not
mean efficiency or accident prevention. The first cost of the average tool
or machine used for structural steel erection work is soon lost sight of
in the items of upkeep and repairs. Therefore, eternal vigilance is almost
as necessary in the inspection and care of the equipment as it is among
the men. At the storeroom of the company in Brooklyn a complete repair de
partment is maintained. This outfit is in charge of men expert in repair
ing and overhauling the special machinery, tools an drigging used in
erection work. These men are held responsible for the condition of all
equipment sent to the various jobs and are therefore careful to have
everything: in good and safe working order before sending it out.
CO-OPERATION' NEEDED FOR EDUCATION OF EMPLOYEES
As intimated in a previous paragraph, the firm has never actively pursued a scientifically organized program of safety work among the ironworkers. This is largely due to the fact that in the erection field the average job lasts less than, six months or a year, and employees are constantly changing from one employer to another. - Consequently, about
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Twelfth Safety Congress
the time one would have a safety movement ready to function the Job would be finished, and on the next job he would have to start all over again with a new group of men. Therefore, it is the opinion of the firm that in order to make the theoretical feature of `'safety-first- a. aaeow among the rank and file of the men, movement would have to he made through a general headquarters composed of all employers within a. oertaTa district, and also through the headquarters of the various satcM send
organizations of! the employees. In this way the message owning tree* aa
authoritive source, would., reach all trades and cover all oadUlws i-
.I
volved.
`
Would not this work of "organizing the organizers** be a. rarfr meU
worth the attention of such a master Safety Force as the Xsrtnetl 15lKr
Council? I have read with marked attention of the voudutul SWCMI
you have had in establishing the safety movement In various iatoDCTk* throughout the country, and hope that your Structural Peparoauni. will
in the near future be sufficiently strong to have so thoroughly 3aufcsefi all the building trades, employers and employees, with the spirit wf Safety
First, so that evidence of a careless accident can only be found ta records
of the past.
,
HOW SAFETY FIRST PENALIZES THE CONTRACTOR
J. H. ScnuLTs, James Stewart & Company, Inc., New Yorr City
When the safety movement was first organized, I don't imagine that many of the people interested realized that eventually, to some degree at least, the safety movement would control the contractor rather than the contractor control the safety movement. As the movement progressed various states took it up and adopted safety codes. Following this the different industries adopted their individual codes and we have now reached the point where we are adopting our own code. The result has
been that tfie insurance companies, being of course, vitally interested,
put into operation an organization to operate in a number of states, which are known as the "Bureau States," keeping statistics on accident rates of their clients. The tabulation of this record, which is known as experience rating, has resulted in either a credit or premium on the manual rates as applied to each employer based upon this record. As
an illustration of this experience rating, our record in the Bureau States
has been as follows: in 1921 we received a credit of 36% from the manual
rates, in 1922 it was 53% and in 1923 64%. Reducing this to a dollar and cents basis:--in the Bureau States, where we have considerable work going on, on each 5100,000 of payroll, using an average manual rate of $4 per $100, the premium would be $4,000 and then applying our credit rating at 64% shows we have an actual saving due to our safety work
of $2,800 on each $100,000 of payroll.
.
This illustrates in a most complete and comprehensive manner wherein safety work makes its force felt. Take on the other hand the organiza tion, let us say, that has not adopted safety work in connection with its operations. Its manual rate would reflect the attitude, no doubt, and
Construction Section
311
would be higher than that enjoyed by our company. The moral is ob
vious. I think, you Will agree with me that a penalty is attached to the contractor who does not feel it is necessary to conduct safety work on his operations. It therefore follows that the contractor of today, merely speaking from the dollars and cents viewpoint, cannot afford to disre gard safety work and a slackening of his efforts in that direction will certainly show itself in the barometer of the experience rating.
To repeat what has been stated previously by many speakers and printed in the National Safety News, it is not necessary that an expert organization be employed to bring about results. So far as our company is concerned we .do not find it necessary and the same methods can be followed by the smaller company just as well. The work is carried on at the direction of the head office through the superintendent and foremen on each job, the operation of safety committees, etc., nothing unusual nor hard to duplicate, but merely the will to start and kejep at it. The Safety News keeps one in touch with conditions, selecting your bulletins to match your operations keeps 'the job from forgetting, and your acci dent reports tells you what you are'accomplishing.
This shows that safety pays dividends as evidenced by the experience
credit rating our company has earned through pushing safety first and through this credit rating the incentive is provided for pushing the work
to make a better record. Of course, it is needless to say that the experi
ence credit rating shows to our officials that following up safety on our work is a paying proposition and long past the experimental stage.
Mr. MacMulIan has referred to the humanitarian standpoint. The
humanitarian viewpoint primarily, I believe, had a great deal to do with
inaugurating the Safety First movement but it seems to me it has now
reached the point where you can almost say it is looked at strictly from
a money saving view rather than from the humanitarian standpoint; but
humanitarianism naturally follows the Safety movement, just as sure
as night follows day. You cannot do safety work without doing humani
tarian work, and you cannot do humanitarian work without bringing in
safety work, but whichever you do, or whatever you call it, in the long
run the result is the same and the reward generous. If yon do not
practice Safety, then to my mind it is the same as omitting an item in
ayour estimate when figuring on
job and to that extent you have
penalized yourself.
REPORT OF MEMBERSHIP COMMITTEE
Mr. Woedtke: The number of members In the Section at the present time is 79. Twelve members cancelled their membership during the past year; they were mostly ship yard people who went out of bnsiness or who no longer have much occasion for belonging to this Section. The number of new members secured since October 1, 1922 is 12. That makes the membership as bf date 79 firms.
I want to say a word or two about this membership question. We come here year after year. We get the benefit of what is presented here and of course we get it from one another. We go away from these meet-
Sill
Twelfth Safely Congress
lugs and forget all about the Section and naturally there is very little
done on the question of increased membership, except by the Committee.
The Committee has certainly put in a lot of time. We got up a mailing '
list of all the contractors from all over the country, at quite a bit of time and expense, and we circularized them -with I think, a series of five
or six letters. We have been able to hold our own and we got 12 new
I
ones iii for the 12 we lost.
Chairman Davidson: When the Membership Committee come to any
of you during this next year for assistance, and ask you possibly for
the address of a contractor or two contractors, or five contractors that you personally know or have contact with, who are not members, we want you to co-operate with us by giving us those names and possibly writing them a letter! over your own signature telling them of the work we are
trying to do. that it is good work, and ask them to "come on in, the water
is fine."
,
REPORT OF NOMINATING COMMITTEE
Mr. Dick: Mr. Chairman, the Nominating Committee reports the fol
lowing names as suggestions for officers for the ensuing year:
Chairman, Mr. J. H. Schults, Jas. Stewart & Co., New York. Vice-Chairman, Mr. W. F. Ames, McClintic-Marshall Co.. Pitts
burgh. Secretary, Mr. C. H. Almstead, Dwight P. Robinson Co_ New
York. (The nominees were thereupon duly elected.)
Mr. Woedtke: I, for one, appreciate very, very much what the retiring
Chairman and his board of officers have done to carry on the work of this
Section.
It was no sweet job in the beginning to form this section; it was quite
a battle to keep it going. When I was chairman, the retiring chairman
was one of the best bets I had to back me up all the way through. He
never kicked; he never squealed or laid down on any job. large or small.
He went through and headed up and accomplished for this section one
of the greatest things that it has done, or any other section has done,
in completing the standard statistical methods which this section has
been using fbr; the past year.
.
At this time'.when Mr. Davidson is retiring I move you. Mr. Secretary,
that we extend; to him a rising vote of thanks for his hard work, and all
that he has done to keep this Section going and progressing.
The motion was seconded and carried.
Mr. Hurlbutt assumed the Chair.
FURTHER DISCUSSION OF CODE
Mr. Dick: In reading Section 33 again, it seems to me a little bit incomplete in that you mention guyed derricks only and nothing about stiff-legs and speak of goosenecks in connection with guyed derricks. I think that ought to be revised to bring out clearer that there are two kinds of derricks intended.
Construction Section
313
Chairman. Hurlbutt: 'Had you any specific point to bring out in con nection with, stiff-leg derricks?
Mr. Dick: No, merely the point that they should be mentioned as differ
ent from the guyeel derricks. Also put in breast derricks. I'
We are going juSt a little out of line in Paragraph 340. You say no
cable shall be used in which more than 10 per cent of the wires are
broken in any one foot of the cable. I don't know that you can definitely
specify what is going to condemn a cable, but it seems-to me that is
hardly enough.
;
Mr. McKinley: Well, when you say 10 per cent of the wires, 1 should
chink it would mean 10 per cent of the wires in any one strand because
you may have 5 or 6 strands, and the cable would be pretty well shot
with 10 per cent of the entire number of wires of the 5 or 6 strands
broken. We figure in elevator cables about 10 per cent of the wires in
any one strand, not the entire cable.
,
Chairman Hurlbutt: You mustn't confuse this with elevator practice because elevator practice requires and demands a much greater factor of safety than we require on load lifting with. derricks and blocks!. To
begin with, your cables are run at a much higher speed.
Mr. McKinley:. That is true, but if 10 per cent of the wires in a 5strand cable were broken, why your cable would be gone. That is all there is to it. There won't be anything left if you wait that long.
Chairman Hurlbutt: There seems to be considerable dispute on this point, Mr. Secretary. Will you make a note for the Committee to go into this matter further?
Section 35 on Signals--this is a very difficult thing to put in a code for
the simple reason that there is a conflict in the practice used over the
country.
.
Mr. Williams: This is the most puzzling thing I have found in this whole Code, and it seems to be quite important because we have conflict ing codes of hoisting signals, there is a possibility of a lot of trouble.
There are two possible codes of signals which are in general use, having reference to the principal operations of hoisting, lowering and. stopping.
derrick code
*
The common derrick code is one bell to raise, one bell to stop, and two bells to lower. That, as far as I have observed, is in universal use on derricks and in many places the same code is used for a platform hoist--one to raise, one to stop, and two to lower. Safety men will see immediately the possibility of confusion there, if you have one bell to raise and one bell to stop. There is a second possibility of confusion and accident in that any "one" signal may be given'accidently. If it is a case of pulling a wire or a cord, the cord may tie pulled accidentally
by something snagging it and breaking.it; and just the instant before.it
breaks, it gives the "one"' signal.
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Twelfth Safety Congress
The president of the hoisting engineers' union himself related, from hi own experiencje, an incident to me where the signal was given by an electric push button. Part of the case of the push button was broken
and the spring was exposed; it was lying on a wall or plank somewhere on the building and somebody accidentally sat on it, or put his hand
on it. or laid something on it, which made the contact and gave a "one"
signal.
: -'
That possibility of giving a "one" signal is always present in any sort
of signaling apparatus and therefore the safe practice is obviously that
a one signal should mean to stop because there is very little likelihood of hurting anybody by stopping. For example, on street cars they use
one bell to stop and two bells to go. Therefore, when you have a code
of one to raise and one to stop, there is greater possibility of accidents
occurring.
'
The New York State Code says one to raise, one to stop and two to lower for platform elevators as well as for derricks, and we put that into the initial draft of this Code. The first objection we met was from Air. Rosedale, who is with the Industrial Commission of California. He pointed out some of these hazards that I have just been describing to you and said that in California they use the other code, what I referred to as a 1, 2, 3 code, that is, 1 to stop, 2 to raise, and 3 to lower--three separate signals for those three operations.
Then when I looked into it a little farther, I found that that 1. 2. X code was in effect in New York City, and I think in fact that it has been adopted and enforced by the Hoisting Engineers' Union in New York City-. despite the fact that the New York State Code is different- la otbtr words, you have one condition in New York State and another cooditiot in New York City. And one of the members of our Committee who is in the Travelers' Insurance Company showed me a card that they dis tributed widely in New York City which has the 1, 2, 3 code. I under stand that that is standard in New York City.
So you see what a mixed-up situation we have. We have one code for derricks and that same code officially adopted by New York State for platform elevators contains at least the elements of serious danger. And we have another code, which seems a good deal safer, in New York City for platform hoiste but not for derricks and is in use in California for platform hoists but not for derricks, and which of course has the dis advantage of being slightly slower. It takes a little longer to ring 3 bells than to ring 2 bells, and if you are absolutely a hound for output-- which of course you must be--I can see where the superintendent or foreman of a steel erection gang or any other superintendent or foreman might object to changing his system by adopting a code which would substitute 3 for 2, because it is true if he adopts that code it will be slightly slower.
It does seem to me as if we ought to look for some sort of standard ization. At least, we ought to put in this Code what seems to us thebest standard, not expecting of course that everybody will be wide-aw*ake
Construction Section
315
enough to adopt that standard but hoping that any state that hasn't any
standard now will adopt this one and that gradually we will arrive at
something approaching uniformity.
'
Mr. Dick: I believe it Is a wise thing to consider this entirely from the
side of safety and not from the side of what is common practice today.
We are suggesting something that we think Is going to minimize danger,
and uniformity is certainly the thing to have. I don't see why.there
should be different signals for derricks and hoists. The 1, 2, 3, code to
me is the most logical thing to have.
I would suggest that we convey to Mr. Williams that that is the feel
ing of this meeting.
Chairman Hurlbutt: You express the general sentiment of the Com
mittee, too, Mr. Dick.
Mr. Charles A. Buck (Bryant & Detwiter Co., Detroit): I think there
ought to be standardization on the matter of bells, because whistles
cause confusion, especially when you are on an industrial job. Whistles
are used In every community tor quitting or starting work.
Mr. Dick: I agree on that. Signal lights ought never to be used on
any construction job, nor "whistles.
-
DICGUVG AJfD TKEyCir WORK
Mr. Paris: Section 41, Ditching and Trench Work. I should think it
would be well to say we are not in conflict with any local regulation,
law or ordinance, or something of that sort, which would call attention
to those local regulations.
Mr. Dick: In connection with Section 41 I would eliminate the man
datory provision as to sizes of lumber.
Chairman Hurlbutt: If you will note, those are minimum sizes. Cer
tainly you as a construction man wouldn't advocate anything less than
that.
`
Mr. Dick: No, not at all. The idea is there are so many cases in
which the particular ditch or trench doesn't fall right within the limits of
the description. <
Chairman Hurlbutt: All right, I will make this suggestion, if it meets
with your approval: that we stiffen that paragraph by saying, "The above
sizes are given as minimums and local conditions may require larger
sectional timbers.''
Mr. Woadtke: Mr. Chairman, it says in Section 54, "On every job where
more than 250 men are employed a lirst-aid room, dispensary, or field
hospital shall be provided, with a physician or competent nurse in at
tendance."
.
There are any number of jobs with more than 250 men on them where
70 per cent of them are sub-contractors' men,' and it isn't practical to
have a dispensary or a field hospital, hut you do leave in the air the first-
aid room. What do you mean by a first-aid room--one set aside strictly
for that purpose? ,
..
Chairman Hurlbutt: A small room In your field office or a small build
ing. If it is a. large enough job.
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Twelfth Safety Congress
In my own case, on the jobs where we had that many men employed, there was generally an opportunity of partitioning off a small part of the field office quite near the employment room, and we put in there first-aid equipment: a cot and the things necessary to take care of an injury until an ambulance could be brought from the city. If the job wasn't large! enough to justify an ambulance of our own. We had on jobs of that type--the smaller jobs--a part-time safety man who was also a first-aid man. On the larger jobs of course that was taken care of with a regular physician. But this man .was in attendance at the em ployment office and was available to serve in the capacity of first-aid
man when he was needed in that capacity.
That is a very small room and doesn't require much equipment. When
you get to the larger job, you are justified in having a real small hospital
room.
:
-
Mr. Schults: Mr. Chairman, on that point, where the work is being done In a city of any size and the work is covered by an insurance com pany. they don't want you to tinker with it at all, that is, if it goes beyond the point where it is an ordinary scratch or something of that kind. They want you to send the man to the doctor.
Chairman Hurlbutt: Right up here in the city of Buffalo, the DuPont people put up a plant on the road just over the city line. The nearest hospital was about six miles away. That meant if a man was injured, had a ruptured vein, or artery- or something like that, they would be seriously handicapped. Well, what could they do? They had to put in some means of taking care of that man until they could get an ambulance to run out from the city, if the man was in such shape that he couldn't he put in an ordinary car. You can't put a stretcher in an ordinary car.
Mr. Woedtke: Mr. Chairman. I submit again that the clause is too brief. If you are calling for a stretcher, call for a stretcher as part of your first-aid outfit. We have a stretcher on every big job and we have a first-aid cabinet on every job, large or small.
FIRST AIO ROOMS
Chairman Hurlbutt: You make the recommendation then that we am
plify and specify what we ought to have here for first-aid rooms, is
that it?
,
Mr. Woedtke: Either that, or else change the word "shall" to "should." I could mention a lot of cases where it would be unnecessary--where we have a doctor within two to five blocks that we can get to any time, and where we have a hospital within a short distance. And believe me, I don't want any of my injured men on a Job being fussed over any more than absolutely necessary by laymen.
It is a,ll very well to have a standard. I have a standard list of con tents for a first-aid cabinet and there is a penalty of discharge imposed on any one if they change that list. Yet those fish will put in peroxide
Construction- Section
317
and all sorts of junit that their grandmother used to use to cure pains and aches of all kinds. It is a bad thing to have laymen monkeying with these injuries any n^ore than absolutely necessary.
Chairman Hurlbutt: If you will read the thing as written it says ``shall be provided with a physician or competent nurse"--it isn't case of a layman fooling with it when you get to a job of that size. Do you want to do this: would you suggest that we qualify that by saying unless the job is located within such proximity of a hospital and a physician that he can be obtained at any time, it will be necessary to provide these things?
Mr. Woedtke: That is all right.
Mr. Schults: That would cover the point I had in mind also.
Mr. Woedtke: Otherwise, I want the word "shall" changed to "should."
Mr. Paris: Before we pass that point, I want to ask a question on the case that Mr. Woedtke suggested----where there are 250 men employed on the job, 50 of whom at a given time are employes of a general con tractor, and the other 200, or any other number, are employes of sub contractors. Whose' duty, according to that Code, is ft in such a case
to provide this dispensary?
Mr. Woedtke: I suggest that the Committee consider wording it in
proper phraseology to make it clear that this Code does not place the
responsibility wholly upon the general contractor.
'
Mr. Paris: That is my mind on the matter.
Mr. Dick: Do ydu mean paragraph 604 to take care of the usual handling or passing of lumber from one floor to another?
Chairman Hurlbutt I would say that it does not cover hand passing.
Mr. Dick: That is usually done over a sidewalk bridge, anyway..
Mr. Harding: Would that apply to a lumber skip?
Chairman Hurlbutt: We will make a note to consider in Committee
whether or not 604 applies to lumber skip hoists.
I will ask if there are any gentlemen in attendance who have points which have not been covered today, or which were covered yesterday in their absence on which they would like to make a criticism or offer a suggestion, that they send those to Mr. Sidney Williams at the National Safety Council office. I will turn the meeting over to Mr. Davidson.
Mr. Paris: Mr. Chairman, before adjourning, I would like to say one word that I think ^vill interest all of us. It is in line with a discussion that we had last night on the subject of the future of this section.I
I think that many of us perhaps allow ourselves to forget that this is not a corporation with a service that it produces and sells for a price, but that it is an association of all of us, which is organized for the purpose of exchanging ideas that will be of benefit to one another. We
318
Twelfth Safety Congress
liave only 79 members. If we had 790 members we would have a good
many more suggestions and helpful hints and ideas to exchange and therefore the scope and benefit of this Section would be very much enlarged. Its! efficiency would be raised.
I think every one that is here now can go away and within the next twelve months bring in a new member. I honestly believe every one of us can do that. I think every one of us ought to go away from here accepting the responsibility to increase the Section to 150 members, at least, by a year from now.
Mr. Woedtke: I am going to try to get one member, Mr. Chairman. I think that is a mighty good thought.
Chairman Davidson: These suggestions have been put up to you. Come through and back up the new Chairman.
ADJOURNMENT
EDUCATION SECTION
October 2, 1923
DR. E. GEORGE PAT5E, Chairman Professor of Educational Sociology. New York University, New York City
DR. JOHN J. TIGERT, Ylce-Chairman United States Commissioner of Education, Washington, D. C.
A. W. WHITNEY, Secretary Associate Geners 1 Manager. National Bureau of Casualty & Surety
Underwriters. New York City
' HISS HART N. AHROWSH1TH, Assistant Secretary
HAIRMAN pkYNE: This is the sixth Annual Congress of the
National Safety Council in which have had an active part in edu cational work. Commencing lire years ago the programme of education has been developDig. I remember in the beginning of that programme, as I said in an address this morning, that whenever we spoke of dealing with education of accident prevention as a school matter, educators were inclined to smile and say that was not a function of education. It is a function of the police; it is a function of the civil authorities; it is a function of industry. It is the purpose of everybody to. deal with safety education except the educator.
REPORT OF SECRETARY
Axaxsx W. WuniiLi
The work has been 3nt in getting in touch with the schools of the country. First, a. questionnaire was sent out to all the school super
intendents in cities of over 10,000, I believe, was the limit. If I re
member rightly. 7*g or 14)60 such cities. We got into actual corre spondence with those superintendents to find out just exactly what was being done-
Then, the actual organization work came down to this: to selecting certain cities and certain scboois in which to hold demonstrations. For instance, tbe work that was done most successfully and most thoroughly was done in Masatnchowects. where I believe about live cities were picked
out. Particular school* fm these cities agreed to hold demonstrations.
The state was districted and ail the schools in those various regions
were xkodfled W fl
W tlrt ihntonutntton- and to a very large
319
:>20
'Twelfth Safety Congress
extent they sent representatives to see the work that was being carried on in these schools. The work lasted for one or two days and was very successful; unusually good work was done and the schools got up a great deal pf enthusiasm over it. They were not told how to do it. They were just jtold in general what to do and each school worked out the problem in 'its own way................... '
That is, the demonstration work has been the particular feature of the year's work. The preparation for this involved, of course, a great deal of correspondence and actual visiting of schools on the spot, and l want to say that Dr. Payne has visited a large -number of schools and made speeches in getting this work actually started. Now the work is actually started, and I don't think it will be very difficult to carry.this same system out to a very considerable extent all over the United States, so that we can have these demonstrations; and pretty soon we ought to have a knowledge of how safety education can he carried on in the schools all over the country.
Just a word now about the future. As.-I visualize it, the important thing that we pan do in the immediate future--and that has been done to a very considerable extent--is to make safety attractive. Our teaching at first was not so. It was very largely negative--"Don't do this chil dren," and holding up the horrors of accidents and all that. It was not an attractive thing- But if you will just go into the educational exhibit upstairs--none of you should leave the building until you" do that--you will see that this year the teaching of safety is not an un attractive thing. It is a very charming thing. We have found it possible o bring it before children in a very charming way so that it has become a beautiful thing.
MUST CONVINCE I'AltEXTS AXD TEACHERS
I think the change is just the same as the change in teaching itself. Forty years ago school was a prison and children wanted to escape from-school. Now the difficulty is to keep them away. The children want to go to school. The whole attitude is changed. Very much that same thing has happened in educational work.
The idea of the play. "Adventure," is to get safety education into the schools. In order to get into the schools we must convince the teachers and the parents. If we stop and try to convince teachers and parents through their intelligences alone it will be a very .long job. And so we thought the way to get to them was to get in through the other door in their minds--through their emotions: Child safety is a highly emotional thing. We don't stop to think about the safety of our chil dren. We feel about it. But if we are going to carry this on on the emotional basis we necessarily had to do it on a dramatic basis to get it over in any large way.
And so we; got one of the best playwrights in the country--Thomas Wood Stevens, head of the Department of Drama of Carnegie Institute of Technology, in Pitsburgh--to write us a play, and his department
Education Section .
321
with a cast of 61 is giving it here now. We don't claim this is tlie
last word, but all that we would like to demonstrate is that it is possible
to dramatize safety]
.
If we are successful in dramatizing safety, it means we have got an
opening them to all the parents all over the country, and there is no
reason then why this whole thing should not spread and get a real
strong emotional impetus back of it.
APPOINTMENT OF NOMINATING COMMITTEE
Chairman Payne: I have been requested to announce the programme of the Thursday afternoon session of the Women's Division, to be given in the Fillmore Room on the Mezzanine floor of the Statler Hotel.
This relates to mothers' interest in accident prevention, teaching the child to be careful, and other subjects of that kind along- the lines of ..education this afternoon. It is requested that the children and teachers send word to the parents of the community in order that those who
are interested may attend the session.
.
At this time it is also necessary to name the Nominating Committee
for the officers of this Section for the ensuing year. I should like to
name on that Committee:
'
Mr. MacBrayne, of Massachusetts,
Mr. Remmers, of St. Louis.
Chairman. `
_
. .
Mr. Lewis, of Baltimore.
'
Since we have only one session it is necessary that the nominations
be made this afternoon- and the election take place at the close of the
session.
.;
.
We are very fortunate this afternoon in having under the direction
of the Safety Committee, a committee of school people of Buffalo, a
demonstration of the work of safety education along the line we have
outlined, and along the line for which the Education Comniittee is
standing.
|
.
Buffalo has done an excellent piece of safety education work and you
can have the opportunity this afternoon of seeing something of that. We
have provided short addresses in which the different types of work will be explained followed by a demonstration of the work of the children.
THE REQUISITES OF SAFETY INSTRUCTION IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS
George B. Maksltch, Superintendent, Chicago and Cook County School . for Boys, Chicago. III.
When we talk about the requirements for a safety course in education in the public schools we have to consider what we mean by learning, how learning goes on. Experience, personal experience, is the old orthodox, dyed-in-the-wool way to learn anything; "but experience is a dear teacher and we can't use experience for all of that.
Applied to safety, perhaps, we might say that the burned child dreads the fire as a safety experience. The child dreads the fire beca.use he has
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Twelfth Safety Congress
had the painful experience. We don't want all of our children to foe burned before they know that fire is to he dreaded. Although I did see some itme ago in a magazine the suggestion made seriously that if a child did play with matches against the parents' wish, that it was allowabie fori the parents to light a match and burn the child's fingers a little bit so that he would know from the pain that it wasn't a good thing. I don't believe we would want to go that far.
Primitive man had only his own muscles, the muscles of his arms and legs andj body, to have experience with, added to sticks and stones and such rude tools as he could make out. And from a toddling child he grew up experiencing the world around him gradually, so that he met every safety situation that he needed to meet as it came, and in a sense he did learn by experience.
But today It is far different from that. How many of us would have thought a generation ago that we should see boys and girls like these down in front of me, some of the older ones, sitting at the wheels of automobiles that had the power of 25 or 50 horses and the ability to go with the .speed of a train down our streets--not on rails but here and there where they would. That great use of power by immature children was a thing we never dreamt of a- few years ago. Nor did we think that this innocent-looking electric wire had in it the light of the sun or the heat of the blaze in your furnace, or the destructive powers of the thunderbolt. We have gotten power, all of us, without the ability to use that power.
WARNING AND SHOCK: AS SAFETY METHODS
Now we have realized that to a certain extent, and there have been two methods that everyone has used to try to make for safety among children. One is the warning, and the other is the attempt to show the horrors of an accident and shock children into being careful.
Warnings a^e not of very much avail because the child is naturally op timistic and he doesn't think anything is going to happen to him. He is just exactly like the boy who went fishing and fell in and then was fished out by some man who passed by and the man said: "Sonny, how _ did you come to fall in?" He said: "I didn't come to fall in. I came to fish." He hadn't any notion he was going to meet with an accident, and the child doesn't heed your warnings because he doesn't think it means him at all. He is not going to have any trouble. He is going right along. As far as shocking the child is concerned, that also has not as great effect as we think.
Some time ago I showed a safety motion picture film to a group of little children of foreign parentage, and when the automobile disregarding safety signals went through the open drawbridge into the river tne children laughed. And when the driver of the delivery truck tried to beat the train at a crossing and the delivery truck was apparently smashed into kindling wood, the children applauded and cheered. To them it was almost as good as the thriller which they had seen at the paid movie a little before.
, Education Section
323
Those two methods are not going to go to any great extent. We have got somehow to do what we ha.ve done in thrift education, in moral and humane education, in patriotism, in all of those endeavors. And we lived through that with ;those things pretty much, and we have got to live through that with safety, or else we have got to learn the lessons that we learned from those.
I used to talk myself hoarse about thrift to children until ten years
ago I started a savings bank in the school I was then principal of,
with the promise that any child could deposit a cent or any amount more
than that any day of
the money he put in,
600 depositors in t)he
theweek, and could get the penny out or all of out when he wanted it out. Pretty soon we had school of 1,300, and they very soon got as much
as $1,200 together which they used to buy Christmas' presents with for their parents and for other, good usage. In other words, as soon as the child did Something on thrift, he learned what thrift was.
We do the same; thing with patriotism. Our patriotism amounted to nothing until the emergency of the World War, when there was some thing to do patriotic for the country. Then we learned patriotism.
I was brought up on the old fashioned McGuffey's reader that taught
that it was wicked to rob a bird's nest, but I doubt if that warning ever
did very much to the robbers of birds' nests. Now we teach that if
the boy will leave the bird's eggs alone in the nest that something far
more interesting is going to happen to those eggs than would happen
if he played with; them until he broke them; namely, that the little
birds are going to; peck at the shell and get out pretty soon and open their mouths in that wide, funny way for the mother to drop worms in.
That is a lot more interesting than breaking birds' eggs, and that is
going to do something for us.
'
.
,, CIlir.D MUST LEABK TO THINK SAFETY
If we can do the same thing with safety, I think we are saved with
reference to the children. There must be a kind nf flavor of safety
through all of the school w.ork, just as there is a flavor of honesty, of
good manners, a flavor of doing the right thing, the loyal, patriotic
thing, a reverence: to old people, to parents and so on. That need not
be confined to the English work..;-Of course, it is evident how that can
be and we can write essays on safety and we can give safety plays, and
we can do things of that sort; but there can be in every endeavor in
school some reference to safety, so that after a while the child gets
dyed with that, and when he goes -out of school he thinks of safety
not in a gloomy, mournful way, but he just thinks of- it--just as he
thinks of supper about supper time.
,.
If there is a geography project and you are discussing the cost of coal, count along with that the cost of the hazardous occupation of mining, and learn that coal is not only something that is made from the dead fragments of vegetable matter or possibly of fishes, as the
324
Twelfth Safety Congress
lake scientist has said; but that coal represents dead bodies of miners
that have been killed in coal mines, and that is part of the expense,
the danger, that comes to those men.
If we are studying, some food product that comes from some far off country of the world, we can study the trip which that . product has to make across the seas to us, and the hazards of the' ships and of
the men on the ships and so on.
.
I am not going to take further time for that except to remind those
of you who have had safety patrols, that these children in frpnt who
have been ushered across the streets by a safety patrol boy, will think
of the safety patrol boy on Saturday and Sunday when he isn't there, and in that way, as someone remarked in the Public Safety Section meeting a few minutes ago, the little children who go to school now, will grow up ; to have a better sense of safety.
1/ as a teacher of twenty-five years' experience, am very jealous of the teaching profession. I don't want somebody outside to come in and assume that teaching can be learned in five minutes. I want "the
teaching done by teachers. But we do need the help of all of the outside organizations. Let the child, if he will, write a letter to the public official, alderman or other, who is responsible for some bad public
safety condition; and the child will watch until he gets an answer from
that public official and after that he will watch until the error is cor rected. We must not use only the child's activities, but we must enlist
the whole community.
It was hard to secure a hearing for safety under that title, and. you
would have to disguise what you were going to say under some such, subject as reconstruction of the curriculum or conservation of human life, or some other subject, so that educators would .not know that you
were going to discuss the subject - of. accident prevention as a school
problem.
The remarkable change that has taken place since that time is one of the most encouraging things in American education to my mind; and that I have had an opportunity of witnessing during the past year.
One of the marked achievements Is the fact that a university that has between twenty and twenty-five thousand students has introduced into its curriculum for the training of teachers a course in education and
accident prevention, and while the five hundred students who are taking
work with me will not all be in that course, probably half of them
will be taking that work, and others will have methods of safety this year as an educational matter.
TEACHERS KNIK>BSE SAFETY COURSES
Aside from that, at a meeting of 700 principals and superintendents in the Schoolmasters* Club of New York City during the past year, at the close of a presentation of this matter, those 700 superintendents and principals, who represent one in every 10 of the school children of the United States coming from the New York industrial area, arose and pledged themselves to undertake a* a school proposition safety
Education Section
325
education. As Mr. Kilpatrick said not only to his classes but to the students in announcing- the address that was to be given there on this subject--that, one of the greatest contributions of the 20th Century to -education is the contribution of education of accident prevention as fundamental in the school curriculum.
That is, it seems to me, a remarkable advance. It seems to me we have come to this i point in the development of education, and I think that will be brought out in the programme here this afternoon in the demonstration that is to be given, that we have passed over the period of propaganda, that we no longer need to defend or promote education in accident prevention because it has been sold, If you use the com mercial term, to the educators of the country, and it has found an important place in; the curricula of those institutions.
Therefore, our problem it seems to me, henceforth is that of. pro viding assistance for those who are actually in the work and those who are undertaking education in accident prevention. This is con firmed further by reports from those cities in which demonstrations were given during! the past year, which I cannot read here, in which the superintendent; said that these demonstrations of this work, carried out as a fundamental part of the curriculum, had added new life to the regular' subjects of the curriculum, such as arithmetic, geography and history, and has given them a new vision of education, a new conception of the whole problem of education, had been brought about through the enlivening of the subject matter with, this kind of material. So, as I say, it seems to me our problem henceforth is to render assistance to those who are calling for It by the hundreds in their effort to work out an adequate programme of accident prevention.
At this point I want to present to you the Secretary of our Section,
who will make a report for the Committee of the work that has been carried on during the year. I am glad to present Mr. A. W. Whitney, of the Bureau of Casualty and Surety Underwriters of New York City.
HOW BUFFALO TEACHES SAFETY IN ITS
PUBLIC SCHOOLS '
Elmer J. Cobb,' Principal, School 60; Chairman ok the School Committee ok the Safety BntK.vf. Buffalo. N. Y.
Thus far in Buffalo the safety work in the public schools has been
carried on by a committee of principals and supervisors in conjunction
with the Safety Bureau of the Chamber of Commerce. This work has
been of a voluntary nature, done for the protection of the school children
of our city. Like ail the safety work in the larger cities of the United States it has been j experimental and provisional, and thus far in Buffalo
has been carried without any financial support from the Department
of Education.
!
.
.
Our School Safety Committee has held many meetings with the manager
of the Safety Bureau of the Chamber of Commerce, Mr. Sidney Coleman, where we have discussed and studied the work* done in other cities and
have Planned the work of introducing, safety teaching in the public
326 Twelfth Safety Congress
schools of our city as rapidly as we could gain the support and coopera tion of the schools themselves. We received valuable help and sugges tions from Dr. Payne and from Mr. Cameron and Miss Arrowsmith of the National Safety Council, and as the result of our wort we have decided that our greatest service to safety in Buffalo can be done by placing in
every teacher'^ desk in the city of Buffalo each month a loose leaf safety suggestion; and these for October have been sent to every school, includ ing the parochial schools, in which one subject is taken for each grade or In each group of schools. For instance, we have lessons for the first three years, intermediate lessons for the next three, and more advanced lessons for the upper grades.
We expect to supplement this work by helpful suggestions in the school magazine which goes to every teacher each month, and by other loose leaf suggestions sent directly to the teachers. These lessons will be printed on paper of uniform size to correspond with suggestions of our physical department that are sent to teachers each month and will be distributed by them. Our physical education directors have agreed to assist the teachers in the safety games we suggest and in other ways to help them make this programme a success.
Besides these loose leaf suggestions to the teachers, our committee has arranged a system of safety patrols in schools having a dangerous traffic condition, and many of the schools have already taken up this safety patrol work. A part of our programme today will illustrate how these safety patrols work, how the work is carried on in Dr. Connor's school. Public 1 School No. 6.
Last year several schools undertook safety propaganda and in doing this a number of safety playlets were written to arrange in helping this work. The one we are to present this afternoon was written and arranged by Miss Meeker and Miss Hood of the Riverside School No. 60 for third grade children, and Mr. Cameron and Mr. Coleman thought it would be an interesting thing to present to our teachers and visitors to the city at that time, and I shall be very glad to have these teachers give you this little playlet, which is shown by the third grade children.
"Safety Land," a play by third grade children of School 60 was given.
BUSINESS MEETINGS OF THE SCHOOL SAFETY PATROL
Dr. T. W. Connors, Pkixcipal. School 6, Buffalo. N. Y.
I want first to express my appreciation for the very valuable assist
ance given us by Miss Arrowsmith, Mr. Cameron, and Mr. Coleman
in starting the safety work in Number Six School. Whatever merit there
is in our work I feev is entirely due to them. They have given us many
valuable suggestions. They have supplied us with literature and posters'
promoting safety ideas. The National Safety Council is to be congrat
ulated on having such intelligent, energetic and - inspiring workers. No
one could meet with these workers and fail to enter his work with zeal
and enthusiasm. In establishing the Safety Patrol at Number Six, we
had in mind two things:
,
-
Education Section
327
1. The selection iand training of pupils for the patrol.
2. Developing in all pupils of the school the proper attitude toward the members of the patrol and toward safety ideas in general.
All pupils were thoroughly grounded in what we considered the fundamental principles of safety education, namely, that to be able to
take care of one's self, to take reasonable and proper safeguards in avoiding dangerous situations is an indication of intelligence: to do the contrary is a sign, of weakness and lack of intelligence. We have Italian children at Number Six. We contrasted the comparative safety of the early environment of the parents with the dangerous element in our city life, the automobile, the trolley car, the electric wire and the railroad yards. We;stressed the importance of acquiring habits to avoid these dangers. To be careless is foolhardy, to be cautious is wise.
' SE LECTION* OF PATHOL
Our patrol was selected from those children who displayed intelli gence and were gifted with qualities of leadership. They were instructed
not to be aggressive, bossy or important, but to work quietly, to suggest
rather than command. They were told, when they met with violation of safety principles, to assume that the offender was thoughtless and to remind him of his danger and if the offender ignored the suggestion to report the incident to us. We have two patrbls, each under the charge of a teacher. The teacher meets the patrol members daily and with in spiring words and helpful suggestions keeps up a fine morale. The patrols are teeming with enthusiasm. Every time I meet a member of the patrol we have an interesting and stimulating talk.
All the resources of the school are used to obtain from the pupils the proper attitude! towards the patrols and towards safety ideas. The pupils were especially impressed with the fact that patrol work was not tattling and that the patrols were working for them. They were urged to co-operate with the patrol, to suggest to offenders of safety rules their danger and report persistent offender to the teachers.
As yet we have not made as much as we desire of the business meetings of our patrol. The meetings are more or less informal-. We depend upon daily contacts and timely suggestions. We are striving to get all the pupils of the school to see the value and feel the interest in safety, to make them .feel the burden rests upon all, not on a few.
We have found that all the subjects of the curriculum lend themselves to safety work. We have also found that safety work helps the spirit of the school and makes discipline easier. A teacher who can modify the reaction of her pupils on the street has little trouble in controlling the responses in the class room.
A business meeting of School Safety Patrol, School 6, was given at this point.
TRAFFIC GAMES IN THE PRIMARY GRADES
REv. John- P. Boland, Buffalo, N. Y.
.
If we review our babyhood and early childhood impressions keeping
in mind, of course, the experiences of little folks of today, we find it
:i*2S T icelfth Safety Congress
easy to conclude that the noise and locomotion are at the bottom of the
pleasure derived from most of that period's games. We- note, too, that
the noise, does not have to be rhythmic, nor can the movement be any
thing but rapid. The ulterior purpose is, possibly, exhilaration. The
joy of the Indian war-whoop, the ..thrill of the loud horn or the circus
parade calliope are samples of noise exhilaration. The delight of the
rush of air iri the swing, whether this be fashioned of rope and a board
or of mother's arms, and the sheer happiness of careening along. on a
pushmobile or-skates are the fruits of locomotor exhilaration. When
both noise and rapid motion are found together who can measure the
height to which high spirits are driven?
I would hp.ve you remember that games that entail rapid transit, traveling, riding, are instinctive and adults do not abandon them, upon
reaching grownuphood's estate. They merely modify and perfect and
pay more for the apparatus. There is a difference, in degree of ability,
not of kind, between riding a hobby horse and galloping down leafy
pathways on a riding academy steed'. Racing a toy automobile at eight
and getting 60 miles an hour out of a sport model at 18 or 58, are in
the same category as far 'as satisfying speed appetite is concerned. It is
the body's exuberance, and the ingerence of mind is rightly considered
an intrusion. Which, by the way, is what the motorcycle cop - says
when he finally catches up with the speeder.
It is easy for us to marshal all locomotor games, whether childrens'
or adults', into that classification which we will call transportation pay.
And traffic; games fit into the general group by contrast, and in the
manner of a; corrective. Traffic games, too, are complex in their con
struction and foisted, as it were, upon little players for their worth as
sources of traffic education.
.
Traffic games are but a chapter in .the book
transportation games.
They are based upon these latter, derive their existence from them,
entail a close imitation of them. But they are a contrast. Despite their
Similarity, there is a difference of motive. Traffic games bid children beware of the dangers of speed, their own or that of street and sidewalk
traffic, they teach a saving love of calm decision, presence of mind and
careful pedestrianism. Their ulterior purpose is the exhilaration of
getting about, walking, running or riding, in safety. Thus, they are
corrective of the extremes of rapid motion play, speed and forgetfulness
of traffic conditions. They are complex, for they contain most of the
elements of the parent group of games that are productive of genuine fun. There is .mystery, and plenty of it. for crossing a street safely
where traffic, is heavy, has become an adventure even for adults. There
is the element of rivalry, oncoming traffic being the enemy. And there
is the keen pleasure of achievement. We have no statistics, but close observation 'of local conditions--in the school districts where these
games are played--show few.or no accidents, and unusual care at the
curb and in the center of the street before crossing, surely a help to
motorists. Children carry the. thought of their traffic games from the
school room where they are played to the great workaday world outside.
Education Section
329
Finally, these games are evolved and, in a manner, foisted upon little children. Baseball, too, is evolved, having been developed out of the game called "one : old cat." Basketball was originally foisted upon, the youth of the land, These latter met `with the full approval of those for
whom they were intended. Traffic games, likewise, will flourish or be abandoned, not bejcause educators desire them to succeed or fail, but in so far as they supply a demand and bring satisfaction to those who play them. Certain it is, that they will have an important, part in educating young America to |follow Safety rules in traffic and industry.
The traffic games for the younger children were given at this point. The demonstration of the Miniature Theatre, by Miss Stella Boothe, with safety stories and suggestions for safety games which may be used in the class-room dr playground were given at this point.
REPORT OP NOMINATING COMMITTEE
Chairman Payne;: I will just take one minute to complete the program. I should like to 'say before calling for the nomination of officers by
Mr. MacBrayne that I have myself been facing a very serious problem
in the last few days, and that is one problem of continuing in an active way in connection with the educational work if the National- Safety Council. After consideration I have come to the conclusion that I cannot give the time to the educational section that is necessary and
that I would give; if I should continue in active connection with it. I have tried to respond to every call that has been made upon me in the
past five years, and during that time have attended six of the Congresses
of the National Satfety Council.. I feel that the great work of propaganda has been largely completed. X shall devote my time to safety work as a university instructor in the preparation of better materials for realizing
the safety ' plan, and, therefore, do not expect to sever my connections
wholly with the work; but, as I say, I cannot give the time actually to the promotion work that I have in the past, t want to make that announce ment to anticipate anything that might be done by thfs Committee.
Mr. MacBrayne: The committee very much regretted that Mr. Payne
who has served the committee so well is not able to accept a re
nomination.
.
The committee will, therefore, recommend for Chairman. Mr. A. W.
Whitney of New York. Vice-Chairman, Mr. Heszke. of Cincinnati, who is
engaged in very important safety instruction in the schools there. And for Secretary, Mr. G- B. Masslich, of Chicago, who is very closely identified with the course of safety instruction.
Member: X move that the secretary be instructed to cast the vote of
the entire Section for the officers nominated for the ensuing year.
The motion is seconded and carried. Chairman Paynfe: Mr. Whitney will cast other members.
the
vote
for himself
and
the
ADJOURNMENT.
Electric Railway Section
October 2 and 4, 1923
J. H. TEUETT, Chairman Chairman, Safety Committee, United Railways and Electric Company
Baltimore, Md.
Gj. T. HEILMUIH, Vice-Chairman Claims Attorney, Chicago, North Shore & Milwaukee Railway, Chicago, 111.
Safety
Engineer,
M. TV. BRIDGES, Secretary Metropolitan West Side Elevated
Chicago, 111.
Railway
Company,
TUESDAY MORNING SESSION
HAIRMAN TRUETT: You are all familiar with the work the section
C has done in the past year. The activities have been marked. The
bulletins have gone out from headquarters. We have secured a few new
members, bnt. I will not go into this matter, because it -will be reported
on by the membership committtee. '
The interest of this section is reflected by the number of those present
at this session. One thing I want to mention is the increased support
that the electric railways have given in the past year to public safety
activities. We are going to have some papers on that score which will
interest every man in this room. The healthy condition of the- activities
(luring the past year cannot but assist and affect Che entire Electric Rail
way Industry.
.
REPORT OF SECRETARY
JL W. Bduces
The executive committee met In Washington, D. C. on February 15 with all of the officers present and all the committees either present in the person of their chairman or some one detailed by the chairman to represent the committee.
At this meeting, a committee on public education was created with Mr. Victor Noonan of the Cleveland Railroad as chairman. The duties of this committee was to handle the problem of educating the traveling public through the Use of newspaper advertising, cards in cars, stations, terminals, on dash boards or wherever the commiitee- would be able to secure space to spread the propaganda of accident prevention among the patrons of our railroads.
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Twelfth Safety Congress
The membership committee reported, at that time, that they had com pleted a survey of the lists of members of the American Electric Rail way Association and had compiled a list of 283 names of companies who were not members of the National Safety Council, each, of whom were to be approached through the proper official of the company with the
view of securing memberships in the Safety Council. The results of this work will, no doubt, be submitted in the report of the membership committee at this meeting.
The proposition of organizing a statistical committee was discussed and disapproved by the executive committee.
The monthly news-letter of the section has been sent out regularly by the secretary with the view of keeping the members in tou.eh with the work of the section and its committees, together with such news items as were submitted by the members and the headquarters office of the Council. It will help a great deal during the coming year if the members1 will send the secretary' such news items as will be of interest to the members, Items regarding successful trials of Safety devices, methods of safe operation that have been successful on their lines and which can be adopted by other lines.
REPORT OF MEMBERSHIP COMMITTEE
Guy R. Radley
'
The membership committee met about a year ago and organized and adopted a plan of solicitation of membership by mail. Six letters have been sent out by the National Safety Council headquarters in Chicago to a list of something over 200 names taken from the Electric Traction Pocket List. Since the committee became active, 19 companies have joined the Council. Pour have resigned; one was transferred, or rather resigned because they1 were getting benefits of the Council through an affiliated company; two have been transferred to this list from the Public Utilities Section, and that leaves us a total now of 126 in the Electric Railway Section.
REPORT OF BULLETIN COMMITTEE
A. J. VAX Brunt
The chairman desires to express his thanks to the many gentlemen who, as members of the committee, furnished him with suggestions, drawings, and pictures to be used as bulletins; and to Mr. R. T. Solensten, supervisor of bulletins of the National Safety Council upon whom the burden of the work' really fell. Mr. Solensten in his official capacity, acted as a clearing house for the many suggestions submitted and while the old adage says that self-praise is condemnation," your committee feels that it has suc ceeded in furnishing material for better bulletins than have been previ ously issued.
All of you men present have seen the bulletins that were issued and your committee hopes that their work has, in the main, met with your
Electric Railway Section
333
approval. There caii be no question as to the absolute necessity for the
work being done because bulletins are, without doubt, one of the most
important of safety educational methods.
, DISCUSSION
Chairman Truett: As a former chairman of the bulletin committee, I
know the difficulty that Mr. Van Brunt has to contend with, and any one
of you gentlemen w;ill assist the bulletin committee in submitting good,
live bulletins to the National Safety Council. Mr. Van Brunt will take
these to Mr. Solenstein who will try to make a bulletin out of them and
color it up.
j
Mr. Van Brunt: There have been one or two of the men who have sub mitted bulletins and because those bulletins were not used as submitted, or because .it was impossible to use the particular ideas submitted, have felt aggrieved and have gone on strike, and we received no further bul letins from them. Now. that is childish. It is impossible for Mr. Solen stein to use everything that is sent in to him.
Chairman Truett, Do the bulletins contain the material you want, and are they of benefit to you? The meeting is open.
Mr. Haskins: I feel that the bulletin service was the best last year that we have had since I have been connected with the Council. I realize that it is a difficult matter to get up a bulletin for the Electric Railway Sec tion, and it is a happy idea that meets the .approval of all.
Mr. D. E. Parsons (General Manager, E. St. Louis & Suburban Rail way Co., E. St. Louis, III.) : I do not think there are enough of them. Another thing I want to say is that the Electric Railway Association is getting larger on the publicity end all the time. I suggest -that the Safety Council cooperate with the others in the size of the bulletins sent out. For instance, in our cars and others all over the country, we have particular frames made to handle the bulletins inside the cars, and we try to make those frames of such a size that they will handle the standard size of bulletin or picture, and if there is cooperation allalong the line it will save a lot of time and cost. It Will look better, too, if all are of a uniform size. St. Clair is the publicity man of the American Electric Railway Association and I suggest there be some co operation on that matter so the bulletin boards will be of uniform size.
Chairman Truett: A thought occurs to me just now. I wonder if it would be practical for each company represented here to send in to the Secretary of the section the size board he is using, just a letter saying that they use a bulletin board size so-and-so.
Mr. Parsons: There should be a standardization.
Secretary Bridges: I will follow this up in the monthly news letter. The
information I get will be published there and sent out to all member
companies of the Electric Railway Section.
.
334
; Twelfth Safety Congress
REPORT OF PROGRAM COMMITTEE
1 H. M. Keyser
When we considered the proposition of the program we thought it would be a little different if a letter was addressed to each of the electric railway members of the National Safety Council asking what they were most interested in and what they would like to have discussed at the Congress. About 25 per cent of the members replied, and the consensus of dpinion expressed in those replies formed the basis of the program which we got up. So we might consider the subjects embraced in this program as complying with the requests of the member companies. In other word?, it is not a program gotten up by myself and certain other men on the program committee. We tried to make every member of the railroad companies a member of the program committee.
Chairman T|ruett: In the' absence of Mr. Anderson we have with us Mr. John C. Collins of the Los Angeles Railway, who will read Mr. Ander son's paper. '
THE AWARD SYSTEM AS A MEANS OF PREVENTING , ACCIDENTS '
George B. Axdebso.v, Manager of Transportation, Los Angeles Railway. Los Angeles, Cal.
The individual engaged In rendering service to the public is under no greater obligation to render such service with due consideration to
courtesy and safety than is the employer of such individual to recognize
and reward fidelity to the principles underlying proper service. Each is under obligation to the other, but each is under greater obligation to the public receiving the service.
An inspection of the methods employed among street railway operators, generally, up to a comparatively recent period would teem to indicate
a serious defect in the regulation and control of trainmen in the lack of an adequate system of checking and permanently recording those aspects of personal service worthy of commendation or reward, and those calling for disciplinary action. One very human consideration appears to have been overlooked by many street railway operators. That con
sideration has; been tangible, material reward for special service rendered
or for consistently superior service. The human consideration to which reference is made is money, which is the prime necessity of practically all men employed in service upon street cars.
There are pther considerations, of course, and it is my pleasure to record the fact that in the experience of the transportation company with which I am connected I have found numerous cases, multiplying as time progresses, in which all doubt in regard to the material reward, having been eradicated by the excellence of the record of the individual, pride in his work and the permanent record" of his work, has been the dominating influence in the daily routine of the individual. In other words, under the merit system established by the writer three and a half
- Electric Kailtvay Section
335
years ago, many nijen whose records are such as to entitle them to the highest financial return, with practically no danger of any deduction from such reward, bend all their energies to keeping their records abso lutely clear.
We find, further, upon a study of the methods in use up to very recent, years by most of the operating companies that many penalties imposed on account of infractions of rules have been even less than "slaps upon the wrist." There are today in the United States many thousands ol trainmen who have consistently and persistently violated certain neces sairy rules. Some have been penalized by suspension from service foi from one to ten days in their records--but in their records only--such suspensions not resulting in the loss of a moment's time or a dollar in their pay envelopes. In thousands of other cases, men have been re peatedly notified that the patience of the superintendent had been ex hausted, and that upon the next repetition of the offense, dismissal would follow, such ominous warning being followed by more warnings, instead of summary action;. As the result of such so-called discipline, the in dividual involved \yas warranted in feeling a certain sense of security, regardless of the storm signals. He found himself under sentence that was never executed, threats that were never, fulfilled.
The plan, at first opposed, even ridiculed, by some of the 2,500 men in the platform service, now apparently meets with the approval of practically all, the exceptions being som'e extra men not yet under the system and a few indifferent ones.
now MEN ARE RATED
i. No man is entitled to participate in the bonus of sixty dollars per year until he has been, in the service six months. The amount of the bonus paid depends entirely upon the trainman's record Under the merit system. During this probationary period, no man receives credits or demerits. On the day following the expiration of the probationary period the name of the trainman is entered upon the "efficiency record" card with a standing of ,100 per cent. The bonus year begins December 1 and ends November 30. The bonus is paid by special' check at a general assembly of the men, December 15, which date was decided upon because of the holiday needs of the men. To be entitled to the bonus or any portion thereof, a trainman's name must be on the payroll the last day
of the bonus year, November 30. On that date all records are cancelled, and every man starts the new bonus year, beginning December 1. with a rating of 100 per; cent.
Demerits are assessed for infractions of-certain important operating rules. The present list of causes for credits and demerits is as follows:
List of Causes for Credits (Each five to count 1 per cent on record.) 1. Accurate daily reports ............................................................................................... 5 2. Clear record for 3 calendar months *..........................................................50 3. Exceptional act to prevent accident or injury.......................50
; Twelfth Safety Congress
4. Practical suggestion as to betterment of service....................... 5 to 15
5. Reporting dangerous conditions and practices..............................10 to 30
6. Especial care in preparation of accident reports .................10 to 30
7. Especial attention to students.........................................................................10
8. Miscellaneous................................................................................................
5 to 50
i List of Causes for Demerits (Each five denierits'to count 1 per cent off record. Demerits charged only
when trainman is considered at fault.)
1. Discourtesy to passengers.....................................................
10 to. 50
2. Collision of cars; collision with vehicle or pedestrian. . .10 to
i dismissal
3. Injury to passenger on cars ................................................................................10 to 30
4. Step'4-ccident...............................................
20
5. Derailments and split switches ....................................................................10 to 30 6. Ejectriients, disturbances and disputes . ...............................................10 to 30
7. Carrying passengers past destination .....................................................10 to 20 8. Passing up passengers ............................................................................................10 to 20 9. Failure to report accident . . ..............................................................................50
10. 11. 12. 13.
Starting or backing up without signal......................................................40 Excessive speed ........................................ T-................................................................40 Running ahead of time ............................................................................................10 Failure to make prompt report of day's receipts .................10
to 50
14. Failure to collect fares ............................................................................................10 to 50
15. 16. 17. 18. 19.
Negligence in operation of fare boxes.......................................................10 to 30
Failure to account for fares collected ..............................................Dismissal
Failure to turn in lost articles promptly ........................................ 5 to 20
Failure to report condition of cars ..........................
10 to 40
Failure to make safety stop...............................................................
50
20. Failure to observe danger signals ..............................................................50
21. . 22.
23.
Failure to observe crossing rules ................................................................ 5 Improper operation of block-lights ............................................................25 Laxity in calling streets ........................................................................................ 5
to 30 to 50 to 20
24. Leaving car unattended ............................................................................................10 to 30
25. Leaving terminus ahead of schedule-..................................................;..10 to 50
26. 27. 28. 29. 30.
Miss relief
10 to 30
Oversleep ...................................................................................................................................10 to 50
Absence from duty without permission..................................................50
Absent account of sickness without notifying office.................. 5 to 30
Permitting money to accumulate on inspection plate. ... 5. to 30
31. 32. 33. 34.
Spacing ..............................
-10 to 30
Smoking while on cars ............................................................................................10 to 25
Comnlitting nuisance.......................................................................................................10 to 50
Untidy appearance...................................................................................................... .10
35. Visiting with motorman while car is in motion ....................10 to 30
36. Improper feeding of controller .......................................................................10 to 30
37. Wasting power ...................................
10 to 30
38. Miscellaneous....................................
5 to 50
Electric- Railway Section
337
The rules pertaining to safety and courtesy come first. Violations of these rules bring the heaviest penalties, and careful observance of them brings subtantial reward.
FIX'D SAFETY RVXS IIAXD IX HAND WITH COl'ETEST
The operating heads of the Los Angeles Railway are demonstrating to their own satisfaction that under normal conditions a trainman' who is courteous and considerate in his dealings with passengers is attentive to considerations of safety also. The transportation department has set forth very plainly that valid excuses may be offered for almost any failure except insolence or discourtesy, and most' collisions between cars. Run ning ahead of time also is dealt with severely, as it is regarded as one of the most unnecessary and demoralizing practices and as exhibiting an inclination toward careless operation. A comparison of notes for three years or morte indicates that the man who persistently runs ahead of time is a man who is inclined to take chances. To him. safety and courtesy are not primary considerations. His desire to "beat It" leads him into dangerous situations, throwing the "safety first" spirit Into the discard. All other; forms of dangerous operation likewise are penalized.
For some offenses demerits are cumulative. The first to be placed In this class was the vicious practice of running ahead of time. Cumulative demerits sometimes result in automatic dismissal, a man's connection with the company terminating when his rating on the merit card falls as low as 75 per cent.
When the system was first put in operation a motorman whom we will call Jim Huff, who had been with the company nearly twenty years, a personal friend of some of the officials, and rated as one of the best motormen on the road, made it a practice every trip to run up to the edge of the congested district a minute and a half to two minutes ahead of schedule. I examined Huff's record and found that he bad .been dis ciplined something like 200 times for running ahead of time. The sum total of his "suspensions" (on paper only) aggregated about three months. They were records of suspensions that had hot cost him a single hour of time actually lost. He had received scores of letters, in seven of which he was sternly warned that it was the last he would receive--a .direct threat of dismissal from the service. But the warning letters kept coming and Jim kept right on running ahead of time.
The bulletin announcing the establishment of the merit and bonus sys tem was issued April 9, 1920. It read as follows:
"To foster efficiency, the existing method of discipline for trainmen will be discontinued and a merit system, or plan of 'discipline by record/ instituted effective April 10, 1920. Every trainman will start with a clear record.
"Credits will be given for meritorious service, such as alertness in preventing accidents, the exercise of good Judgment in emergencies, mak ing accurate reports and other acts worthy of special commendation. De merits will be given when discipline is necessary. Each five credits
338
Twelfth Safety Congress
will count 1 per cent on record and each 5 demerits will count 1 per cent off record. , Demerits will be charged only when, after investigationtrainman is found to be at fault.
NEW SYSTEM BROUGHT ATTENTION OK Or.D TRAINMAN
"Ratings will be made upon reports from division superintendents,
supervisors, patrons and other sources. A rating of 100 per cent will
represent the maximum of capacity, efficiency, service and conduct. A
rating of 75 per cent will represent the minimum of capacity reasonably
allowable. A rating below 75 per cent should represent a standard of
service, capacity and conduct below any reasonable requirement and will
be sufficient cause for dismissal from the service.
.
"If. upon investigation, extenuating circumstances are found to exist
and reinstatement is approved, the trainmen so reinstated may resume
his duties with! a standing to be determined by the head of the depart
ment.
"An accumulation of markings above 100 per cent will be sufficient cause
for special consideration of trainmen.
'
"The ratings will be entered upon individual cards and each record may
be examined at any time by the man affected.
"As an incentive to trainmen to maintain the highest possible efficiency,
the company has set aside a fund based upon an award of 560 per year, or
55 per month, covering the period from April 10, 1920, to November 30,
1920, inclusive, for each man in the service coming under the operation
of this rule, which will be paid on December 15th, 1920, to each man in
the service on November 30, 1920, who has a clear record and has been
continuously in the service of the company for the entire period; and the
proper proportion of this amount to those who have a clear record and
have been in the service of this company for more than six months and
under eight months; or the proportion of such sum as has been earned.
"All records will be balanced monthly and the percentage of efficiency
determined thereby. This efficiency rating for each month will determine
the proportion of the maximum amount to be credited to each trainman
for that month.
'
"Such portion of the total amount set aside for distribution as may
not be absorbed through the operation of the foregoing plan, by reason of the failure of any trainmen to attain ratings entitling them to the
extra money, will be applied to a fund for the relief of all employees."
(A deduction of 25 cents is made for each one per cent below the 100
per cent standard for any month. Example: A rating of 95 per cent
leaves 53.75 due the trainman for that month.)
A few days after the posting of this bulletin a supervisor reported Huff
90 seconds sharp at T---------- street. Next day the old-time offender received
a blue slip notifying him that 10 demerits had been lodged against his
record under classification 12 of "causes for demerits." The penalties
were 20 demerits for the second offense within a month, 30 for the third.
40 for the fourth, 50 for the fifth, with automatic dismissal within easy
reach.
'
'
*
Electric Railway Section
339
Huff laughed. "!Not for me," he confidently assured a friend. "That
stuff may go for some of .the new men, but I've been sticking around for
19 years. I'll go up and see the- boss."
.
But he didn't--at first. He wrote a seven-page letter extolling his vir tues and explaining why it was absolutely necessary for him to get to T---------- street from One and a half to two minutes ahead of schedule time. Then' he called upon the manager of transportation and dilated the story in his letter, but without success. He was told he -had deliberately vio lated an important rule, was arguing himself into belief that his own judgment should prevail, that he was taking the attitude that he had the right to make his own schedule, and was endeavoring to establish a precedent which would have a demoralizing effect, especially upon younger and less experienced men. For six weeks he struggled in vain to secure clearance of his record by invoking aid from various quarters, but was.met everywhere with the suggestion that the only way he might hope to retain his job was to observe a necessary rule laid down by the management and not attempt to make a new rule to fit his own particular case.
He never ran ahead of time again.
MEST TRY FOR GOOD RECORDS
John C. Collins, supervisor of safety for the Los Angeles Railway says: "The Merit System puts into the hands of the safety man a leverage whereby be may exert pressure with degrees of force to produce certain results with different types of men. It makes it possible for a trainman to earn $5 a month more than his regular salary, which means that the best men are paid more than those with poorer records. It pays a man for doing good work, and penalizes him for not trying. It is an unseen force which encourages the worth-while man to greater effort, while the habitually carelesp must either improve his habits or of bis own volition eliminate himself from the service.
"The safety supervisor instructs the individual in the safe operation of cars and the proper Interpretation of rules.
"All accidents are checked as to responsibility and from the viewpoint of a trainman. They are either not responsible or the accident Is classed as preventable; or it is checked with some degree of responsibility to the trainman. If not in any way responsible, a man receives a clear safety record for the month. If an accident is classed as preventable, although the trainman did not have a chance to prevent this particular accident, the man loses his clear safety record for the month. This penalizes him 10 credits.
"The men fight for this clear monthly record and come to the ofiice to explain that they are not In any way at fault. The supervisor of safety can usually show them where they made a poor word picture in
their report, which means better reports in the future. The average train man has a short memory. Charging him with 30 demerits enables him to remember more clearly and for a longer time.
340
Txvelfth Safety Congress
"Some men have many slight accidents, although apparently not at fault; have been instructed, but fail to improve. After- demerits are assessed tor careless operation, immediate improvement is noticed.
"A man. may have many slight mishaps, so that he does not pay his way. Demerits usually make this type of man pay. Some men have accidents in regular cycles. We use the first responsibility accident as a basis for assessing demerits. This breaks the cycle and the man's acci dents are more irregular after that.' If a man has a second or third accident for which he is checked as responsible, the number of demerits is increased with each succeeding- accident.
MERIT SYSTEM ONLY LOGICAL WAY TO ADMINISTER
"Some men 'are over-anxious to build up a high .record for efficiency. The perfect record is clear courtesy and safety for the year, no demerits having been assessed and no credits- fqr .doing things out of the ordinary line of duty.** :
Anything affecting the pocketbook of the average wage earner is of immediate interest, but as, has been shown the amount of cash a train man receives at Christmas time is not the greatest spur In all cases. In many other cases trainmen have exerted strenuous efforts to eliminate or counterbalance demerits, but not until the percentage of efficiency fell below 100 and meant actual monetary loss to them.
Mr. Ft. R, Smith, assistant superintendent of operation, who is in charge of the administration of the Los Angeles Railway's merit system, states that a comparison between the handling of discipline under this plan and the haphazard methods which prevailed before Its adoption proves conclusively that the merit system is the logical way to administer dis cipline. But as we profit by experience, he finds it necessary from time to time to make certain changes.
Properly administered, the base of the system is a balance sheet which directly reflects the efficiency of the man in question and at the same time provides a permanent record indicating whether the man Is making an effort to Improve his work as time passes. The men now regard this record as a ledger account with the company, the debits representing that which is owed^ the company in the way of service and the credits rep resenting payment made in the form of efforts to render efficient service.
The ideal plan, toward which we are working, is to place the records
in charge of one competent person who can devote all his time to the
administration of the system, follow up recommendations for discipline as they are received, increase penalties in cases men are shown to be repeaters, and fix a definite length of time for demerits to stand, mtter which, if it be proven by the record that the man has profited by the assessment of such demerits and has not repeated the offense, the demerits will be automatically cancelled.
ACCIDENTS DECREASE WHILE POPULATION INCREASES
If there has! been one mistake a little more surely demonstrated than the others during the first three years of the operation of this system
Electric Railway Section-
341
it is that of having been too generous in the award of credits. It has been found in some instances that men with high efficiency ratings, but with some demerits, are disposed to treat demerits _ slightingly after attaining what appears to be a position of security, so far as the bonus is concerned. Such men are disposed to make no appeal on account of demerits assessed tmtil after their efficiency rating has dropped below 100 per cent, when they immediately appeal, in some Instances even admitting that they do so because tbeir rating has dropped to the point where it prevents them from earning the full bonus. These short-sighted men, of course, lack' the proper spirit of service, but they are not numerous.
Generally speaking, during the past three and a half years, the number of accidents and the volume of claims and damages on the books of the Los Angeles Railway have shown material decrease year by year, although during that period the population of the city has increased approximately fifty per cent, the number of cars in service has increased 26 per cent, the daily mileage has increased about 10 per cent, the number of pas
sengers carried upon the screet cars has increased over1'' forty per cent.
Just how much of the credit for this rather'remarkable showing should
be awarded to the; merit system is hard to determine, but that the plan
has operated effectively to reduce accidents of all classes is admitted by all observers, including those authorities who at the beginning were the
most skeptical. The degree of success to be attained through the applica
tion of the idea is influenced largely by the character and personality, particularly the temperament, of the individual intrusted with, the re sponsibility therefor. It is highly essential that such authority he a man of firmness, poise and self-control, possessed o capacity for judging men, and actuated always by a spirit of justice.
Below are shown specimens of forms used in notifying trainmen of
credits or demerits placed on their record.
.
NOTIFICATION OF CREDITS
f>iv. N'o!!_____________________________
Date--------------------------------------
Toj___________________________________________Cap No.
It is a pleasure to advise that you have been awarded------------------------------credits
inder Classification shown herebelow, as per list of Causes for Credits and Oemerits posted at; your Division. Should you desire further information as to the report upon which this action Is based, you may obtain it by consulting
your Division Superintendent. Classification No____________Date Occurred______________ _____Place______________________
The award of these credits places your Efficiency Record at------------------% Supt. of Operation.
. JN'OTIFICATION OF DEMERITS
To________
; ___________:--
Date: Cap jNo----------------------------------------------------------
.
This is to advise you thatdemerits have been placed against
your record under Classification shown herebelow, as per list of Causes for
Credit* and Demerits posted at your Division. Should you desire further
Information as to the report upon which this action is based, you may obtain
it by consulting your Division Superintendent.
'
i~1aitVif1caTimn Xn___________Date Occurred----------------------------------Place-------------------------------------------
Thir uwoumtAt of these demerits places your Efficiency Record at-------------% Tours truly.
Supt. of Operation.
342
Twelfth Safety Congress
Below is shown, specimen of efficiency card showing history of a motorman which resulted in his automatic dismissal from the service, reinstate ment after this severe discipline and immediate improvement in personal
service.
, TRAINMAN'S EFFICIENCY RECORD
NAME
Date Dec. 17
Dec. Dec. Jan.
Jan.
28 31
2
8
Jan. 8
Jan. 8 Jan. 27 Jan. 28 Jan. 31
f'cb. 16
Feb. 18 Feb. 18 Mar. 9
Mar. 29 Mar. 31 Apr. 5 Apr. 23
Apr. 30
May 7
May 14 May 17 May 20 May 23 May 24 May 24
May 25
May 31
May 31 .1 une 30 July 12
July 31 Aug'. 20
CAP NO-------3985
_________JjFunkst.cn, Lincoln (.'9-17-19 >
DIVISION NO-----------6____
Disciplined For
Cred- De- Per
Fiscal Year 12-1-22 to 12-1-23
By its merits Ct. Bonus
8 Reported accident and secured wit
nesses 12-12-22..........................................................Ax. 2878
.2 12-20-22......................................................................- - -Ax. 3594
Courtesy only...................................................................R. B. H.
38 Ran bver stop sign 18 it. 12-18-22. a.
p,
8 Reported accident and secured wit
15 10
103 20 99
101
10 99
5.00
nesses 12-26-22.........................................................Ax. 3840 15 8 Reported accident and secured wit
102
nesses1 12-27-22..........................................................Ax. 3898
38 Missduts 12-13; 1-3; 1-4...........................Supt. 12 1-18-23...............................................................................Super.
32 1-24-23................................................................................ " Is o . clear record for courtesy or
15
105 10 103 10 101
10 99
safety!...............................................................................Put at foot of extra list for 3 days
4.75
because of mlssout..............................................
12 2-14-23......................................................................
Super.
10 97
Courtesy only....................-.....................................
R. B. H. 10
99 . 4.75
Put at foot of extra list for 3 days
because of missout........................
2 3-22-23.........................................................................
J\ C- c.
20 95
Courtesy; only ..................................................
R. B. H. 10
97 4.25
38 Missqut 3-28-23..........................................
Supt.
10 95
Put at foot of extra list for 3 days5
because of mlssout.....................................
Courtesy only-...................................... ...--------
R. B. H. 10
97 4.25
38 Missout 4-24-23..........................................
Supt.
10 95
12 5-11-23...................................................................... 12 5-14-23......................................................................
Super.
15 92 20 88
11 and 31 5-16-23............................................ 12 5-18-23......................................................................
11 5-20-23......................................................................
25 83 25 78 20 74
Automatically dismissed because of
record below 75%..........................................
Reinstated with efficiency rating of
100% after appeal to....................................... R. R. S.
100
8 Reported accident and secured wit
nesses! 5-25-23.......................................................... Courtesy; only............................................................. Courtesy, and safety................................................ 8 Helped disabled car .7-9-23....................
Courtesy! and safety................................................ 8 Helped at accident 8-16-23....................
J. C. C. R. B. H.
R. B. H. Super.
R. B. H. J. C. C.
15 10 20
15 20 10
103
105 109 112
116 118
5.00 5.00
5.00
DISCUSSION
Mr. Van Brunt; Has that method had the effect of creating a large num
ber or any excessive number-of unreported accidents?
.-
Mr. Collins: We have very few unreported accidents. The number has been decreased rather than increased.
Mr. Parsons: Every accident has to be analyzed?
Mr. Collins: We have one man who does that. He follows a straight system and if he makes a mistake in checking responsibility on an acci dent report the first time, it is rechecked with the claim department and the accident is filed. In two or three years we have had but two or three
Electric Railway Section
343
cases where the claim department has paid out for an accident where we
checked it. We get the man in there and find out why he was to blame for that accident. 1
Mr. Barnes: I wonder if you have tried to work out the system for other departments,' track lines, etc. It strikes me as much more diffi cult but I have not found any one who has even made a start in that direction.
Mr. Haskins: We have not worked out the thing in exactly that light but we have a system that is employed in the other departments. We call that a contest systejm. Our power and sub-station and shop, line, depai-tment, ruotorman an|d conductors are all grouped in that and will come in
under the benefits of the system. Mr. Barnes: We have worked out a contest in Louisville, too, but we
do not believe in clash bonuses. I think the general impression is that there is more in the world than money. We have developed a system of monthly dinners for the men entitled to that. Those who can make the highest mileage per accident are entitled to the dinner. If they are Victors in the secopd month they are entitled to bring their wives to the second dinner. The other departments have a chance at those dinners by reducing their ojwn accident records. That is to say, if a department In this three months' period has a record of 25 fewer accidents than the last three months We give them a dinner, too.
I am interested in this bonus proposition because dead level wages among trainmen has struck me as an inherent weakness in their busi ness, and I am interested in all plans giving opportunity to differentiate and pick out or reward the more efficient employees.
Mr. Collins: The first year we started our system the claim depart ment paid out about $15,000 Jess than it had paid out the previous year. I think for the last year 2.35 per cent was the gross, and when' we first started we did not 'hear a word about safety.
Mr. Keyser; About three years ago we put into operation a safety
contest to be participated in by motormen and conductors. I think you gentlemen will all agree with me that the proof 'of the pudding is in
the eating thereof. It does not make a great deal of difference what the
system is, but the results themselves are the things that count. I am
going to take the; liberty to read the results up to and including the
second safety yea^ in these classes of accidents which are most common
in the electric railway industry.
The total number of accidents for that period decreased 24.6 per cent. Claims decreased 24.5 per cent during that period. >
In the two years that we have conducted our safety congress as com
pared with the two years previous in which there was no safety congress
as follows collision of cars decreased 66.7 per cent. No report or blind accidents, (perhaps the most demoralizing type of
- accident that the claim department can be confronted with, because they never know whether there is any merit at all due to the condition of
the claim) were reduced 47.8 per cent.
;J44
I Twelfth Safety Congress
I -
Serious injury cases, those demanding possible treatment where there '
is some real tangible injury, have decreased 42,0 per cent.
Injuries not serious," which, of course, have a miscellaneous class in
cluding all others, decreased 24.6 per cent.
.
i
Deaths, including all passenger, employees, death to pedestrians, etc.,
decreased 4.7 percent.
'
,
AWARDS CASH AND UNIFORMS
We have a system where a man is given a cash prize of ?5 if he goes
through a quarter without having an accident or is not charged with
misconduct, such as incivility to patrons. If he repeats that performance
through the four quarters of the year in addition to ?25 which he receives
he is presented, with a new uniform. I have the figures here. The first
year we handeci out 376 new uniforms and 2,833 awards of $5 each, and
the second safety years we gave, out 333 uniforms and 2,270 $5 rewards
lo the trainmen.
`
.
There are a few other factors entering into the decreases which I have mentioned, and I should say that Washington during the war period held rather a novel. situation, as it was the capital city of the United States, and of course, many thousands of people flocked there seeking government employment, and a good many soldiers were there as the result of the draft.
Now I notice that Mr. Barnes said they gave the men dinners down in Louisville. At the end of each quarter we give a dinner to all the trainmen and at that dinner a banner is presented to the winning division of transportation who have enjoyed the greatest decrease in accidents. That has nothipg to do with the cash award and the uniforms. The cash or uniform appeals to the men individually, while the banner appeals to them collectively. We find that the trainmen take'as much interest in the awarding of the banner to their division which does not mean a cent to them as they do in the $5 cash prizes and the uniforms, which is a mone tary censideration. When you get that result safety is no longer a theo retical proposition but has become an accomplishment.
APPOINTMENT OF NOMINATING COMMITTEE
Chairman Truett: Gentlemen. I am expected to make the announce ment of the nominating committee at this session. I will appoint the following on that committee:
Mr. A. W. Koehler," Rochester, New York Mr. B. D. Haskins, Chattanooga, Tennessee, Mr. D.1 E. Parsons, East St. Louis, Illinois.
They are requested to make a report at the meeting on Thursday morn ing.
It occurs to me that this subject of awards is too vital a subject to pass . by with just a: paper. That is my personal feeling. What do you think we should do? Do you think the secretary should pass it over to the
Electric, Kailway Section
345
incoming officers for further study? Do you think something should be
crystallized along that line and more information gotten together for the
good-of the section?^
.
Mr. Hellmuth: We have a gentleman here who is just starting this
system. Mr. Restofski of the West Penn Railway.
Mr. Restofski: We started on the West Penn Railway system the
nrst of the year with a contest plan; not a cash award. We divided the
trainmen in every division into teams, the number of men on the team
varying with local; conditions, and that team that comes through each quarter with: the least number of accidents is given a dinner by the Com
pany. That is a regularly quarterly affair, 'and from that plan we got
into the cash award: system because the contest plan- does not give a
reward to the particular Individual who is on the losing team. He is simply out of luck, the same as a poor baseball player on a team. * Our
plan roughly is this: a motorman or conductor who goes through the
four quarters without an accident, gets a cash award of $1. This is in creased $1 each month up to the tenth month. This goes' on indefinitely.
If he goes through the whole year the company adds an extra payment
which makes a total of $100 for twelve months. If he goes through the second twelve months he gets $120; if he goes through' the third he gets
$150. Any time h^ has an accident he drops back to the foot of the list
and starts in with the $1 award again. We have not beep at this long enough to give any concrete definite re
sults, but we do know that there has not been * anything we have ever
done in regard to accident prevention that the men have been so inter
ested in or have talked so much about as the team contests and the award plans. The Wheeling Traction System has recently adopted a cash award
plan based on the West Penn plan. Mr. C. B. Proctor.-(Memphis Street Railway Co., Memphis, Tenn.) : We
put in a plan commission the first of June, but it is quite young' yet. . We arrived at the actual cost of the work,, figured what the average was for the past three years, taking up to, -I believe, the last 18 months which,
under peculiar conditions, were very good. Then we said to the men,
"Now your average accident cost is a certain per cent of the gross,
everything that you will cut under that per cent will be divided between
you and the company on a basis of fifty-fifty, and working it in a period of three months."
We used a figure of 4^ per cent and we worked it for three months
(the three months ended the first of September) and it gave $6,100 to
be divided on a man-hour basis. It made a sum of about $10.50 on the
average. -I believe it ran from $16 or $17 down to 10 cents. That is
the plan that we think meets the situation with us and we look for good
results from it.
SHOPWOKKEBS SHOULD RE REWARDED
Mr. D. Wire (Chicago, 111.).: A great deal has -been said about acci dents that have to do with transportation, but nothing has been said about accidents that start in the machine shops or in the mechanical end
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Twelfth Safety Congress
of the work, in the shops of the Chicago Elevated Railways we have a
system that might be classified as a bonus system, in the discovery of loose tires and loose wheels, which if allowed to remain on the cars which go out on the road, would cause accidents. I think something might be said along this dine.
COilSlITTEE TO STUDY AWARD SYSTEMS
Secretary Bridges: I may suggest that it is within the province of the
section secretary to ask that special committees be appointed to cover
certain subjects during the coming year, and report back at the next
meeting. That; has been done from time to time in the Electric Railway
Section. This Committee has the entire year to work on the subject, and
can take it up With the different roads and report back to us at the next
meeting of the' Congress. If nobody else wants to be the goat I move
that such a committee be appointed.
.
The motion was seconded and car.ried.
Chairman Truett: Then the committee will be composed of the fol
lowing men: ;
Mr. Hadsell, Chairman
Mr. Haskins
Mr. Restofski
Mr. Barnes.
THURSDAY MORNING SESSION
Chairman Triiett: I will open this session by asking the nominating committee to make its report.
Mr. A. W. Koehler: The nominating committee desire to place in nomi nation J. P. Barnes, president of the Louisville Railway Company of
Louisville, Kentucky, as chairman; H. M. Keyser, secretary and claims
attorney, the Washington Railway & Electric Company, Washington, D. C..
as vice-chairmdn, and Mr. Melvin W. Bridges, safety engineer the Chicago Elevated Railroads. Chicago, Illinois, as secretary.
Mr. A. J. Van. Brunt: I move the report be received and the commit tee discharged. "
Motion seconded and carried. Mr. C. W. Proctor, (Memphis, Tenn.) : I move that the secretary be instructed to cast the vote of the body for the nominees. The motion, was seconded and carried unanimously.
CO-OPERATION OF ELECTRIC RAILWAYS IN dOMMUNITY SAFETY ACTIVITIES
Round Table Discussion
Mr. Julian Harvey (Kansas City) : I can remember back just five or six years ago irhen the term "Community Safety" was first coined. A good many years before that transportation companies had been consid ering, naturally, the matter of accident prevention, but they had not
Electric Railway Section
34?
sensed it in the light of there being a necessity for a community effort along that line. They were going their individual ways, attempting to do what they could largely through their employees, in bringing about a reduction in accidents, but it was only at the time that the National Safety Council began the organization of their local councils and paid staffs in the various cities that we began to look on this matter as a com munity effort, and I think that the development we have seen in the last five years along that line augurs well for the future insofar as the street railway business is concerned, along this particular line.
It Is Interesting to know that at the present time there are 33 cities in this country having local safety councils, and it seems to me that there ' is no argument--in fact, it is hardly necessary for me to mention a thing of this' kind--hut it is through the local council in the community that the transportation company must look to see results accomplished
Our cities naturally divide themselves into several classes. Those cities such as Baltimore, St. Louis, Cleveland and others, where local organiza tions already are doing intensive community work; next there are those cities of populations sufficient to warrant the organization of local coun cils and the carrying on of concentrated effort; and then those smaller communities where possibly such an organization is not practical. But I think the transportation men should thoroughly realize the advantage of a local effort where representatives of all the various business organ izations in that particular community are brought together into one body like the safety council which is absolutely non-commercial in every re spect, which has absolutely no axe to grind, and has but one aim, and that is the reduction of preventable accidents.
Insofar as the smaller communities are concerned, where it isn't prac tical to have such an organization, you can hardly conceive of a place being so small but that some organization could not be formed..
SURVEY OF COOTHTIOXS URGED
I realize that you men here* this morning are all definitely interested in that work. The point I want to make is this: that I wish that we
could get all the traction men throughout the country, those who have not taken sufficient interest in this problem, to be with us this morning.
Undoubtedly there are many not here who are interested, but if we could
get a full expression from all of them, if we could take to them a
definite knowledge of what has been accomplished, I think it would open their eyes as to the possibilities, for after all is said and done, we are not sold 100 percent on this problem. Consequently, X would
suggest the preparation of some definite data from these cities where
community efforts are carried on with the idea of presenting in tangible form to these comjpanies who are not carrying on this effort, just what
has been accomplished through it.
.
I come from Kansas City, of the Middle West, and I want to say that they can succeed. What has come to our local work there has been in a measure due to not only the financial support of the local traction company, bat to the whole-hearted and enthusiastic support which has
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Twelfth, Safety Congress
been, given us by the officials of that company. When I say enthusiastic support I mean by their general manager, by their superintendent of transportation, by their other departments putting men on our various committees and not only giving us their advice but by actually getting out and doing the definite work that we must necessarily ask them to do.
It makes no difference whether that effort may be selfish or unselfish,
the main thing is that we want to get the results, and we have gotten
. them through that effort.
I know that in a great many cities they are doing the same thing, but-
we want to keep on and on until there can be no question but that all
railway men are taking the same active interest in their community
work.
;
'
'
Mr. D. E. Parsons: I would like to know what your budget is for a
city as large 'as Kansas City; if you have any trouble in raising your
budget? I am vice president of the St. Louis Council and I know right at the present time financially they are in better shape, than they have
ever been. It has always been a problem as to whether their finances
were going to; hold out or whether we would have to go knock somebody
down to get more money.
A local safety council secretary or manager shouldn't be bothered with the finances of a community affair because if he does he is taking up his time on finances when he should be spending his time on propaganda or other good work that the organization is created for.
Mr. Harvey1: We have a budget in Kansas City of some $20,000 a year. There are in Kansas City, as in other cities' a great many
civic organizations--Rotary Club, Lions, Kiwanians, enginering clubs,
K. of C.'s. etc., and we called on each of those organizations to appoint
three or four representatives who would not only represent them in the
safety council organization but who would do some work. I will frankly
tell you that [ the first year we tried that we got the representatives
alright but when he went out to raise money we found that those men
were sold on safey but were not sufficiently acquainted with it to go
out and tell the story, as it should be told. As a result, in the first
instance we had some little difficulty in raising the amount of money that
we desired. In fact we did hot raise ail that we desired, but we did get
a sufficient amount to carry on quite a bit of work and consequently
we devoted our entire efforts to the public safety work. It was the
record that we had made--the wide-spread knowledge of safety and what
we could do that had been- carried home to parents by schoolchildren
that enabled us to go out about six months ago and raise two and a
half times as much money as we raised last year, with a great deal
less effort.
.
We work strictly on a budget system. We make each month a financial statement showing the condition of each department of that budget, what the budget was for the year, what they spent to. date, how much was left unspent, and by making it strictly budget, having a little contingent
Electric Railway Section
349
fund which we can transfer to various branches of our work, we don't go far astray on the thing, and I think that the third year will be even easier for us because the cumulative effect of it cannot be denied.
But I would say to any community where you contemplate an organi zation of this kind, go out with the idea of making your organization a representative one. Get people to serve on these committees, represent ing various organizations. You can pick men. Don't pick a man simply because he is an outstanding figure in the community, but pick him because he does stand well in the community and, in addition, is willing to give a little time and a little effort to the work. I have found this very encouraging thing, that we had much less difficulty in getting men to serve on these various committees the second year than we had the first because we had become better known. The average individual wants to tie up in his civic endeavors something worthwhile and something popular.
Mr. Scott: The properties with which I am connected operate, many of them, in small towns which are not comparable to Kansas City or Chicago or Cleveland or any of the larger cities. You take, for instance, an, interurban property that runs through some dozen or so towns-- small towns--where! it would be impossible to organize a local council such as has been described by the gentleman from Kansas City. I found that in those smaller communities it is not difficult to interest the citizens in the safety work that you desire to carry on In the community in which you operate. Neither is it expensive, and in the smaller towns such as I refer to you can usually get the results, perhaps not so satisfactorily, but at least good results, by voluntary service, by getting together a committee of citizens, citizens who are prominent in civic affairs, having them, in an organized way, carry on safety in that community. The same plan would apply to an electric power property operating in a number of communities. I think that the utilities, as a rule, fail to take advantage or appreciate the opportunity they have in getting the co operation of these smaller towns.
I believe that a local council and the safety work that is carried on in the community, depend almost entirely upon the ability of the man aging head. I have had experience with local councils such as Mr. Harvey represents and it has been my observation that they succeed where they have the right fellow at the head of them, and that they fail wherever they have the wrong fellow at the head of them, and so, in carrying on the safety work in the smaller towns, in order to assist the electric railway, it depends largely upon the qualifications of the man who is trying to put a thing across, and if he knows how, and goes about it right he can do it. If he is indolent about it, if his heart is not in it, he fails. But in almost every instance it is due to the fellow who is trying to put it across.
I believe that the thing we are talking about--getting the interest, the public interested in safety--is the big problem of the electric railway industry. If you don't appreciate it today, you are going to appreciate
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Twelfth Safety Congress
it a year from now, and when you come to this Congress a year from now you are going to find that the trend of the program--the trend of the thought that is presented--is getting ahold of the public, and if you don't do anything else but you go back: home as a result of this program, except to go back with the determination to get into the com munity in which you operate this organized effort towards safety, then your company is paid a thousand fold for the time and the money that was spent in having you attend this Congress.
EXPERIENCE OF MASSACHUSETTS SAFETY COUNCIL
Mr. MacBrayne (General-Manager, Massachusetts Safety Council): A
majority of the street railways of Massachusetts are supporting financially
the Massachusetts Safety Council, consequently it was a part of my
program to develop some service to the street .railways. We brought
that about by calling together first a committee representing nearly all of the street railways and asking them to report their accident experi
ence as it related to automobiles for six months. That gave us 7,000
accidents and an opportunity to analyze them, and discover that our
first hazard was the automobile shooting out of the side street; our
second the automobile cutting in front and failing to estimate the speed of an automobile ahead of it or the fact that that machine might drop
its speed, and force the collision.
In going before the public we said: "Wherever there are 7,000' col
lisions there are personal Injuries, and we are interested as a safety
council, in reducing those personal injuries.
We began the development of a publicity program along these lines:
I have a tieup with 45 of the leading newspapers in the state and furnisn them from time to time, senes of articles, sometimes an article every
day for two weeks, on "The Safety of Your City," syndicated, giving it
almost the same position and the same heading, with exclusive use for
the paper in that territory. Those articles were so distributed that they covered all the phases of public hazard, but we also had" one or two
strong street railway stories in that group. Then we placed in 2,000
school rooms a little booklet called, "Let's Make Our Street Safe for
the Children." containing safety stories, and one of those 10 safety
stories was the story of the street railway.
`
We used, this summer, a film you may have seen here, "Why Are We Careless?" which, when the film was made in Boston, we were very careful should include the hazard to the child of the" one-man car which
had given us quite a group of accidents--the person who runs in front
of automobiles, and the -person going around the front of the car. We
have used that film since June 1 and have organized meetings attended
by 50,000 children.at which that film was shown. That has not been
limited to the City of Boston. We have used it in nine Massachusetts
cities already.
We have also placed in the hands of motorists this year a little book
let, "What You Need to Know to Drive in New England," issued by the Safety Council, containing the changes in the traffic laws, but tucked
Electric Railway Section
351
away In it. one or two important tacts'that in many of our cities in Massachusetts it was a local requirement that the motorist should get out of the way of the street car when he is asked to Go so by the motorman. and also calling attention to the fact that a great many motorists do not realize that and dispute the fact, when the right-of-way belongs to the road.
LETTERS WRITTEN TO MOTOBMES BY COUNCIL
In a part of a general publicity campaign of newspaper articles at
a time when we had an increase in the direct collisions, I said to the
general manager of several roads: "If your motorman will report to
me the number of the automobile that cuts in on him, or comes out
from the side street under conditions that would have caused a col
lision we will write him, what we call a "friendly letter." Now that
served two purposes. "We said first to the motorman: "Of course it is
up to you to go the limit on preventing accidents, and it is up to you
to do more than your half when some fool driver does run in under
conditions that make the accident almost unavoidable." Then I began
to get reports from all over the state--motorman on such a day, under
these conditions, car number so-and-so did this thing, and we sent out
to them from our office a "friendly letter" in which we said: "We don't
believe tnat you are aware of the fact that in six months there have
been 7,000 collisions witn automobiles, many of them attended by per
sonal injuries. We ask your, co-operation in lessening this hazard in
Massachusetts."
'
This year we have worked out a new thing. We just finished a safety week in the city of Lawrence, put on by an automobile club tf 1,500
members. A committee of 50, headed by the mayor, but entirely planned andPdirected by our council, carried it out. In. our list of speakers we not only had a cracker-jack traffic man who represented the police department, speaking almost daily, but we took the president of the carmen's union, who is a good talker, and a motorman, and we put him out to discuss accidents that the motorman cannot prevent. He addressed a great many meetings--meetings at which the majority of men were motorists; meetings of working men who drove cheap cars, and he said in a perfectly bright, frank way-: "I am a motorman, and I know sometimes we slip up, but these are things that I see that I cannot prevent."
. In the City of Boston, on Monday, we will open a show which will
be attended probably by 100,000 people in the nine days it will run. As
I happen to have the committee on public safety in our exhibit we have
the street car and automobile worked out in models--a street car nine
feet long and an automobile four feet long. We will have on our list
of five-minute speakers, at our exhibit each night and each afternoon,
a motorman giving a plan, frank talk. The point Is, of course, that if
the general manager of the road came out and spoke, they would say:
"Of course you are' trying to save money for the road."
.
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Twelfth Safety Congress
It is necessary in getting our public contact, to say: "Here is one section of the public saying to another section of the public, `For God's sake, be a little more careful because we are contributing to this great total of accidents in the state.' "
At. our State Conference, held in Springfield in April, we took the topic of "Collisions," and assigned the street car end to a general .manager and the automobile end to a motorist, and we said to them, "Make this a friendly discussion. Let the street railway tell what it thinks about the motorist and let the motorist tell what ways the motorman can help."
The general manager to whom that`topic was assigned went back to
his own road in the city of New Bedford, and said: "You fellows who
drive the cars, give me the material for my speech." Consequently when he got up to speak he said, "I am not expressing my own opinion, here
is the testiiiiony of my own men, and the men were so fair about it that after telling what the motorist should do they added, what the motor-
man could do also." When we got' the automobilist to discuss it he admitted that the street car had the right-of-way.' That article, as a part of our publicity, we reprinted in some five or six automobile journals,
with a total circulation of perhaps 150,000, and used it in newspapers
where it reached a very large number.
'
SJTCCKSS COMES FROM X*ROVER PtTHLICITY
In using the National Safety Council's automobile lessons this year, one or two of which dealt with the street car, we adopted that whole series to our own needs and scheduled them so that for 21 days we had 800,000 people in Massachusetts in their own newspapers, reading those
articles.
.
I am myself satisfied, from the reduction we are obtaining in certain types of street railway accidents, that we are working upon the right
plan for further development. Wherever we have worked out any piece
of publicity or any series of meetings a section of the program will include the street railway, and it is more valuable, in my opinion that if we had set the whole program up for that, because while we keep it a community proposition the public realizes its responsibility, and after
all, "Old Bill Baystate," as the public calls one of our street railways
in Massachusetts, has his troubles, and the public, which was cursing
him five years ago, is beginning to feel a little friendly towards him.
and is willing to admit that the public, after all, owes a certain amount
of co-operation to this carrier.
-
..
Mr. Hadzell (Rochester, - N. Y.) : I believe that, ^as Mr. Scott has said, relative to getting results, it depends a great deal on the manager of the council for, if the proper methods are used and policies carried out through these suburban towns and in our cities, we can accomplish
a great deal.,
.
Mr. Barnes1: Quite a little has been said about the safety council view
point towards this problem, and I think that something ought, to be
added here about the electric railway approach.
'
.
Electric Railway Section
3o3
I think it is a foregone conclusion that the electric railway ought to
cooperate in all safety council activities. That cooperation should be
not anonymous, but modest and I am a very strong believer in the value--
the practical value of giving credit for safety results to the platform man
--to the men who actually do the operating rather than to the officials
of the company who have served on the committees.
.
Now a case in! point, by way of illustration--last Christmas time
I happened to be : lunching with the president of our local taxicab com pany, and he said: "Barnes, X have been looking over the records of
our drivers and we have 24 men in our employ who have driven the
entire year of 1923 without an accident," and then he said, "Some of
them have gone as high as three and four years without an accident,
and I am trying to figure a way to recognize those men publicly, and I believe that some noon-day, during the holidays, between Christmas and New Years, I will have 24 taxicabs lined up and drive a parade through the business. section of town with those fellows driving the
taxicabs, each cab with the name of the driver on it and the statement of the length of time that he has run without an accident."
I said, "That's fine, whom are you going to have for passengers?" He said, "We are! not going to have any passengers." I said, "You are wrong, you are going to have for passengers the men who have driven street cars in Louisville in 1923 without an accident." We went over
our records and we found that we had 96 of those men, and we had several truck drivers who had driven without accidents. We put them into the parade, and it ma!de a very Impressive pageant, one of the best that has
ever moved through the streets of our city. We had in addition to that, so that all might see it, photographs taken
of every one of those men and together with the taxicab and the railway company, for the first time in the history, took a full page of the news paper--the front page--which mentioned the name of neither company,
but which carried the photographs of these 24 taxi drivers and the 96
motormen with their names and the legend: "These men have driven a whole year, carrying passengers in the streets of Xrouisville, without one accident. It can be done." ' And the advertisement was unsigned.
Now, I don't believe that any newspaper space that we have ever paid for before that gave us sb large a return in popular good will, because the
attention was directed towards the men who had done the thing, and time and again people, in getting on a car would recognize the man on the car as one of the men whose picture they had seen in the paper, perhaps even repeating their names.
The Courier Journal and the Hener MatSewson papers took the prop
osition up and the idea appealed to them so that they organized what they call the "Liie Savers' Club." They said any man that' drives for a
complete year in the streets of a busy city without accidents is a life-
saver indeed, and so we have an organized club. The membership
qualifications for this are that a' man has driven a calendar year some
kind of an automotive vehicle as a means of his livelihood without acci
dent-
.
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Twelfth Safety Congress
We gave a! dinner to the motormen and taxicab drivers who were charter members o! the Life Savers' Club and they were given a most stirring
address by the Episcopalian Bishop of Kentucky. They had a good time, there was a j splendid spirit manifested, and the proposition was thrown
open to other drivers of delivery trucks and any vehicle driven as a means of livelihood, and there were about 250 members in that club. Membership next year will be dependent upon the record for 1923, and I expect that the dinner will be an annual affair. It was a fine thing
and a fortunate thing that a great newspaper took up the proposition
instead of leaving it to the Safety Council or to one of the companies
concerned. :
=
The point I want to make in that regard, is that both the taxicab
company and ourselves got more good out of that proposition because
we were not too prominently identified with it. It was our employees and
not our management that put that thing over, and that gave it a stronger popular appeal than could have been given in any other way.
We are doing many things in the way of cooperating with the Safety Council. It happens that the Kentucky State Fair was held during the week which was designated as Constitutional Week, and we had a very intense and very effective celebration of the Constitution in Louis
ville during that week.
`
i EFFECTIVE MEANS OF ADVERTISING SAFETY"
Instead of getting out an advertisement leaflet and distributing it as we usually do, we had printed 100,000 copies of the Constitution of the
United States and we distributed 96,000 of them. At least 50,000 copies
of the Constitution were read and I leave it to you to judge how large
a proportion of those 50,000 were read by people who had never read that
document as a unit before.
;
With those copies which were distributed, a little button was passed
out which had the safety cross on it and the legend: "Safety Saves
Suffering." Tliere was nothing on that button to indicate where it came
from, except aj little Insert oh the back, "With the Compliments of the
Louisville Railway Company." There was nothing on the face of the button that could be construed .as an advertisement.
Another thing: at the time of Issuing the new automobile licenses last
December, and; early in January, we had printed 30,000 copies of the
pamphlet prepared by the National Safety Council, and put out under the name of the National Safety Council, but for which we paid, and we paid for the clerk at the registration bureau to distribute
these pamphlets to every one who came for his license plates in the city and county of Jefferson. On the first page: "There were forty-two people killed by automobile accidents in the streets of Louisville last year." On the title pafee we had, "Forty-two Graves in a Row. What will we do about it?" Then followed a short, snappy, sensible .talk about care ful driving in the body of the pamphlet.
I am sorry to say that we have just last week had our forty-fifth automobile death in Louisville, so that we have not stepped in the right
: "Electric Railxcay Section
355
direction in that community, but at the same time it must be borne in mind
that Louisville has been rather backward because of the lack of good
roads in Kentucky, in developing the automobile traffic, and we have now
registered 36,000 cars where we had only 26,000 last year, so that com
parison is perhaps not as bad as it would seem from the figures them
selves.
;
As a matter of identified co-activity, we have a safety council in the
company which has representatives from every department, and that council--the Louisville Railway Safety Council--has established at every
permanent building owned by the company, some 18 or 20 locations,
a full-sized billboard on which posters are displayed, illuminated at
night, changed every two weeks. We started with the A. B. C. poster,
and carried along and changed frequently enough to attract and hold
the interest of thp passing motorist.
'
As an instance,1 of what we are trying to do, last week they filmed
"Enemies of Women," in Louisville, and we try to keep our posters up
to date. We had the slogan, "Reckless drivers are Enemies of Mankind."
I want to repeht that I think the most essential element of electric railway participation in the safety council activities is not undue, but
becoming modesty on the part of the railway company.
; SCHOOL CHUJBBEW AND CAR ACCIDENTS
Dr. E. George; Payne (Prof, of Educational Sociology, New York University, New York City) : This year, I have seen the educators of the country commit themselves over and over again to- the problem of safety education as a fundamental part of our education In ail endeavors.
I was asked to address the School Masters' Club in New York City. It consists of 700 superintendents and principals from the New York Industrial area, representing one in every ten children in the United States, and at the close of that address 700 superintendents and principals arose and pledged themselves to undertake safety education as a part of the curriculum in the public schools.
Commissioner Meredith of the State of Connecticut called upon me immediately after that to come down to Connecticut and address the superintendents and principals in behalf of the plan in that state.
My point is jiist this: the street, railways have to run. They have to make time, mjore to serve the public than anything else. The public
is impatient unless the street railways get the people from their homes to their business in the morning. I never go down on the subway, with all its speed, in' blew York City, without finding someone complaining because is isn't making fast enough time, and yet, in spite of this fact, and the fact that we are wanting to make better time, we are wanting the street railways to serve us better, we want the whole responsibility
for accidents. When accidents occur, on the tracks or to the public from the street railway, to rest on the street railway. I mean the public has come to think of the street railway as responsible for the accidents.
One of the most unfair things, it seems to me, is the fact that auto mobile accidents' in which the automobile in 39 cases out of a hundred
3n6
Twelfth Safety Congress
cases is responsible for the accident in collision with, the street railway, because the railway has the right of way, the law recognizes and classifies the accident :as a street railway accident instead of an automobile
accident.
!
My point is this: you have an opportunity as Mr. Truett says, to
change this point of view, by careful study of the whole accident situa tion, and the ; street accident situation in the schools, where they can present the whole matter to the children who are now growing up in the right jvay, and also make it clear to them that if we are to
eliminate the accidents it is not by a more effective operation of the
street cars, is not by training the men in the operation of the cars, but it is by training the public into the right attitude with reference to the street railways on the streets of the city, and I don't know of any place that that can be done so well as it can in the schools, because there is an agency of the public. The public is being injured, and the only way to r^ach the screet car people is that way. Teach the public
that it is responsible.
From my study of the situation I am committed to that point of view, and the only way to solve the problem Is to get into.the minds of the
children and the minds of the parents through the children, the fact that these enormous 20-ton street railway trucks that go down the street cannot be controlled as easily as the conduct of an individual who is walking across the street, or an automobile that is being driven across the street, and we have a right to insist that the public take care
of itself with reference to these agencies.
Now the street railway cannot go out and tell the public that'in any American city that -I know of, directly, but they can by supporting the movement of education in accident prevention in the schools, get that message over, j The schools are crying now for material and help in the
promotion of education and accident prevention in the schools. They are committed to the movement. Professor Kilpatrick in an address he gave after I talked to a body at which he was present said that he
regarded the program of education and accident prevention as one of the
greatest contributions to education in the 20th century.
The thing, so far as educational matter, has gone in these five years,
is no longer a j matter of propaganda, it is a matter of bringing to the
teachers, superintendents and' principals, materials that they will get
help from to do the job adequately. You men can help them, on that
program.
:
SAFETY PRINCIPLES AS APPLIED TO THE
; INDIVIDUAL UTILITY
.
D. E. Parsons. Generai. Manages, East Sx.TL.ours and Suburban .Railway, East St. Louis, III.
A great number of companies are still "doubting Thomases" as to the fact that safety principles can be applied to any size company with favor able results in reduction of accidents and better public relations.
; Electric Railway Section
357
I happened to bb a member of the committee on safety -work of the American Electric Railway Transportation and Traffic Association during
the year 1922. We had several meetings and considerable correspondence among' the raembei-s of this committee and decided that this matter should be approached from an entirely different angle than it bad ever been before. It was agreed that we should endeavor to impress on executives of rail ways that to operate their property economically they must adopt a sane, practical, systematic and continuous program for safety. Pacts and fancies
that characterized Safety work in the past should be placed in the discard
and there remain forever. Prom data collected from different railways'we found that accident costs
on electric railways varied from one-half of one per cent to 17 per cent
of their gross revenue, and that the average cost was about four and one-
half per cent. Our. committee faced a difficult problem, that is, to con
vince presidents, vice-presidents, general managers, general superintend
ents and others that: 1. Executive disregard of the waste of preventable accidents is mis
management!
2. Accidents can be prevented and accident costs reduced by or
ganized effort.
,
3. Organized effort means practical common sense, systematic plans.
We also found that there were about 1,000 electric railway companies
in the country that belonged to the American Electric Railway Associa tion, and out of tljiis number we found only 100 belonging to the National
Safety Council. j
^
X have not seep the report of the committee on safety work of the
American Electric, Railway Association this year, hut I will venture to
say that they will find conditions among the^ members of his association
carrying on organized safety work to a far greater extent than they ever
did before.
j
'~
'
HOW SAFETV DEPAKTAIEA'T IS ORGANIZED
.
I am going to relate to you what organized safety has done for us. We believe through organized safety work we have brought about safe work ing conditions, safe practices and safe operation, all of which make for a safe and efficient workman, a man with confidence in his employer and himself, a man who is working for the best interests of his employer because he knows that his employer is interested in his personal safety and that of his fellow workman. We realize that it is not efficient opera-' tion or good management when the debit side of the ledger shows a large percentage paid out in settlements and compensation for personal injury and damage cases among the employes and patrons of our road.
Our safety department is an Integral part of our organization. This department is headed by a man o. ability with the title of Safety Engineer. This safety engineer's duties include all phases in the prevention of acci dents and fires, jbur safety committees are composed as follows: Central committee, consisting of the general manager, general superintendent, and a reasonable number of department heads. This central committee
358
j Twelfth Safety Congress
meets regularly once a month and actsTupon all suggestions that are offered by the sub-committees. The sub-committees are as follows: Mechanical committee, power committee, gas committee, electrical commit tee, maintenance of way committee and transportation committee. The
personnel of these committees is about 40 members. The sub-committees are selected by workmen in the different departments. The committees not only accept and pass on suggestions for the benefit of safety of their fellow workmen, but also make suggestions which are beneficial to our customers--the traveling public. This committee work is interesting and is eagerly sought after by our employees. They seem to enjoy thoroughly the work as wja try to interpose features which keep this work up to the highest pitch of interest at all times.
We are very favorable to the illuminated bulletin boards placed in
conspicuous places. These bulletin boards carry bulletins of the National Safety Council and bulletins of interesting world events and are read
diligently each day by our employees.
Our safety engineer, in addition to attending meetings of all committees
makes a monthly inspection of every nook and corner of the property for
accident and fire hazards, and makes, in addition to the committee reports,
his own report of his inspection.
I would like to give you some idea as^to what has taken place on our
property from an insurance standpoint by good housekeeping. Before
we made our systematic inspections our annual insurance was $953,000.00
with an annual premium of $4,923.00, or a basic rate of 51.7 cents per
$100.00. Today, the total amount of our insurance carried is $1,862,000.00
and the annual premium is $5,493.00, with a basic rate of 29.5 cents
per $100.00. This remarkable showing has been accomplished by care
ful inspection; and good housekeeping, and no expenditure of new money
was approved that would not pay for Itself in premiums in two years'
time.
:
In all of our safety and fire preventiorTwork, as well as our campaigns
on unusually clean cars and courteous employees, we did not forget to
inform our traveling public in well worded advertisements in the form
of car cards and newspaper ads what we were accomplishing for their
benefit.
_
We have come to the stage in the operation of our properties where we believe--and we have so informed our patrons--that we have the cleanest cars, the safest cars and the most courteous employees of any street rail way in the United States and we challenge our patrons to tell us of some other public utility that has cleaner cars, safer cars or more, courteous employees. Our advertising is not spasmodic hut is continual in all cars and in all newspapers in all the cities in which we operate.
use snooAirs with j. "kick"'
With our continual and consistent safety program we endeavor to inter pose occasionally some special stunt or propaganda which adds to the inter est of our wojrk. For- instance, in 1921, we took one of our regular city
Electric Railway Section
359
i_
__
cars, painted it several coats of white enamel and painted bulletins on
the sides and ends! of the car. The following were some of the slogans
used:
!
"White mule as s. pep producer is far safer in the gas tank than under
your belt."
;
'
"The reckless are going to hell so fast you can smell the smoke as the devil steps on the accelerator." '
"Hootch will prevent your auto radiator from freezing and also will
make wild drivers.''
.
"Do your duty, obey the laws and ask others to do likewise."
"Reckless drivers make your city unsafe for safe drivers."
This car attracted considerable national attention and pictures of the
car were printed in newspapers all over the country. Such a car has
been used in other cities to .good advantage since that time. We are continually thinking of something unusual in our safety work.
We recently installed on two interurban cars klaxon, air-operated horns.
Experiment has'proven, that such a horn warns the driver of the noisiest
Ford or truck of the approach of the car and meets the approval of all
the communities in which we operate. We believe that this klaxon air
operated horn is inuch more satisfactory than the standard air whistle
on the average interurban car.
.
We have decided to change the wording or the picture on our 300-foot
highway crossing signs every two years so as to make them so attractive
that they will not be overlooked by any automobile driver. We have been able to partially convince the Illinois Commerce Commis-'
sion that about 50 per cent of our crossings are extra-hazardous instead
of about ten per cent and the commission has ordered "stop" signs in
stalled. According to Illinois law automobile drivers must stop before
crossing, where these signs are placed.
,
At the suggestion of our local automobile clubs recently adopted, a
special lens on interurban headlights that somewhat obviate the glare
and, at the same time, gives the same illumination as the original clear
glass lens. This has met the approval of the automobile drivers.
We recently adopted a rule on our interurban lines where hard roads
cross the right-of-way that motormen mnst approach and pass over such
crossings at such speed that collisions would be improbable. This is
in addition to opr regular rule that motormen must sound whistle or
ring bell vigorously on approaching such road crossings. We believe that
this rule has veryj materially reduced our highway crossing accidents.
I do not want to burden you with a lot of statistics but will give a few
to show what benefit organized safety has been to our properties. There
has been a continual decrease in the number of accidents to employees
from year to year. During the year ending July, 1922, 41 were injured
and during the sa.me period ending July, 1923, 35 employees were Injured.
Many of these injuries were as slight as cuts of fingers. This record
was made in spite of the fact that there has been a 16 per cent increase
in the number of employees. It should be appreciated also that our
360 Twelfth Safety Congress
safety committee personnel being made up of employees elected by their
fellow workmen raises the morale and efficiency of employees; in other
words, they have and take a direct interest in what we should do to
further safety, fire prevention and general efficiency on the properties.
On the East; St. Louis Railway, 2.29 per cent of the gross passenger
revenue is our record for the year 1922; for the East St. Louis and
Suburban Railway suburban and interurban lines it is 4.85 per cent.
Automobile collisions with interurban cars in 1921 were 171; in 1922,
149. On the j East St. Louis Railway, which is strictly a city line, in
1921, the automobile collisions were 218 and in 1922, 270. A careful
analysis of the automobile and car collision records show there has been
a decrease each year in the number of collisions where our cars were
moving at thh time of the collision but there has been an increase in the
number of collisions where automobiles collided with our cars that were
standing still.
.
'
CLAI3I DECBEASE REDUCED 50 PER CENT IN FIVE TEARS
I might give you a record which will make the cold-blooded manager sit up and t^ke notice as to what organized safety work will do. The following is the record of the East St. Lpuis Railway Company:
1918 injuries 1919 injuries 1920 injuries 1921 injuries 1922 injuriejs
and damages 4.04 per cent of the gross passenger revenue. anddamages 3.63 per cent of the gross passenger revenue. and damages 3.31 per cent of the gross passenger revenue. and damages 2.75 per cent of the gross passenger revenue. and damages 2.29 per cent of the gross passenger revenue.
The trouble with the average manager of a public utility who is not thoroughly in accprd with spending even one per cent of his gross income for safety work is that he allows the "operating department to start a
safety program and if they do not show a decrease in money expended for injuries and damages the first or second year he becomes skeptical and is not in ] thorough accord with the movement. It will take more than two years on most properties that have not had thoroughly organized safety work to make a very material saving in dollars and cents. The management <>f nearly every public utility property have a hobby of some kind which is pleasing to its patrons or customers and I do not know of any hobby that an up-to-date manager could adopt with less expense for the benefit of the public than well organized safety; it has proven that it is conducive to good business. ^__
Competition in the electric railway business, especially interurban busi ness, is such ; today that it'behooves the management to be thinking at all times of hew ideas to sell its service. New ideas along accident pre vention can be inaugurated which cannot help but be beneficial. Whenever a railway company is known in its own community,,to be a conscientious advocate of safety principles it promotes good public relation. If your safety engineer is known as an expert and his company practices more than it preaches, he will be of great assistance in promulgating safety ideas for the; good of the entire community and be an asset to his own
Electric .Railway Section
361
company. There has never been a discussion among our board of direc
tors as to how much money was being spent in accident and fire pre
vention work, as the; results we have obtained have been very gratifying.
I again appeal to I every manager of a street railway company to adopt
a practical systematic and continuous' program for safety and for closer
co-operation with the National Safety Council, which will help you solve
your problem of collisions with automobiles, which today is probably the
greatest hazard confronting the street railway management. I might say
in conclusion that about 50 per cent of our total accidents today are
street car-auto collisions.
"
DISCUSSION ~
,
Mr. A. J. Van Brunt: I move that our incoming executive, when he
attends the meeting of the Claim Agents & Transportation meeting in
Atlantic City next week, be requested to use'every means in his power
to get the executive; officials of -the railways throughout the United States
to join the National Safety Council in general, and particularly this
section.
;
-
The motion was seconded and carried.
Chairman Truett: Mr. Van Brunt is the first to discuss this paper.
Mr. H. K- Bennett (United Electric Railways Company, Providence,
R. I.) : The plan which I put into effect on the lines of this Company,
involving approximately six hundred and fifty cars, was to post in each
end of the car, on the side window, once a month a small sized poster,
procured from the National Safety Council. This was started in April
and continued through May, June and July, approximately six thousand
posters being used during that period and in addition .to these a series of the small posters, containing pictured hints to the motormen and con
ductors, members of the line department and workmen in the repair shops,
were used on the bulletin boards at the various Company headquarters.
The car posters -`took," as the expression goes, from the start, and
favorable comments were heard on all sides. The second day that they
were in the cars, the Police Department of Providence made a personal
request for a set of them and as time went on, more favorable comment
was heard. The actual effect of these posters as "to the reduction of
pedestrian accidents in particular was not shown until July when our
records for the months of July and August showed a satisfactory reduc
tion in this class of. accidents over the corresponding period in 1922, and, in July, 1923, the gross number of accidents was reduced for the first
time since the year previous, and while many of the safety ideas were
put into effect and j other preventative measures taken, yet I believe that
the car advertisingj played an important part. "We suspended this service
during August and September but it is my intention to renew publicity
along this line commencing in October.
In conclusion, I can simply say that I am perfectly satisfied that the . National Safety Council is doing all that it can to bring home to the car riders and the workers in the various trades, through these posters, a lesson which cannot help but be a deterrent to accidents. Of course, I
362
Twelfth. Safety Congress
know that National Safety Council posters are not designed for such use
but I know also that if any number of ele'ctric railways wish them the
Council will be glad to furnish them.
Mr. A. W. Koehler (Director of Safety, New York State Railways,
Rochester, N. !Y.) : The attitude of the managing head of a given prop
erty is the m6st vital factor in the conduct of a safety organization on
any property.1 The most ardent safety worker will lose heart and his
efforts will be:discounted to a large degree if he does not have the whole
hearted backing of the head of the company. This backing must be more
than a mere acquiescence in the general scheme adopted. Just a state
ment to the effect that he is interested, on the part of a president, vice
president or general manager is not enough. He must make it unmis
takable that his interest is more than a passing one.
Mr. Parsons: illustrates this when he says that the trouble with the
average manager of a public utility who is not thoroughly in accord with
spending evenjone per cent of his gross revenues for safety'work is that
he allows the; operating department to begin a Safety program and, if they do not show a decrease in money expended for injuries and damages
the first or second year, he becomes skeiitical and is not in thorough accord
with the movement. He is quite right in saying that it may take more
than two years to effect a material saving.
.
PLEADS FOR COKCENTEATED SIE AIBERSILIP CAMPAIGN
A machine may be as nearly mechanically perfect as is possible to make it, yet it will `do no useful woi'k if power is not supplied from without.
A generator that is not connected to some form of prime mover will not
generate a single kilowatt. Neither can a safety organization that does
not have available sufficient funds or authority to carry on its work deliver
much in the -wfay of useful accomplishment. The character of the safety organization determines the degree of success that will attend its efforts.
Spasmodic effort or ill advised propaganda is worse than useless. It is
simply a target for ridicule and when it is eventually discarded as it must be, there will be many who'll say "I told you so." While on a large prop
erty it is essential that accident prevention measures be supervised by some responsible person, yet it is necessary that every department and every individual take an active part. A-.sane, practical systematic pro
gram is one that gives a part to every member of the organization.
Mr. Parsons has outlined the manner in which the safety department in
his company functions. The statistics which he presented speak for them
selves. The reduction of insurance premiums from a basic rate of 51.7c
per $100.00 to 29.5c per $100.00 of payroll, is an accomplishment of which
jhis company may well be proud. There is no reason why other companies may not achieve worthwhile results and effect savings that are well worth striving for. The momentary
value represented in a lower annual number of accidents is- not the only
compensation for organized safety. As pointed out by Mr. Parsons the
safety work of a public utility company is splendid public relations
material, in addition also to being a means of improving morale inside the
organization. :
"
Electric Eailivay Section
363
In these days of large companies and corporations the old time close
relation between employee and employer has been all but lost. Through,
the medium of safety committee meetings and informal gatherings where
safety is discussed with executives present there is fostered a spirit of
friendliness and helpfulness that is ` a tremendous asset to any public
utility company.
`
As a concluding thought, let it be said then that organized safety has
a place in every public utility because it is economically sound and
equitable, because it engenders good will and fosters a feeling of confi
dence in the management and because it promotes better public relations
in the community ip which the company operates.
Mr. A. J. Van Brunt: Frequently I am asked to suggest some new
methods in Safety Educational Work. Almost everything has been tried,
almost, everything tried has been of some benefit and I consider it un
desirable to waste i:ime looking for new methods. Some will be found
and tried, that is wise: but in the mean time, to produce results we must
go over the same ground again and again and if we do we will produce the desired, results. ; In that respect I ask permission to read some verses
which express my thought.
THE LITTLE BLACK HEN Said the little red rooster: "Gosh all hemlock, things are tough. Seems that worms! are getting scarcer and I cannot find enough. What's become of j all the fat ones is a mystery to me ; There were thousands through that-rainy spell, but now where can they be."
The old black hen who heard him didn't grumble or complain. She had gone through lots of dry spells, she had lived through floods of rain ; So she flew upon the grindstone, and she gave her claws a whet.
As she said: "I've never seen the time there weren't worms to get."
She picked a new and undug spot; the earth was hard and firm : The little rooster Jeered, new ground ! that's no place for a worm. The old black hen! Just spread her feet, she dug both fast and free, I must go to the porms, she said; the worms won't come to me.
The rooster vainly spent his day through habit, by the ways
.
Where fat round worms had passed in scjuads back in the rainy days.
When nightfall found him supperless, he growled In accents rough;
"I'm hungry as aj fowl- can be. Conditions sure are tough."
He turned then to, the old black hen and said : "it's worse with you. For you're not only hungry, but you must be tired too. I rested while I watched for worms, so I feel fairly- perk : But how are you? Without worms, too? And after all that work!"
The old black hen hopped to her perch, dropped her eyes to sleep. And murmured in a drowsy tone, "Toune man hear this and weep; I'm full of worms, and happy, for I've dined both long and well.
The worms are there as always--but I had to dig like ----------1"
And we have got to dig Just like that to produce the results we are
striving for.
;
--
Mr. G. T. Helmuth: We all recognize discipline as a necessary corrective
in maintaining proper train operation. Discipline is the negative method;
reward is the positive. We must have the former, but I believe that we
can all very well afford to avail ourselves of the latter.
ADJOURNMENT. T
Employees' Benefit Associations
October 5, 1923
' LEO. I>. WOEDTKE, Chairman
.
Fred T. Ley & Company, Inc., Springfield, Mass.
FRIDAY MORNING SESSION
HAIRMAN WOSDTKE: This meeting is really not in the nature of
C a permanent section. There has been a great deal of interest, over
a period of several years, among the men and women attending the
National Safety Congresses in the matter of employees' mutual benefit
associations.
j
'
There are some ?74employees' benefitassociations
of which we have
record in the country that are affiliated with the National Safety Council,
and it is for theirbenefit that we have attempted to work out this
program.
|
THE EFFECT OF PHYSICAL EXAMINATION ON THE HEALTH AND WELFARE OF EMPLOYEES
Louis I. Dublin-, Statistician-, Metropolitan- Life Insurance Company, ; New York City
We, in the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company have long realized the benefits which physical examination's bring to everyone concerned. We
employ about 8,Ooj) men and women in the home office and 17,000 in the field. The spirit animating these 25,000 persons is like that prevailing
in a large and intimate family; the officers are deeply interested in the well-being of every member of the staff. With such an aggregation, it has been a common experience to see large numbers of women fall by the wayside as the result of health and physical impairments. Some even die long before their natural time from an insidious disease which might easily have been prevented, had the proper treatment been insti tuted at an early stage of its development. We have suffered like all other business organizations, from disrupted work in the home office and poor production in. the field, because some individual in a position of responsibility, upon whom a whole group of people depended for direction, suddenly became ill and incapacitated, whereas his usefulness could have heen prolonged over a long period of years if he had only known how to take care of his health.
365
366
Twelfth Safety Congress
We, therefore instituted, a good many years ago, a system of physical
examinations -for our employees, virtually requiring everyone in the
Company's service to be examined annually, either by our staff physicians
or their own family doctors. Our purpose was to have each individual
discover exactly what his physical condition was; what impairments he had, if any, arid what steps he ought to take to cure his condition. The
records of these examinations have been studied from year to year. We.
have taken note of the impairments found and of the type of troubles
which developed. We have tried to trace the causes of some of them
and have addressed ourselves as an organization, specifically to the care
of the individuals who show physical weaknesses of any kind. For those
suffering from; tuberculosis, either advanced, incipient or threatened, we
have established what is probably one of the best sanitoriums in the
world; an institution which has a remarkable record for sending back
to the service of the company a large number of cured patients. There are. in the home office today, 300 workers who have benefited from the care given at Mt. McGregor and are now performing useful work in the community, instead of filling premature graves. Gradually the activities
of the sanitorium '-ave been extended; and it now cares for those suf
fering from cofnphiints other'than tuberculosis. Today, there are more
persons in the; general than in the tuberculous wards.
In the home office, the medical division is constantly in touch with
those whose physical examinations disclosed conditions of anemia, malnu trition, overweight, or other impairments. Every year has seen some new development iri our work. We have cut down the cases of overweight; we
have helped to; cure diseases of the kidneys; we have improved defective eyesight through the prescription of proper glasses and fitting them cor rectly. Dental hygiene has been instituted and each employee has the benefit of prophylactic dental work every six months. In addition to being cleaned, ] teeth are examined and dental treatment recommended.
All workers with defective teeth are urged to have the necessary cor rections made by their personal dentists.
' PHYSICAL EXAMINATIONS ARE PROFITABLE
Naturally, this medical service has cost the company a considerable sum, as not one penny has been contributed by the employees. But if these expenditures have been made, it was because we believed in their value and were completely satisfied with the results obtained. We have repeatedly noticed a striking improvement in the health of individuals who would otherwise have gone down hill. This work has been an im portant factor also in promoting tetter industrial relations. Our medical department has supplied us with healthy and efficient workers who have increased production as a result of the care given. On the other hand, our employees appreciate the fact that the medical department increases their efficiency and consequently their earning capacity; it helps them to keep fit and prolongs their working life. Nowhere, to our knowledge. Is
, Employees ' Benefit Associations
367
there a better satisfied or more loyal group of employees. Every worker
feels as though he owns a personal stake in the welfare of the company
and so contributes |his best energy to its service.
But even more profitable than the medical work which the company
has done for its ojwa employees, is its experience in providing for the
physical examination of large groups of its policyholders. As you know,
an insurance company is in business to pay claims when policy holders die. Preventing or postponing the deaths of policyholders results in large-
monetary gains to: the company and fully justifies any expenditure in
volved. As part of a definite attempt to extend life, the company made a contract in 1914 iwith the Life Extension Institute whereby it was to
examine, free of charge to them, all ordinary policyholders who carried
a certain amount of insurance. Many of our policyholders immediately
availed themselves! of this offer and gladly took the examination and other health services offered by the institute. Each year the number of those so served has grown, and during 1923 the company will have paid for the examination of 60,000 policyholders. A total of over 200,000 individuals will have been examined since the offer was made a few years ago. We have extended this service and are now covering even those
who hold only- $500 worth of insurance. But let me emphasize again that we are a business organization and cannot be moved by sentiment. The monies we spend must be strictly accounted for; the funds are not
ours and if we m^ke an expenditure for health purposes, it must be
solely because it is profitable to do so. We soon found, though, that
money spent for the physical examination of our policyholders was a
very profitable investment.
_
To determine this exact return on our outlay, the records of about 6,000 people were carefully analyzed and their progress followed during a period of five ybars. Included in this group were all the people ex amined during the | first two years--1914 and 1915. Their mortality was compared with the standard mortality tables which fit the class. The results of this study were so astounding as to be almost incredible of belief. According 'to the standard table used, there should have been 303 deaths; whereas actually only 217 of those examined had died. Eighty six Jives had been saved. In other words, the mortality had been only 72 percent of! what was expected. This^ result was so spectacular, that only after a careful check was instituted were we thoroughly con vinced of its accuracy. The greatest saving (amounting to 53 percent) was found in the a^e group between 50 and 60 years. This is especially
noteworthy since ^he mortality from the degenerative diseases is so
heavy at present, and this would be the class ordinarily most seriously
disrupted from that cause.
"~
Another interesting finding of this study was that the greatest gains
had been made by the group who were suffering from serious impairments. It included persons with high blood pressure, heart disease, lung troubles and other grave organic diseases. These_l,400 individuals were so
368
i Twelfth Safety Congress
much impaired that they would probably have been rejected for most forms of insurance. And yet they gave a mortality experience at the end of over fivb years of about half of that expected!
' ' PATIENTS ADVISED AS TO TREATMENT
What is the, secret of this apparent miracle? It is simple enough. The remarkably favorable showing which this impaired group made,
probably resulted from the profit derived from the examinations which taught them the truth about their physical condition and how to take proper care of 'themselves. Many found for the first time that they had impaired kidneys; others that they had heart murmurs: still others, that they suffered from incipient tuberculosis. Another group dis covered that their weight was far above normal and that it was necessary for them to reduce in order to keep fit. These people were not only
examined but they were advised as to what hygienic measures, what med ical treatment, what change in their mode of life was called, for in each individual case.; We have good reason to ^believe that, on the whole, they took this advice very seriously. The records showed that many were following the advice given and had improved in health considerably as a result. A large proportion came back for subsequent examination every year--a positive proof that they appreciated the benefits derived. Many of the overweights were making definite and successful efforts to reduce
and were modifying errors of diet and other habits injurious to their
health. Those : who had impaired kidneys in many instances showed
urine' specimens free from all traces of albumin. Those with heart
murmurs were: taking precautions and were not exerting themselves
unnecessarily. !
^ - --
Turning now! to the financial side of the experiment, we found that
in dollars and cents also the investment had paid extremely well. After
deducting the cbst of examinations made by the institute, we calculated
that we had saved ?2.00 for every ?1.00 expended in this attempt to reduce
death and prolong life. That is why we liberalized our policy, increasing
the number of policyholders to whom we offered physical examinations
and giving then* at shorter intervals of time.
PHYSICAL. EXAMINATIONS AS PHASE OF NEW PUHUC HEALTH MOVEMENT
I am firmly , convinced that physical examinations properly given and followed up save life and that the, practice is a new phase of the public health movement which is bound to grow. Though we have made
marked progress in cutting down mortality from tuberculosis, typhoid and other communicable diseases (which have been reduced 50 per cent in the last decade) we have not yet been able to combat successfully those diseases due to faulty'habits of living. The mortality of the older age groups has remained stationary. Thus the great gains of the future must come through the development of better personal hygiene and a reduction of the| degenerative diseases which follow neglect of the body.
If, then, periodic health examinations reduce the amount of sickness and cut down the death rate, it is obviously to the interest of the Mutual
Employees' Benefit Associations
369'
Benefit Associations to utilize this means of keeping workers healthy and efficient. You! occupy a strategic position and better than any other organization, can improve the health of the industrial workers of the country. Your associations are democratic in their nature. Your mem bership comprises ithe operating personnel of our factories and Industrial establishments. By providing the kind of health service outlined above in addition to your usual practice of furnishing health and life insurance, you are performing constructive communityvwork. Moreover, our experi ence will be your experience. You, too, will find that by improving the health of yoilr group, you decrease in the same proportion, the amount consumed! in paying death and sickness benefits. Tbus at the same time you ar!e benefiting the worker in securing for him a higher standard of living; you are likewise serving your own ends. As a group you are vitally interested in the health of : the individual, especially since your treasury immediately reflects the savings which accrue from re duced sickness. In that report your position is exactly like that of any other insurance organization. To be effective you must remain solvent and that can heist be done by reducing your operating costs to a minimum. You will prosper to the extent that you meet your obligations promptly and are able to extend your benefits. Your structure, like wise, must be reared on a foundation of accurate, actuarial computations, so that there will! be no question concerning the adequacy of premiums and the guarantee of benefits. There can be no better way to cut down expenses than to insist upon the physical examination of your member ship; to follow it up properly and help those who need financial assistance to carry out the {recommendations of the doctor. Every case of illness which you prevent, every death you postpone adds to your funds and takes that much less from the pockets of the members who pay dues. You can use the {same means which the Metropolitan has found so suc
cessful in reducing the numter of the chronic sick, the invalids and those cut off by premature death. The health examination will assuredly pay you dividends : the benflts so derived by each individual in your group will rebound to your mutual advantage.I
I DISCUSSION
Mr. Ashe (General Electric Co.) : There is" one point that the speaker brought out that is somewhat different from that in which a number of mutual benefit associations function. That is this matter of the physical examination of the employee after he t eeomes a member. I do not know whether the idea was in this particular case as it is with some com panies, that of requiring physical examination tefore the employee be comes a member lor can Join the mutual benefit association.
Chairman Woedtke: If you will pardon me, I think you missed a point
that I remember jvery well in listening to the paper, that in speaking of
the 25.000 employees of his company as employees in'the Mutual Benefit Association, this (examination is not only of a confidential nature between the examiner anc( the association member or employee, but the eligibility
370
'
Twelfth Safety Congress
-
of membershp in the association was not dependent upon the examina tion, but the: examination was rather ja service feature given to the employee. I didn't want you to confuse that with compulsory exam
inations to become eligible.
Your experience with the General Electric Company, if I get you cor
rectly, makes you recommend heartily the advisability of a physical examination ajnd that service in connection with the Mutual Benefit Asso
ciation. Is that the point?
.
Mr. Ashe: | No. The point is I am in'favor of the physical examina
tion when yoii hire a person, but after a person b.ecomes part of your
establishment; if you want to give them periodic voluntary examinations for their benefit it is a splendid thing, but I don't think you ought' to
require a physical examination to decide whether a person should join
your association. I think you should get everybody in that you possibly
can get in. j
.
.
Mr. Winansi (Union Carbide & Carbon Co.) : Assuming you do not have
preliminary examinations for employment, do you not think it is essential
to require a physical examination for entrance into the benefit
association? ; r. - '
Mr. Ashe: ;No, I shouldn't do It if I had the-option. As I say, in that
case I would; put in physical examination for new employees and then
after the employees came in I would make it optional in the matter of
the mutual benefit association.
__
Mr. H. S. Bee (A. E. Nettleton Co., Syracuse) : We have no physical examination at all, either at the time the employee joins the Nettleton organization br at the time he joins the benefit association. We have been running Our association since 1907 and have experienced no difficulty that we can rjotiee and do not require a medical examination.
Mr. E. F. Washburn (Bridgeport Brass Co.) : 1 would like to ask f6r an expression: by the raising of hands as to the number of associations who do not require a physical examination and the number who do, just as a general Consensus of opinion.
Chairman \Voedtke: It is about three to one in favor.
Mr. Frank E. Chapman (International Harvester Company) : Our ben
efit association at the present time runs alout 25,000 members. Our
maximum death benefit is $4,000, our maximum disability benefit is a half
wage on the >asis of not to exceed a salary of $2,000 per annum for a
period of fifty-two weeks, so you see we are going some. A physical
examination for membership is absolutely essential.
Chairman Woedtke: What about thereafter?
.
INTERBATIONAl, HARVESTER COSIPAX V SIETHOD
Mr. Chapmdn: Thereafter we do not require it, but the International Harvester Company medical staff makes physical examinations when called upon. : For instance, we have a foreman, we will say, who isn't feeling right;: he goes to the doctor's office and has an examination for
Employees' Benefit Associations
371
high blood pressure, urinalysis, etc. We tell the man what is the trouble.
We ha-re just spent nearly $30,000 for equipment for laboratory purposes
in the plant at Chicago. That is open to everybody in the Harvester
Company from the president down to the office boy or the poor Italian
who can't speak English and works out in the foundry. We have had
some grand results already and have had it in operation just about two
months.
|
.
Mr. Harold Ley (Fred T. Ley & Co., Springfield, Mass.) : Don't you
think you ought to make clear between the different examinations? I
think you have tyro entirely different problems between the employees
who are looking for a job and the examination of the employees who are
members of the mutual benefit association. One is entirely for the
interest of the employer and the other for the employee.
Mr. Price: I think perhaps we are all interested in a physical exam
ination for the good it will do. I would like to put this questiou and see if we can get any help. I am in a town of 40,000. We have keen com
petition in labor, ; We have never had a physical examination for entrance as an employee or into the mutual aid. How do you proceed to educate
folks to take a physical examination? Is there any resentment about a
physical examination? How do you get by with it in a small town of that size? I imagine in a city it Is different. We don't know how to put
it across in a small town where it has never been.
Mr. Ashe: I think we have our difficulties the same as any other con cern, but, of course, it is a New England community and it is probably more stable than; some others, but we have had very little trouble with that; if anything, we have had less trouble. It may _ be that we got started early and jmay have had some benefit out of that. It seems to be a natural thing that has grown up.
Mr. H. W. Baldwin (American Car &' Foundry, Buffalo): Physical
examinations seem to have absolutely no value to anybody anywhere unless the result of those examinations is closely followed. If a physical examination is xnade and certain things are recommended, will they do it of their own abcord? Suppose treatment is required, will the patient pay for the treatment himself or will he just say, .like a great many of
us do when the doctor tells us to stop smoking, that we don't think it amounts to so much. Does the insurance company that says for every dollar expended they save two dollars give any free medical attention? How do they get the patient to take the medical advice?
Mr. Ley: I know something about this examination in the Metro politan. There ijs a little confusion there. The two dollars that they speak of saving js the money they saved on their policyholders and not on the benefit society. They are two entirely different problems. The Metropolitan is examining all of its employees, but it has also offered the service of the institute to its policyholders all over the country, and
jthe two dollars saving is on their policyholders. Those were people
scattered all ovej: the country who probably knew nothing at ail about
the examination, ] but the policyholders themselves went to work and did the things recommended to them and the result was the saving in money
372
Ttvelfth Safety Congress
Mr. H. W. Forster: It has been the privilege of my organization to get a fairly close up, perhaps practical view of the benefit association prob lems. We will `assume you want a benefit association. ,The next ques
tion that comes!up is this: shall membership be optional or compulsory? If it is compulsory it is perfectly obvious that no medical examination
as an entrance: requirement is possible, because they have all got to
come in.
;
'..
We will assume that you are going to have a voluntary association. Immediately yoji are confronted with, the question of whether you will have a physical examination before a person can join that association.
I am against it; for two fundamental reasons. First, benefit association exists for the purpose of rendering service, and the person for whom it renders the seryice is the one who suffers disability, and the man who suffers disability is likely to be weeded out by the preliminary exam ination for membership in the association.
Now the question comes up once a year, are we going to have an
optional or compulsory examination? You have to impress upon them
that In following up medical examinations you are rendering a social service to the mdn far greater than to'yourself, because his health is more important to hirb. than the fact that the association has to pay out some
money. You haVe to put 95 per cent of the emphasis'*upon the fact that
he is a member ;of the association in good standing, sick or well, as long as he Is a part I of the plant, but for his own advantage we think it is
desirable to have such an examination. If the association, as an asso
ciation, will vote by an overwhelming percentage in favor "of compulsory
examination, have it, but if they won't, and they probably won't, you
can't get it.
;"
Mr. Lee (Nettleton Shoe Co.).:
send it to any ope.
'
We have the plan and will be glad to ~"
ADMINISTRATION METHODS AND COSTS
W. A. Boom, Wilson Fouxdky and Machine Company, Pontiac, Mich.
The affairs of the Pontiac Employees Mutual Benefit Association are administered byja board of directors consisting of 14 men. Each member of this directorate represents a factory located in the City of Pontiac. Each factory is entitled to one director regardless of its size. The smallest con cern in this gropp is a paint factory that employs about 10 men and the largest is a concern manufacturing Willys-Knight and Overland engines and employing 3,500 men and women. There are also three subsidiaries of the General Motors Corporation in the group. Each director is elected
by the employees in their respective factories and serve for two years. The director in `the larger factories may have his assistants to help him
but the factory has only one vote. The directorate meets as a whole once a month and serves without pay. There are four principal committees. Executive, Claims, Finance and Investment, that act with and for the managing secretary. The claims committee meets once a week to decide all disputed claims; the other committees meet on call. The treasurer
Employees' Benefit Associations
373
receives a remuneration of $75.00 per year and is the only paid officer. The managing secretary is a hired employee and at present is drawing
$3,000 per year. The association offices occupy 3 rooms in a down town bank building and employ 6 people, including the secretary.
aiEaiBEBSirci* axn opekattox
The present membership is about 8,700 men and women who are accepted at: time pf employment without physical examination or age limitations. They; are divided into A, B and C classes, with dues and benefits that vary with the average weekly earning. The minimum dues are 20 cents per week paying $1.00 per day accident and sick benefits. The
maximum dues are 30 cents per week paying $2.50 per day accident and
sick benefits. The'funeral benefit of $150 and the death or total disability benefit of $500 is the same to all classes. When the association was first formed we paid a death benefit of $175.00. After two years of operation we accumulated about $50,000 in surplus. In the meantime, the directorate was groping about for a means of returning some of the earnings to the individual member without paying a cash dividend. The final result was the purchase of a $500 life insurance policy on each and every member of
ninety day standing. This without any increase in dues or other drastic change in the constitution. This was accomplished by the purchase of a term policy on the group plan at a low rate. We had considerable diffi culty in placing this business but finally accomplished it to our satisfac tion. It has not been a direct money maker for the company who carries it but they are satisfied with its indirect benefits. We then dropped the
original death benefit of $175 but have recently taken it up again as a funeral benefit of $150 payable to the beneficiary of any deceased member of less than 90 days standing. Our entire membership, then, is covered by a death benefit to the extent of about three million dollars.
Membership in the association is virtually compulsory, or that is the intention at least.. In the company the writer represents, the insurance feature is a part of the employment contract. The employee signs his application for the life policy at the same time he is signing the ordinary employment routine forms. Our shop boasts a 100 per cent membership of both office and! factory and we employ about 3,500 people. The next
largest factory in! town is very close to lOO per cent. It seems to the writer this feature is a matter of education entirely. It was somewhat difficult at first to enlist every member but now every resident factory employee knows that insurance is an employment condition, while the newcomers are informed of the fact before they start to work.
Dues and interest from investments are the only source of revenue that the association has. The plant owners have never been asked nor have they given any direct financial support. They have, however, given their moral support to the compulsory membership feature. Another item, and a very important: one that they have given gratis, is the automatic col lection of premiums' due, through their respective pay roll departments. Practically every employee in the various plants in the city has a deduc tion from his or her pay, covering a week or two weeks premium in ad-
374
Twelfth Safety Congress
vaace, which is paid to the association in a lump sum. This of coarse does away with all cost of collection of dues as far as the association Is concerned and insures a known steady Income based on the number of em ployees at work. Our directorate appreciates that this alone is one of
the main causes for the success of the association.
costs iitcoME Data
The fiscal year of the association ends the last day of February. The
following figures are for the twelve month period ending February 28,
1923, and show, in detail, where the dollar goes. Approximately 74 per
cent of every dollar is returned in benefits.
.
Expenditures
Dues returned ..............................................................-
Benefits paid. Direct and Indirect
Detroit Life Ins. Co.--Indirect--18. . . .
Sickness--Direct--22 ............................................
Accident--Direct--21 ............................................-
Postage .................................................................................^
Advertising ........................................................................
Sundries .j..........................................................................i
Office Supplies ...............................................................
Salaries . ....................................................................... .
Printing .'.........................................................................
Maintenance of Auto .............................................
Tra.vel and! Entertainment.................................
Charity .. i....................................................................... ^
Subscription and Dues ......................................
Rent . . .
.........................................................................
Medical ...................................................................................
Telephone and Telegraph ................................:
Legal and ^Professional Service....................
Visiting Nurses Association...........................
Depreciation, on old auto, new auto,~
ings, furniture and fixtures, ineludin
on sale of old auto and furniture.... Net Gain for Fiscal Year...............................i;
. .$ 214.14
. . 565.22 . . 465.63
. 115.79 . 123.48 . 15.36 . 584.97 . 591.06 . 9,558.38 . 318.92 . 468.26 . 206.63 . 550.47 . 39.00 . 1,485.00 . 126.00 . 152.28 . 1,165.00 . 30.00
s . 2,229.88 . 5,145.68
Per cent 0.25
21.79 26.38 24.80
0.14 . 0.02
0.69 0.69 11.32 0.37 0.54 0.34 0.65 0.05 1.61 0.15 0.18 1.37 0-03
2.59 6.04
?85,151.15
100.00
The item of! $1,165 for legal and professional services is an unusual expenditure for the association, being in the nature of a retaining fee to
a well known firm of certified accountants to prepare and present our side of the argument as to why the association should not pay an income tax to the government. The item of $30 is but the initial payment to a local
visiting nurse association for visits to ourmembers and their families in
cases of sickness and accident. The rate is 50 cent for each visit and
this service is absolutely free to our members. This is a new feature and
will be greatly! expanded in the coming years. These nurses work under
Employees' Benefit Associations
375
the direction. o the regular physicians, and we look forward to the day when their activities will be largely taken up with prevention of sickness
rather than the curing of it.
Comparison of dubs paid by. the employees of the various factories with benefits paid back, both direct and indirect. follows:
Paid in. ? 1,101
: Indirect
Benefit or Premium
Factory. .
on the $500 policy.
American Forge........................... . .$ 198
Direct Benefit Sick and Accident.
$ 1,037
6,980 Beaudbtte .......................................... .. 2,136
4,015
214 Consumers Power...................... . .
87
260
164 Daily Press .................................... .. 63 Weatherproof Body Corp..
77
11 112
67 Jiggs Bushing Co........................ .. 185 Dames & Brown............................ . .
5 47
14
6,054 General Motors Corp............ .. 1,472
1,950
1,357 Hess-Pontiac .............................. . . 445
504
246 Hubbard Spring Co.................. .. 133
164
27,626 Michigan Drop Forge Co.. . . 287
1,825
27,626 ' Oakland Motor Car Co.... . . 5,405
11,795
283 Slater Const. Co.......................... .
159
622
74 Pontiac Paint Co........................ . .
28
33,452 Wilson Foundry & Mch. Co.. 5,470
19,129
2,758 Members who pay their dues
at ihe association office.. 1,424
2.138
General Statistics for the fiscal year ending !Feb. 28,
Total, $ 1,135
6,341 347 88 112 5 61
3,422 949 197
2,112 17,200 781
28 24,599
3,562 1923:
The average monthly membership was .T....................................... .. .6,105
The average monthly receipts from dues 7..................................$ 6.856.00
The average monthly amount received from each mem
ber ..............;............................................................................77..................................
1.123
The average monthly premium paid for each policy
holder toI the Detroit Life Insurance Co. 'on the
$500 Policy ............................................................................................................
.503
The average monthly amount paid for sick and acci
dent claims ................................................................~t................................. . 3.632.00
The average monthly amount paid to Detroit Life In
surance Co.................................................................................................................. 1.547.00
The averagenumber of Policy Holders.......................3,076
The averagemonthly membership was..............................6,105
The total sick claims paid for all factories--
Male
..............................................................................................670
Female
...............................................................................................48
---------- 718
Benefits paid for these claims....................
22,465.00
Time lost account of above claims...
11,412 days
Average amount paid for a sick claim
31.28
376
Twelfth Safety Congress
Average duration of a sick claim.......... 15.9 days
Average amount paid per day..............................................
1.97
The total accident claims paid for all factories--
Male L.....................................................................i-................................5S1
Female..................................................................-V.............................22
---------- 603
Benefits paid for these accident claims.................................................21,115.00
Time lost account above claims............... ......................9.219 days
Average amount paid for an accident claim...............................
35.00
Average duration of an accident claim...................15.3 days
Average amount paid per day.......................................................................
2.29
We have on record the nature of all sick claims, also the detail of the accidents, shotting exact number of days paid for, what factory, etc.,-and these are all compiled in monthly reports for each factory and as a whole. If called for, reports will be sent to anyone interested.
We believe we have as near a 100 per cent mutual association as it is
possible to have. We do not run it strictly on a hard and fast rule basis. The directorate treats specially needy cases -with common sense and gen erosity, very often overlooking the rules and trying to apply the Golden
Rule.
i
We are convinced that compulsory membership is not only practical
but necessary., It is a known fact that 90 per cent of our membership
have no other life insurance than that which we supply.
i
However, this condition is gradually bettering itself. As the members
become used to the value ot insurance they are taking more out on their
own responsibility, so that the association is serving two purposes. It is a practical help in time of need, and a means toward the education of
the employee to the value of insurance or savings.
DISCUSSION
Chairman Woedtke: We have been organized for a good many years and we work on this basis. It is a voluntary matter whether they' come in or not; it is optional. We have toth men and women. The by-laws that they operate under they made themselves. They elect their own executive committee, who, in turn, elect their own officers. The company has no standing or no control, no domination at all; they leave it to the em ployees. They| took a chance and let them run it.
We give them from one to five thousand dollars mutual life insurance, according to the length of service, running from six months minimum to fifteen years maximum, and they stop at five thou&and. We give them a twenty-dollar-a-week sick and disability benefit, except in the case of workmen's compensation where they can't draw two.
We also give an annual strictly confidental forty-five-minute physical
examination. The cost is borne fifty-fifty by the company and the
employees.
j
Mr. Price: What is your cost per man?
'
.Employees' Benefit Associations
377
Chairman Woedtke: A five-thousand-dollar-a-year man costs 136.00 a year. The company pays about equal. Of course, keep in mind that
this is a pretty healthy plant.
Mr. G. F. Close (Commonwealth Steel Co., Granite City) : I think there is a serious question involved in this from the matter of cost. It seems to me that if it can be worked so that you could have the yearly physical examination and follow it up, you would get in right with the insurance company certainly, but you would get in wrong with the^men:- Of course, we want to look at this thing from the point of -view of helping everybody that is down and out, but are the insurance companies going to come to us next year or the year after with figures so high that our men will say they can't afford to go in? It seems to me that is a problem which we are all facing. The rates are increasing; they were increased last year, I think, pretty generally.
Mr. Forster: In group life insurance you can buy a contract that gives an increase of rates over a period of five years. In individual life
insurance, of course, you buy a level premium and are protected t.cTc life.
The group disability insurance game is so new that no company has yet. as far as I know, been willing to guarantee a rate for a given group for more than a year and they have been very wise in not doing that. The insurance company guarantees you any one' policy year against any more expense than |at the beginning. You can't, in the long run, expect a life insurance company with an overhead of twenty or twenty-five per cent to pay you for its losses.
Mr. Elwell: Along the line of some special benefits for the man who is unfortunate, we have two forms of finances in our association. One is the regular dues for benefits, and those funds are kept -entirely separate. We have another fund growing right along from which we
derive the profits of the relief association store. Those finances are used to help out fellows! who are out of luck, whether they are members of the association or not so long as they are members of the company. Any person who is; an employee of the company can get a little bit of help, and sometime^ it runs up quite a little, Tn case of sickness, out of
that particular fund which we keep up simply running our employees'
store.
I
____
Chairman Woedtke: This thing is growing apace all the time, and it is tying itself so closely to the many other phases of safety and accident prevention and welfare, that we are all working on that it strikes me we could very well begin to operate from now on as a permanent section with officers and committees working out our difficulties and problems.
(Motion made, seconded and carried that a permanent section be
formed.)
.!
Chairman Woedtlce: The chair will appoint on the nominating com mittee: Walter Forster, Mr. Ashe and Mr. Robert L. Medlicott.
378 Twelfth Safety Congress
FRIDAY AFTERNOON SESSION
A PROPOSED ACTUARIAL. RECORD FOR EXPERIENCE STATISTICS OF INDUSTRIAL MUTUAL BENEFIT ASSOCIATIONS
H. N. DAMBjijcsif, Actcact, XcnuL Bnnr Assocunox, Tbs New Jersey Ztxc Oourjjrr. Ftuaanc. N. J.
The proposed scheme to collect and combine iwteto of mutual benefit associations is not a. new Aden t& tki tfWl'W wiiii of the word. I under stand that more than one attempt Imu tiw made to obtain this informa tion through outside sources, and as far a* I have been able to determine the results have not been aiKttxW, Tb* pttecipd difficulty encountered has been the difference* cxfatCkMt * tbe %0' *w* of aawociations which have affected the rates of eocwrmer and aewertty of fitness. I mean by this the different waiting parted* sat SHafana liabilities for length of sickness and for aeddema. Tk ti--rtitriiwg of ataxistics with such basic differences has ended in e moult that has been unreliable and misleading from an actuarial StUhdjMluT.. I agrt r that combining all statistics reghrdleee of waning period* and cber differences would result In a meaningless total. Beawar. if the statistics could be classified according not only to those differences, bat to different working condi tions which might affect the rate of occurrence arid severity of illnesses. I think an accurate and valuable total could be arrived at.
I am laying particular stress on sickness statistics for two reasons. The first is that the largest part of benefits paid by the mutual benefit associations falls in the richness class and the second is that these sta tistics are the most difficult to get.
Statistics on death rates among industrial workers are comparatively easy to obtain. AU deaths are reported and classifications of them have been made according to industries. Rates for non-company accidents among mutual benefit association members should be comparable with non-hazardons accident Insurance rates as the rate of occurrence and severity of such accidents could not be effected by the occupation of the insured-
The question rates of occurrence and severity of company accidents is one that does not affect mutual benefit associations to any great extent owing to the fact that a large majority of companies buy their insurance, or if they do not. are self insured and few, if any. associations pay benefits during the time a member is drawing compensation.
In preparing the report and its accompanying questionnaire I have attempted to cover the variable which I think might occur in the by laws of mutual benefit associations rather than to study the by-laws
and eliminate conditions that do not exist. This probably has led to
a more complicated form of report than will eventually be necessary.
Employees9 Benefit Associations
379
I can only tell this when I have received the information from the mutual benefit associations who would care to co-operate, should it be decided to keep an1 actuarial record of experiences.
I have not attempted to touch on the. question of finances. There Is probably a greater difference between schedules of mutual benefit asso ciations than would be found In any other detail. If It were possible to know the rates of occurrence and severity of the different causes for which benefits were paid it would be a very easy matter to figure back to any rates j desired. For example, if it were - found that in a certain industry a ^sickness rate of 400 per 1,000 members occurred and that the severity rate was 8 days per claim, it could be stated that a mutual benefit association starting in that industry and carrying 1,000 members could expect 3,200 days of sickness providing the same waiting period was used as that on which the statistics were based. Should they decide to pay $2.00 a day benefit for sickness the cost would be $6,400. To obtain this money a premium of $6.40 a year would have to- be charged to cover these expected sickness benefits. It would work the same way for non-bompany accidents or deaths.
RELATION OF | OCCURRENCE AND SEVERITY RATES TO AGE GROUPS
I will now consider the rates of occurrence and severity with reference
to' the age groups in which they occur. To an insurance company this is a vital matter ajs the premiums charged vary in accordance with age
for a fixed amount. of insurance while in mutual benefit associations, I think I can say: generally, a flat rate of premium is charged and a sliding scale of benefits, decreasing with increase of age is paid. Another
point is that an insurance company, except in group insurance, knows
the age of an applicant while a mutual benefit association, in starting, does not. From what I can find out from our own experience and' other
sources, 36 would \ be a fair overage age to cover this question. Our
average age remaining at about that figure in spite of a 47 per cent yearly
turnover. However it would greatly increase the value of these statistics
were it possible tb obtain a classification of all claims according to the age groups in which they occur. It would make it easier to compare
the rates to those of a standard population and give valuable guidance
to the question of the amount of decrease in benefits according to
increase in age, or if a flat benefit were paid, to obtain the amount of
loading necessary in the younger age groups to take care of this question.
Needless to say, however, it would complicate to a large extent, not'
only the final worjk on the report, but also the Information which the
mutual benefit associations would be required to give, necessitating a
reclassification of : all claims under my scheme according to the age
groups in which they occur and. In addition, the supplying of the average
number carried for period under each age group.
.
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Twelfth Safety Congress
Probably the most important and most difficult question that arises
in working out statistics o this kind is that of the average number
exposed during the period in which the claims are opened, I will refer
to this as the average number carried, for period.
Insurance companies and our associations at Paimerton obtain this
result by using exposure cards. This card gives the dates of entry
and exit of every member. At the end of a period the total days of ex
posure of all members is obtained from these cards and an average
number exposed is arrived at by dividing this figure by the number of days in the period. The same result, however, can be obtained by classi
fying the dues received from members for the period and dividing this
by the full period dues for one member. To make this more clear I
will give an example. Suppose a mutual benefit association wanted to
arrive at the average number carried for a certain year. It was found
that $10,000 had been received in dues during that year and the dues
for one member for one year was $10.00. Dividing 10.000 by 10 it would be found Um 1,000 members had been carried for the year. This would
be correct no matter how great the turnover had been because any one
member woul# only be a risk as long as his or her dues were paid. I
as suggesting this merely because I am not in a position to know to
what extent mutual benefit associations generally carry their statistical
records and I' am attempting to suggest a comparatively simple method of obtaining 'the average number carried for those associations that
might not have this data available.
.
" FORM OF FIX A I. REl'OKT
It is essential, first, that there shoul dbe one report for male statistics and one for female statistics. Secondly, that there should be a separate report for each of the above classifications according to the waiting periods required, by different associations. If it is decided to obtain a. classification of claims by ages there also should be a separate report covering tlie j different age groups. For example, there should be a
report showing male statistics, between, say the ages of 21 to 25, based on the experience of mutual benefit associations whose waiting periods were 7 days; each. Again there should be a report covering female statistics, say between the ages of 31 to 35, based on the experience of associations Whose waiting, periods were 3 days each, and so on.
A final set of reports could be made that would group the experience
of all ages uiider the different waiting periods. This would be a matter that could be; done by classification of the questionnaires and would be of no trouble1 to the mutual benefit associations. The essential thing is
i that only statistics that axe comparable in all details should be combined and that sufficient information should be given to make these classifi cations possible.
Employees' Benefit Associations
381
I have divided the statistics into six different general classifications namely: sickness, non-company accident, company accident, quarantine and death. Under ^sickness I have classified the claims, into general sickness, non-dusty and dusty conditions and each of these as to whether
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Twelfth. Safety Congress
nojufpidcmic or epidemic. The idea, in doiss tU* is (be possibility of obtaining rnxes of occurrence and severity of epidemics to be used in determining; tosdtng rates to cover this question, and also to make the statistic* of associations experiencing epidemic* more comparable with those that have not. A turther classification of specific sickness is made.
By specific sickness t mean those occupational sicknesses sot common to
alt :trxUr*trt>* *ncto as lead poisoning, anthrax, etc. -which are caused try some special industrial condition. By removing: these it would make the total average rates of occurrence and severity more valuable as the eondtitiona wader which they would occur would be more nearly the same.
leader accidents I have made two., .classifications, non-company and company accidents. Xon-eompany accidents should only need the general claaskificatioh of different waiting periods and should not be effected by working coadtiions. Company accidents are complicated by a number of variah&criL I have made two general classifications, namely: those assortasion* which pay benefits for this cause regardless of state com pensation. and those which pay benefits between the waiting period of mutual benefit association and the waiting period of state compensation.
In order to1 take care of the different waiting periods of different states
I have again classified this according to the days required.
As some associations pay benefits for quarantine I bave included this classificatiop.
The four; spaces appearing under each of the above classifications show total claims opened, total days paid, days per claim and rate per 1,000. Under deaths there are only 2 spaces, which show total claims opened and rate pbr 1,000.
Deaths I have classified in the same manner as sickness, including non-company and company accident deaths. I might add that it would be possible, to combine all deaths regardless of waiting periods or other variables.
The first column appearing in the report would show the groups. I am not going to suggest any group classification at this time as this is a question 'Which can he decided as a~guide later. It would be largely a matter of interest as a guide to compare any one experience with the average experience of the group to which it belonged. The maximum classification would be one that showed the statistics of each association separately and the minimum where all statistics were combined in one average. ;The correct grouping should be one that would take into consideration both the question of sickness and company accident hazards.
FORM OF QUESTIOXIfAtEE
`
Each mutual benefit association that co-operated in supplying statistics would be asked to make out two reports, one for female and one for male statistics, providing age groups were not taken into consideration. If they were, a report for each group would be asked for.
Employees' Benefit Associations
383
be required. In cases where it would be necessary to make more than one report only answers to questions 1 and 2 would hare to be duplicated.
The first question ashed at the top of the page Is "Ages Covered by This Report." If no age classification is decided on this should be left blank. In the squares appearing in the upper right hand side to be answered are "Sex Covered by This Report," "Waiting Period Before Payments
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; Twelfth Safety Congress
Start," "DoeS Company Operate Under State Compensation. Law?",
"Does Association Pay Benefits During Time State Compensation Is in
Effect?", and; "Does Association Pay Benefits for Company Accident Deaths?". These questions are for classification purposes.
Question (la) "Are there any Diseases for which Benefits are not paid?" "If so. State Name of Disease dr Diseases." It is necessary to know this o\ving to the fact some mutual benefit associations exclude certain diseases' like lumbago, rheumatism. or hernia from the diseases that are paid for, while other associations include them. Comparisons nevertheless can be made of the rates for those diseases which all the
associations pay for and the rate for total diseases can be adjusted for
those associations which exclude certain ailments. Questions I, 2 and 3 will need no explanation, asking the.-name of
the company, for whom members of associations work, general name of industry tio which company belongs,"and if there are more than one
association cbvering the plants of the company, with the' request that, if there are,; a separate report he made for each association.
Questions 4 and 5 are asked with the idea of obtaining the average percentage of members on the payroll. This is an important question
and one that a mutual benefit association should watch closely in view
of the large .percentage of turnover experienced by most associations.
Question 6; will give waiting period of state compensation law and will
be used in classifying company accidents as already explained.
Number 8: covers the question of quarantine and would be used in
order to arrive at the combined average number carried so as to com
pute rates of occurrence and severity.
`
We now come to that part of the questionnaire that deals with the statistics, the basis of which is the claim register. I think I am safe
in saying that all mutual benefit associations keep such a register in which all completed claims are recorded numerically. In order to supply the required information it would merely be necessary to know the number of the first claim opened during the period and the last. When all claims whose numbers came between these were completed, in an association Whose members were not exposed to either a specific sickness or dusty condition, it would only be necessary to classify the completed claims first; into male and female groups and subdivide these into a classification shown in column D, giving in each case the total claims opened and: total number of days paid on claims during period, this would give information required for columns E and B\ In an associa- tion some of whose members were exposed to a dusty condition or specific sickness condition or both, it would be necessary to separate the claims of those who were exposed from those who were not and then classify
these groups in the same manner as I have explained in cases where these conditions do not exist. It also would be necessary, to classify
the dues received In order to arrive" at the average number carried for period asked for in columns B and C.
Column G, "Number of Days per Claim," would be obtained by dividing
column E by column E, and would give the rate of severity. Column H
Employees' Benefit Associations
385
would be obtained ! by multiplying column E by 1,000 and dividing tbis result by either column A, B or C, as the" case might be and would give the rate of occurrence per 1,000 members.
X would suggest; that all associations contributing statistics -use the same period and I think it would be advisable to make this period from. January 1 of any one year to December 31 of the same year.
CLASSIFICATION OF SICKNESS AND DEATH * CLAIMS
The question of classifying the sickness and death claims would be a
very simple matter once a standard classification of causes was decided
on. In our association we are using the international Classification B
Abridged Nomenclature of causes of sickness and death. I think it will
be possible to use even a more simple classification and, at the present
time, I am seeking advice on this question. The value of classifying
sickness and death claims can readily be understood when you consider
that it would be possible to arrive at rates of occurrence of the different-
major diseases, and this would act as a valuable guide in concentrating
efforts In disease prevention work.
'
THE CLAIM REGISTER
The claim register should show only completed claims with each claim
In numerical order. It should show whether the claim was for sickness,
non-company accident, company accident, quarantine or death. The sex,
color, occupation, and age of the beneficiary and, if female, whether
married or single, the number of days paid for, and, if sickness or death,
the cause. In an; association having members exposed to dusty condi
tions or specific sickness risk, the claims occurring among such members
should state this fact. This would be such a simple procedure that I
can not conceive p a mutual benefit association letting this stand in
the way of supplying such statistics as I am suggesting.
-
-
THE PRAOTICABILITV AND VALUE OF SUCH STATISTICS
I have no doubt that the question will arise as to the practicability of attempting to bombine statistics gathered under such differences as are bound to occur, due to the different by-laws of mutual benefit asso ciations, and also; the value of such statistics when combined. I can think of no betted way to answer these questions, than to. quote parts of a letter I received*from Mr. Dean K. Brundage, Assistant Statistician, Treasury Department, Public Health Service, Washington, D. C. In answer to the possibility of combining such statistics and the value of the same. Mr. Brhndage says: .
"Concerning the differences in length of the waiting and benefit periods, we have! found that the problem of grouping associations ac cording to certain provisions is not particularly difficult. For instance, there are any number of sick-benefit associations which begin to pay benefits on the eighth day of disability, and the sickness incidence rate can be ascertained for all such associations regardless of the benefit
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Twelfth, Safety Congress
periods. "When, lost time or days paid for is tabulated, it becomes nec
essary, of course, to group only those associations with the same benefit
period.
;
"In any scheme of comparative statistics of this sort, permit us to
suggest that the age and sex of the person sick as well as of the mem
bership should be available in such a way as to make it easy to adjust
the rates of each association to a standard population so that both of these factors fan be eliminated. Since the sickness incidence rate of women is at least 50 per cent greater than the rate for men when the
waiting period! is seven days, associations having different proportions
of women in their membership will naturally have different sickness
rates. Similarly age affects the rate. But the elimination of these two
factors is a relatively simple statistical procedure when, the data is
collected properly. "If the. most important facts about the individual are recorded, and
the subsequent analysis shows that sex and age do not explain certain excessive sickness rates, the administration of the fund or the environ ment of the membership must be to blame, and it is these two things
that are usually of most interest.
"Statistics of the sort suggested could be made almost invaluable if
properly analyzed and the knowledge used in disease prevention work. Merely the rate of occurrence and the amount of time lost from different
specific diseasejs would show upon what diseases we should concentrate
in public health work to effect the greatest reduction, in disability. We would obtain a more adequate idea of the economic loss occasioned,
by illness. An analysis along the lines suggested above would show
what associations in any given group experienced an excessive amount of illness compared with the average experience. The results could
be traced to their sources, and conditions responsible for excessive sick
ness corrected." I hope that this will impress upon the various mutual benefit associa
tions the importance of such statistics and the benefits that could be
derived from them, not only from the standpoint of the associations
but also for the good of the members and the companies to which the associations belong.
I DISCUSSION^
Mr. Dean
Brundage (Assistant Statistician, U. S. Public Health
Service) : It iqight he of interest for me to explain-*briefly just why the
Public Health Service is interested in work of this sort. The service is,
of course, very much interested in the health of different groups of work
ers and of the general population, and in connection with our Industrial
Hygiene Office we have been making a few studies of the effect upon the
health of sotnq conditions of work which warranted investigation.
In regard to these studies, the service is trying to find out how much
sickness occurs! among the men who are exposed to these conditions. The absence on accbunt of illness are checked- up by visiting nurses in the
communities where these studies are being conducted. Of course, these
Employees' Benefit Associations
387
men are going to be sick to a certain extent because everybody is sick now
and then, but what we are interetsed In finding out is whether or
not these groups have an excessive amount of sickness and, if so, what
diseases are in excess in the average experience. Unfortunately we don't know what the average experience is; we have no data to tell us what
the expectancy is or any given disease or any given disease group. We
have to look up the sick benefit associations as one source of this infor
mation.
:
A*
The plan which has been suggested seems to me to be excellent in many
respects, and the sjervice will be very glad to cooperate with you people to
the limit off our ability.
We have a Statistical Office in connection with the Public Health Serv
ice, which is equipped with machines for the mechanical tabulation of
statistical data, and while I can't state definitely at this time, I believe that the service could arrange to-tabulate mechanically whatever data
you might wish to send in to a central agent. Of course, our resources
are not unlimited,, but to a certain extent I believe we could do that, that is if the sick benefit associations would send in a list of closed cases giving the essential facts that are contained in the claim register, and then at
the end of the year report the cases that are not completed. We would then have the data upon, which to work a frequency rate if the data to justify it were obtained. I This data then would give as a sort of average mor bidity experience,;that is it would show the number of cases per thousand persons per year of pneumonia and of pleurisy and diseases of the stomach and the groups like respiratory and digestive and skin diseases, and so on.
If it were classified according to age, because age, of course, is a very
important thing to consider, we would then have a table which would
show the sickness expectancy for a given. age group and the rate for
diseases that occur.
If this experience covers twenty-five or thirty or forty or fifty thousand people for a givep. age group, we would have something really valuable, and each association then could compare its experience in terms of the average experience. The benefit to an association would be considerable,
it seems to me, for each association would then know how its experience stacked up with the average morbidity experience and the amount or the percentage of decrease over the average or of increase over the average that would be knbwn, and the diseases that were in excess of the average
would he established. If you found, for instance; that your pneumonia
rate was two or three times what it ought to be, that is a fact you really
ought to know iii order to get down to some of the fundamental causes
for it.
:
'
j SUGGESTS DETAILED BEPOBT
.
I would suggest that a report more or less detailed be included in the
plan so that each association gets the maximum benefit out of the' com
bined plan.
!
' .Jl
388
: Twelfth Safety Congress
We should be very glad to assist you people in any way that we can, because this is a tremendously important subject from the health stand point and is a matter of considerable importance to your finances.
Chairman Woedtke: I can say on behalf of the National Safety Council, Mr. Brundage,! that they fully appreciate and are indeed grateful for the assistance offejred by the government through you in coordinating this statistical data.
Mr. F. N. Leonard (Public Service Co., Chicago) : I believe that we all recognize the necessity for accumulating such statistics, and I move a committee be appointed for the purpose.
(Motion seconded and carried.)
Chairman Woedtke: We will leave the appointment of that committee to the person ypu select as your chairman. At this time, before we get into the round table discussion, I notice the members of the nominating com mittee are back. Mr. Forster, have you a report to make?
REPORT OF NOMINATING COMMITTEE
Mr. Forster:; The committee places in nomination Mr. Harold A. Ley
of New York, Mr. F. E. Chapman of Chicago, for chairman and vice-chair
man respectively, and Mr. H. N. Dambmann of'the New Jersey Zinc Com
pany as secretary.
~-
(Motion made, seconded and carried that the report of the nominating
committee be adopted.)
Mr. Forster :f May I make one further motion, that it be the consensus
of opinion of this group that the chairman, be authorized to appoint such
committees in! addition to the statistical committee as in his judgment
may be desirable and to the best interests of the section.
(The motion^ was seconded and carried.)
.
Now we are down to what we call in the safety game the real center of the pudding. ;
ROUND TABLE DISCUSSION
Should the Government Tax Association Fcnds?
Mr. B. L. Odle (Industrial Mutual Association, Flint Factories, Flint,
Mich.); We had an experience recently, regarding this matter. The
Revenue Department required a tax from three different points of view;
one was a tax pn our membership; another was a tax on capital stock, so-
called, and the third was as a mutual insurance company. I believe this
question, is so important to the benefit associations as non-profit organiza
tions who do hot pay dividends but are organized for the benefit of em
ployees in industry, that something ought to he taken up by us in a co
operative way, in order that we may get at this matter and get it straight
ened out.
;
Mr. A. B. Drummond (Wilson & Co., Chicago) : I feel quite strongly on
the subject that it was never intended, when the law was passed, to include
the mutual benefit associations. One thing that might he done would be to.
jjEmployees' Benefit Associations
389
suggest to the new chairman coming in that he appoint a committee to go into this matter still further and see if we can't get some results differ ent from what we are getting now. I have discussed this matter with some 75 organizations, and they have all stated they have taken the matter up as individuals through some certain source or other. I have had the experience of the two gentlemen who have spoken. We also have a letter that we are exempt, but we still pay.
If I may he allojwed to make a suggestion that the chairman consider appointing a committee to go into this matter thoroughly, and if it is decided by the committee, the proper thing to do would be to proceed in unison to get this ready for the next session_p Congress. I think it can be accomplished in that way where we can't get it done as individuals. I put that as a motion.
(The motion was seconded and carried.)
ARE MEDICAL EXAMINATIONS FOE ADMISSION ADVISABLE?
Mr. Chapman: The experience of the Harvester Company's benefit as sociation in requiring physical examination for employment, no matter how high the position or how low in the ranks, is to have every new em ployee undergo a physical examination as a condition of employment. If he wants to becorhe a member of the benefit association it is up to him and the physical examination is required. That physical examination has brought some startling results to our attention, and the Harvester manage ment and the benefit association board of trustees realize that a physical examination is the proper thing. We catch incipient tuberculosis, we catch cancer and a thousand and one different things in the new employee that means a 52 weeks! disability case within three months if we take him in. We catch high blood pressure, arteriosclerosis, old age diseases, and all that sort of thing, i At the rate of contribution today you have to safeguard the fund. We reject them just the same as ah insurance company rejects you with heart disease. He may have a heart trouble hut still be accepted for certain occupations.
Question: Do you take them on as employees and reject them as mutual benefit members? :
Mr. Chapman: Unless there is an extreme hazard.
Chairman Woedtke: I know of one case where a man is so well along in years that he tan't get anything in the wav of life insurance in any other way; he will get himself a job with a company and stay there long enough for the sole purpose of getting in under their insurance feature. It may be that the picture is painted too black, I don't know. This is an entirely different phase than you hit this morning. It is a- question now of whether medickl examinations should be required, and if so, to how great an extent before admission, into the association. ,
Mr. Shafer: Iii our benefit association we accept the employee below the age of 60 that has passed the company examination for employment. We feel that we are perfectly safe there for the reason that a good, many of the conditions that Mr. Chapman mentioned that would eliminate the
390
Twelfth Safety Congress
-- X
man from joining the benefit association eliminate bim from employment
with us to begin with. Our examinations are reasonably stiff, and I don't
see where our second examination would do much good or harm either way.
Chairman Woedtke: Mr. Chapman, do you have a second or just a first
examination?
r. -
Mr. Chapman: Just the one.
Chairman 'Woedtke: Suppose they go to work now with a bad condition
and three months from now want to go into the association, do you refer
to the original examination?
.
Mr. Chapman: examination. ;
Yes, and if conditions justify we recommend a re ---
Mr. Ley: Itj seems to me that you have got two or three entirely dif ferent questions. I think the employer has a perfect right to insist on the examination of a new employee.
Chairman Woedtke: If it is a society run by the employees, it is up to the employees to state under what conditions the men may come in. My own feeling is very strongly that that should be a problem solved by the employees.
Dr. Charles J. Steim (Medical Director, Philadelphia Company. Pitts burgh) : I have had some 25 years' experience jwitli mutual benefit asso
ciations, and I have never found any objection on the part of any member ' to an examination; in fact, they all insist, in self-protection, upon it. It
is insurance and the risk is carried by the fellow-members. If it is
partly carried at the expense of the employees, they have a right to know
how much risk they carry. If it is a philanthropic thing, purely and
simply, and it is just simply used to prevent passing the hat when any
body gets sick.j that is a different thing.
'
Mr. Harry Si Moody (Bausch & Lomb, Rochester) : If you let a man
come into the Association that has not the required health that he ought
to have, you are just adding overhead.
LIMITED EENEtiT
Mr. Chapman:
laws:
i
I would like to briefly quote from the Harvester by
"Section 1. The object of thfe Employees' Benefit Association is to provide its meinbers with a certain income when sick or when disabled by accident, and to pay their families certain definite sums in case of death, to create and maintain a fund which shall long to the members
to be used iu the payment Of benefits to^them and cost them the least,
possible money considering the benefits received."
The next thing is eligibility to membership:
`After January 1, 1909, any employee not over 45 years of age may, upon passing d satisfactory medical examination and upon the approval
of his application by the superintendent, become a member subject to the conditions of his application. Furthermore, any employee over 45
years of age
upon passing a satisfactory medical examination by
Employees' Benefit Associations i
391
the superintendent, become a member subject to the conditions of his
application, except that the death benefit in such cases shall be limited."
That is, where we take the man in that is 60 or 65, we limit the death
benefit. We have taken them in as old as seventy-eight. We all know
what the life expectancy of the man of 78 is. He is going to go very
shortly. We coiildn't take a man in and have him stay in a couple of
years, pay the regular dues and pull down a $2,000 death benefit, there
fore we limit that death benefit to $200. Between 45 and 52 there is a
graduated scale. Above 52 years of age the death benefit is limited to
$200. Below that the sickness death benefit maximum is $2,000 and the
accident death benefit is $4,000.
-
Mr. Farber: Our mutual aid has hpen in existence for the last twenty-
three years. We started in with about a thousand members, and today
we have about 29,000. They have accumulated a surplus of $110,000.
Mr. Chapman:! What are your benefits?
-
Mr. Farber: Fifteen dollars a week, $220 death benefit. On July 1
we paid out $42,000 in excess of our income.
Mr. Chapman: Your surplus is bound to grow because you don't pay
very much for death benefit.
'.
Mr. Farber: We have a club in connection with it consisting of a
bowling alley, pool tables, shower baths, and we have a band. We lost
$5,000 last year on the band. We have a school with an average attend
ance of 2,000 students. And we have a recreation department. The
dues are $1.20 a mouth.
Mr. Chapman: How long do you pay that disability benefit?
Mr. Farber: Thirteen weeks.
__
SHOULD BENEFITS VAJSV ACCORDING TO ACE OF itOIBER
Mr. Winans: j May I ask if any one here can answer whether there is
any actuarial information which would indicate by percentage how much you happen to load your dues? Assuming $1.00 a month dues, in case you change your benefit period from 13 weeks in any calendar year to any 13 consecutive weeks, do you get the difference? Assume that your dues are $1.00 a, month for a $15.00 benefit, which is the general run. how much would you have to load that to change your schedule to any thirteen consecutive weeks?
Mr. Dambmaiin: The only thing I can say to that is that we have in our association, a three-day waiting period, and most of these statistics are based on ^even days. It is perfectly possible to put a three-day waiting period back into a seven-day by simply throwing out the claims
of less than five days' duration, which would convert a three-day into a seven-day period. We have a 13 weeks' maximum for one illness in a period a year, hnd out of 639 claims that we opened for sickness, only nine of them have run beyond the 13 weeks' disability period."
Mr. Geo. W. Stone (Hooker Electrochemical Co., Niagara Falls): The benefit arrangement we have is not a fixed amount of weekly benefit nor a fixed amount of w.eekly dues. Our idea is to pay 50 per cent of the man's weekly wage when he- is receiving benefits. His dues are one per
392 Twelfth Safety Congress
cent of bis weekly wage. That is, if a man. is earning $30 a week he
pays thirty cents a week, and it he is earning $50 a week his dues are
fifty cents, and in the first instance he gets $15 a week benefit. We have been doing that for nearly three years. We are creating a surplus. We are reinsured and we have been paying a premium to the insurance company. We ihave created and accumulated a surplus because we don't
pay quite as much to the insurance company as we collect. If we did
not pay to the insurance company we would have a greater surplus
because our experience has been good. We do not have life insurance
included in that. We have Just disability for accident or sickness out
side of compensation.
_
In addition to that the company provides group life insurance for the employees, and the company pays for that. They do not contribute directly to the {benefit association.
Mr. B. Frank Day (Philadelphia Electric Co., Philadelphia): We have been operating on that plan for 17 years on the one per cent basis. In other words, the man earning $100 a month would pay $1.00 a month deducted from his pay-roll monthly. We pay half of his earnings for sickness, we pay full wages during the compensation workmen period, and after that period begins we pay him the difference between com pensation allowance and his full wages. We have accumulated under
that plan a surplus of more than $100,000, so it seems that the experience rather justifies! continuing liberal benefit on that basis. We make the death benefit assessment features independent of the other feature. There is an assessment of 20 cents. The minimum death benefit is $750. At the end of five yeark' membership that becomes $1,000, and then we add $100 per year until we reach a maximum of $2,500. In addition to that we have burial benefits which are paid at the death of the member to the member's wife 6r children. We also take care of special sickness benefit
in case of incipient tuberculosis, and urge the member immediately to take up treatment, and that benefit is full wages for a period of one year. Our experience has been that within that time all the cases we have handled have come back to us for service.
Mr. G. R. Morrison (Xew Jersey Zinc Co., Franklin, N. J.) : We require a doctor's certificate from every man who is sick. The secretary con sults the doctor as to how long the man will be sick. In addition to that he visits tfie man at least once a week, and if he is in doubt as to whether he should be back at work or not, he brings it before the board of directors whp pass on the case.
DIVISION' OF COSTS BETWEEN' EMPLOYEE AND EMPLOYEE
Mr. Ley: I think the solution of all those problems comes down to who pays the bill in the final analysis. If the men are paying the hill they will make it their business to see if the man is malingering. If the employer is paying the bill I defy any employer or any insurance com pany to put a man back to work when he can bring a doctor's certificate
!Employees* Benefit Associations
393
to say that he should not work. You can bring ail the doctor's certif
icates in the world, if the men think he should go back to work they will tell him to go back to work.
Chairman Woedfcke: I am going to ask all those who have associations where the company contributes toward part of the expense of maintain ing the association to raise their hands. Now those who don't. It is about three to one in favor of the company-contributing.
At this time I am going to present the gavel to the new chairman.
(Mr. Harold A. j Ley took the chair.)
Chairman Ley: ' Looking at it entirely from the point of view of the
employer, I think if this mutual benefit society is run right it has tre
mendous possibilities. I think we can revolutionize this country just
through such organizations as this, because there is no field that I know
of that oiJens up such possibilities for constructive work as healthy
employees.. It is the one and only thing that I know of where the
employer's interest and the employee's interest are identical. The em
ployer can make more money out of healthy men and the employees can
make more money, and, which is more important, they have happiness
and everything that comes from the eradication of sickness.
It seems to me in listening to these discussions that the one big thing we have been overlooking is the constructive work that should be done in industry to remove all this preventable sickness. We have seen 125,000 people killed in Japan by calamity. There are 500,000 people that die every year in this country from preventable diseases, and we dqn't bat an eyelash, nothing is done.
Mr. Woedfcke: , What about the straight time man?
Chairman Ley: I feel we shouldn't pay him anything. If he has an
opportunity to join on 25 or 50 or one per cent of his wages .basis and
he elects not to join; then the firm is relieved of all responsibility in his
case.
;
..
Dr. Steim: I think a good many members of this section would appre ciate it if you were to give the psychology of the employer on this ques tion of selling employees' benefit associations. -A good many I have talked to don't have any mutual benefit associations for the reason that they have not been able to sell it to the controller of the company. '
Chairman' Ley1: I will be glad to tell you why it appeals to me, just
from the selfish standpoint of an employer. If I have learned anything in business it has been that the men who""have made the money for our organization are the men who feel friendly and kindly toward us. I don't believe any" concern ever makes a dollar out of a grouch. Three problems that every employee is up against is what happens to him if he is taken sick, what happens to his family if he dies, and what is going
to happen to him in his old age. Any employer who can help him solve those problems is certainly going to get a little more good-will from that man, and it is in trying to work out those problems that we started in giving our people group life insurance to start with. We were one of the
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first companies to give that. The next thing that we did was when. I
got interested in this preventive work of the Life Extension Institute,
and we gave opr people the services of the Institute. But' that was not
satisfactory because I found that a lot of men were taking examinations
that we were paying for simply because, I imagine, I asked them to or
intimated I wanted them to, and that ended it.
-
I had come 'to the conclusion, in coming in contact with other em ployers, that i they intended to give the people physical examinations they should have those men pay part of the expense and only give it to those who were willing to do that. ,The minute the man had to buy something and it was optional with him whether he would take it or not, he would make up his mind that he was going to get- 50 cents' or a dollar's or two' dollars' worth for what he was asked to pay,
Mr. Chapman: We find that the percentage of high blood pressure is high among the class that doesn't do any manual labor, such as execu tives, department heads, general foreman, sub-foremen. We also find that they have leaks of the heart. A rest is recommended and Is always heeded and the trouble corrected. Reduce the blood pressure and you
don't have a man drop dead at his desk.
.
.
Chairman Lei*: We have had examined at the Institute this year 75,000
people, and 50 per cent of the people we have examined have had some serious trouble and didn't know it. Thaff exists in every ^industry.
ADJOURNMENT.
Engineering Section
October 3, 1923
GEORGE T. FOIVBA, Chairman, Fpnda-Tolsted, Inc., Chicago-Nevr York City * Columbia Salvage Corporation, New York City
IV. S. PAESE, Vice-Chairman, Research Engineer, Aetna Life Insurance Company, Hartford, Conn.
. S1DXEI J. WILLIAMS, Secretary, Chief Engineer, National Safety Council
'
LUNCH EON AND AFTERNOON SESSION
THiE ENGINEER AND CONSERVATION '
Db. R. M- Little, Dikecron, Bubead of Rehabilitation, State Depabt-
I1 . aiEsr of Education, Albaky, N. Y.
The service which the Engineering Section has been rendering to
the National Safety Council, the very becoming behavior of its mem
bership and its widening influence are. to be commended. The section
is not an exotic group, added to from without, but an indigenous plant that sprang up! out of the very life and objective of the Council. It has
been serving all the members of the Council by thoughtful, well prepared
technical discussions and increasing the prestige and influence of the
Council as a national movement in' relationship to the old, well established engineering societies and governmental agencies. And the section is plac
ing this great body of active industries and men in a very potential rela
tionship to the formative opinion of our country that has to. do with
all engineering problems and constructive methods in our national life.
One happy thing is this: that the men who formed the section and are
developing its policies are themselves linked with industry and in touch
with all the other men in industry; that is, you are men upon the job.
You had the Spirit of the safety movement within you, and, therefore,
you have never at all drawn apart from the major purposes of the
Council but have been keeping as your watchword the ideal of the Council;
namely, service. As long as this condition continues, and there is no
reason to suppose that it will not always continue, it seems to me that
the Engineering Section of the National Safety Council has not only
a great future,: but very splendid responsibilities to discharge, in the great
endeavor in which we are all sharing, to bring about a safer, healthier
national life. ;
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396 Twelfth Safety Congress
''
COUNTRY NEEDS CULTURAL DEVELOPMENT
Now, that, which I wish to bring to you, is not at all a technical thought, but, rather a ^picture of what seems to me to be a great need in our country. This great need is a better organized economic and social
life as a basis for a cultural life. America is a young nation, only 150 years old,'about 300 years since the first colonization, and certainly
not much more than fifty years since we had a unified national conscious ness. We are;a young people and have all the vitality and exuberance,
bloom and promise of youth. We also have the forwardness and ir regularity of development of adolescent youth. Our national life, in comparison with the mature and mellow life of many old countries, is much like the; alert, muscular, awkward youth of 18, compared with a rounded out, well poised man of 45. In addition to our youth, we have a magnificent physical empire in the process of economic development.
This bigness of domain lends itself to the stirring of our imaginations and gives us the opportunity to do things in the United States on a large scale, lending our energies to mass production. The unlimited resources of our country stimulate the acquisitive activities to such an extent that we are not satisfied to do anything on a small scale. The small refined industries slowly develop. In some sections they are completely overshadowed by huge manufacturing plants. Indeed, organized public sentiment in some communities for years overlooked the need of develop ing smaller industries which would use the mass products of the large. Again, it is not only the youth and size of our country, but the resources within it. the hidden treasures under the soil, within the soil, the waters and the air that have stimulated our activities. Youth, size, wealth, com bined together^ with a great selection of people, native and blended stocks, which cause the type of life we are developing here in the United States to be one that is extremely interesting and fascinating, and also sends us along! with a rush and a hurry that does not permit us to stop
and take time for the necessary refinement that comes with age and ma turity. Our hurried life is giving us an industrial and mechanical de velopment that moves forward like great ground swells, so rapidly that our Safety Movement is always running after to try to catch up with it. and in many respects, we cannot keep up with the industrial and mechan ical development which is taking place. The great stimulating, elemen tal facts which make up our -national life are causing us to go forward with leaps and bounds in mechanical and industrial development. Our Safety Movement, therefore, as I say, is rushing after and trying to catch up to and not always keeping pace with many of the lines of industrial development. This being true, and I believe you will all agree with me that it is true, at least as a generalization, does it not make a magnificent opportunity for the engineer with his trained mind and technical skill?
If an engineer \ has a large field of interesting opportunity anywhere, it
is in a new country where there is tremendous need of constructive skill in development; in relationship to boundless resources and untold wealth. Such an environment should stimulate his mind and imagination and
; Engineering Section
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cause him to do his full part in. the great national scheme o not only helping to produce more wealth, but also to work out a more normal, sane, healthy apd safe life for the people.
THERE IS NEED FOB DISCIPLINED MINDS
-
Some of our : first engineers were trained at West Point. Others re ceived their training before coming to this country. Many were trained on the job because the exigencies of ouf national life demanded engi neering skill before technical schools were founded. One was started on the Hudson generations ago and now we have many of them--well equipped with rich curricula, able teaching staffs and thousands of stu dents. The educational system of the country is attempting to do its part to furnish in sufficient numbers, well trained engineers for the country's need. A few are still being trained by experience, and by personal study. There is need of a large body of men with disciplined minds and acquired skill to furnish forethought, poise and judgment which should be wrought into all of our economic life.
But we not only need many - engineers who are equipped technically,
but. we also need many who have Ideals and principals to guide them in
the practice of their profession, men with an enriched imagination and a
larger view of the meaning of things which they are doing beyond that
which can be worked out on an accounting sheet. The mind that Is
trained and the life that is serving should carry along with it in corol
laries something greater than technical skill, that something which will
cause our lives to count In more ways than as technicians. The en
gineer, therefore, who is imbued with Safety, whose life has taken hold
of it and who thoroughly believes In Safety as a fundamental necessity
in. the practice of his profession, becomes a most important person in
our great economic order.
-.
This Engineering Section is not only a leavening of the membership
of the Council with a respect for higher standards from the point of
view of the engineering profession, hut it is also a group of men within
a. large national organization who are received and listened to with becoming respect by the great mass of engineers and technicians of
our country. ;
-
PLEASURE ECONOMY IS NOT ENOUGH TO SATISFY LEGITIMATE WANTS OF . . MANKIND
- If 40 per cent of our industrial activities result in waste, we can only
hope to become more frugal in the use of our resources through the leadership of trained minds, which can prevent waste, standardize the processes, enrich the thoughts, and refine the spirits of the people. This sort of service requires Imagination and the emotions to be stirred by a great ideal. Safety furnishes the ideal and stirs the emotions.
We American people very seldom stop to ask w.hy we want to build more automobiles to run. upon the. streets .and. highways, making it necessary to build more, roads , and to. produce more gasoline to run more automobiles... I say we seldom stop to .ask what it is all about.
398 Twelfth Safety Congress
What is the aim in constantly, multiplying the mechanical development
of our country and accelerating its movement if we have not gumption
enough to reflect upon the type of a national life which we are developing?
Is a pleasure economy enough to satisfy the legitimate wants of mankind?
It never has been.
.
One who has recently returned from a few years' stay in Europe where
he was observing the industrial and economic life of that continent, has
called our attention to the fact that while in European countries they
do not have a great safety movement like we have, they do have a much
safer national life, apart from their wars.
,
We are killing workers twice as fast in the industries of the United
States as they are in the industries of Europe and more than twice as
fast in public life. This is true not only in industry and public accidents,
but it is also true as to homicides. We sometimes imagine .that we are
a more law abiding people than the Europeans, but the fact is that we
are not. Life is a cheap thing in America compared with most other
countries. In another respect we do not compare favorably with some
older countries;: namely, in regard to our family lives. We have too
many divorces. ; About one in seven of all our marriages is dissolved
by the divorce fcourts. in addition to divorces, we are plagued with a
great number of husbands who disappear and fail to support their
families. Some time since a high class play, "The Bill for Divorcement,"
which ran for months in London to crowded houses, was brought to
New York City., It was a serious drama with a star cast, but it did not
last two months in New York. Why? Because the problem which was
dramatized as to whether or not'insanity should be a' ground for divorce
is lightly considered in our country. But in old England they are still
concerned with the integrity of the family. We play fast and loose with it.
Consider another illustration from England--the question - of Safety
in mines. They have almost three times as many workmen engaged in
their mines as We have, and yet they do not mine as much coal, but
we lose three times as many miners as they do. Your answer may be
that we mine tfciree times as much coal. Yes, we do. That is the very
point I am making. We will get the tonnage out in America at any
cost. We will do the thing in a big way, no difference how many lives
are snuffed out in the process.
All these things are elemental but fundamental. They are a part of
the warp and woof of our national, life, due in part to youth, bigness,
wealth, bustle. ; We get so speeded up that we do not stop to think
what it is all about. -
^
`
' TIIE CONTRIBUTION -OF THE ENGINEERING PROFESSION
The trained engineer comes along, and if he has some understanding
and imagination! and grows in his profession, not only as a technician,
but also as a leader and teacher, he can help to stabilize and refine the
life of the American people, and it needs to be . done.
. . ..
Usually an engineer has to do with new construction and the revision
of old, and this I gives him -the chance to get in on the ground floor in
all our industrial and mechanical enterprises. If he is imbued with, the
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safety concept, and his ethical nature is motivated thereby, he can in
troduce the conception of human values as well as economic values into
the fundamental organization of the economic order. After all, the most
important part of our national life is its economic processes, and if
your profession can gradually incorporate something of the ideals and
reeling of human worth in the Industrial processes, your service will
have a great influence upon the well being, the happiness and joy of all
our citizenship. ; .
. a-
The engineering profession, it seems to me, can contribute to this
end as much as |any of the learned, professions. Indeed, you can affect
the economic processes for human welfare much more than the pro
fession in. which: I was educated and first served, or the one in which
I am at present: engaged. The minister has his message to give, the
educator his influence to contribute, the governmental official his duty
to perform, all of which are important to our national life, but because
of the vastness ; of our economic interests, the engineering profession
can do more to! get hold of' the great energies of America and bring
them under control and cause them to function for the welfare of the
people than any' other profession. This brings me to an idea which I
wish I had the ability to express to you. It is an idea which reaches
into the nature ;of the whole scheme of things of which we are a part.
Mr. Whitney, in his splendid paper on the philosophy of the Safety
Movement, endeavored to tell ns something of this idea, this meaning
which is in the j center of all things. He has been pondering it in his
mind for a long- time, and has given it .to us in a stimulating paper. He has also tried to have it produced in a drama, but I suspect he feels
that it is not yet effectively expressed as no one can ever express the
ultimate meaning of things which he sometimes feels or senses. This
idea which we are struggling for, the philosopher calls reality, an ethical
teacher calls it truth, an economist may speak of it as value. A word
is but the shin of a living idea. It is hot so much the words as the
idea itself which is important. It is not the word hut the idea itself
which I would like to reveal. It is the ultimate meaning of ail things. To get hold of that center of things, to feel its energy and know its
potential part in production and the enrichment of life, to work with
it in harmony, 1:o bring it out in service, that is the great achievement in a creative service. To do so one must be more. than, a technician. He must be a man of insight and understanding who senses and. feels
the great creative urge of the universe itself. To touch that dynamic
center of. all. things and do one's work under the inspiration Which it
gives, is to come into unity and harmony with the great'creative purpose
of the invisible \ world.
THE BEEATION OF TICTNGS TO ETERNTTTC
As engineers you are dealing with the things which you see, touch and handle, but they are all related to something' unseen and eternal. Even the things which we see, touch and handle are but 'the coverings of the unseen energies Which are in the universe. Did you read Sir Ernest Rutherford's "Presidential Address," delivered at the opening of
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Twelfth Safety Congress
'
the British Association of Scientists in which he was discussing: the atom? It was a memorable address for which the scientific world had been waiting in great expectation. I read part of it with breathless attention. We had been: wondering if the physicists were to find some way to
release the potential energy of the atom, and make it serviceable in a practicable scheme. According to Sir Ernest's address there is not
much hope that this can be done but as a leading physicist of the world, he reveals to fas the fact that the little invisible atom is a solar system
In itself, that \ there . are revolving around its minute center moons and
stars Just as there are in our solar system. Oh, what wonders are being revealed to uh by the investigations of scientists in the phenomena of
nature! The; physicist and the chemist unfolds no greater wonders
with the microscope than the astronomer shows us through the tele
scope. Sit with a leading astronomer as he lectures upon the unseen
stars of the Universe and shows us photographs of the. other solar
systems far greater than ours and more numerous than we - have ever imagined. The mind and imagination are overwhelmed by the vastness of the universie of which our little solar system is a part, and through it all there seems to be running a principle of unity, order, harmony' and
forethought.
--_
We are a part of this great scheme of things, with minds-and imagina tions to catch. the meaning of it all, and with hands and wills to touch the energy, value and truth, and harness it for human welfare. If we
have minds to; think and emotions to be stirred and wills to be energized, every one ought to want to get hold of the great ultimate energies and
bring them out into a complete harmony" and co-ordination which will incorporate thp -inner meaning in the outer and visible activities of life. You, as engineers, motivated by a great ideal, can- make the great discovery that the Safety Movement in its philosophy and method js
in accord with the' inner law of the universe.
THE JOY OF E.IFE IN' "SERVIXG
I was playing golf with a friend at the country club the other day. He is a very j responsible business man. We stopped for a moment to admire the beauty of the fall foliage. We were surrounded by it. My friend is a thoughtful man with considerable spiritual insight, whose mind is always searching for the hidden meaning of things. We both expressed a spiritual uplift in the sense of beauty and harmony of ' the surrounding hills and foliage. We felt that there was something won derful speakiujg to our better natures. This led us to speak reverently of God and I, said to my friend that I conceived of God as the great Conservator--He does not believe in waste. Apparently nature is prodigal but only apparently. The rich foliage on the hillsides with the resplendent colors of the; fall time will soon pass away but will reappear again next year that in every season there may be this expression, through nature, of God's loveliness. He is a great painter, a wonderful poet, a master musician, a creative engineer and a gracious heavenly Father. No, he does not believe in waste. He" would have all things work
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401
together for our good. He would have us work together for each other's
well being and He ' may be depended upon to give us inspiration and
energy in all the noble service of life. This is a Christian conception
of God whose creative processes have never come to an end .and never
will. We may not use his name when we speak of the ultimate reality-
of truth and of value, but some way or other we believe that in the center
and meaning of all things His presence dwells. Reverently, with in
spiring minds and a believing insight let us strike our natures deep
Into the ultimate reality, discovering there the truths and measuring
the values which can be wrought out in the economic and social order,
and when you have the sense that all these meanings and forces are
working together, they will give a glow and inspiration to the practical
job. in the office, the mill, the .mine and the ghop which keeps one from
sterility of thought and tiredness of heart, keeps one from missing the
joy of life in service, which if one does miss, said Stevenson, one misses
all. When the ultimate meaning comes rushing into one's consciousness,
creative skill is aroused and the disciplined mind and poised touch can
give not only increased values but better proportions and bring about
a co-ordinated national life which will be truer, deeper, richer and more
satisfactory for us all.
.-
REPORT OF THE CHAIRMAN
I George T. Fonda 7~
It was decided this year that we would not attempt more than one meeting at the Congress for the simple reason that the membership of the Engineering Section involves practically all of the sections of the Council. So we decided early this year that we would hold meetings in different cities during the months intervening between the Congresses and arrange to work with local engineering societies and local councils in certain of the large cities.
We were pretty successful in-those meetings. We had the first in New.
York City, a joint meeting with the American Society of Safety Engineers, an all-day meeting and an evening session, with excellent attendance. The second meeting was held in Chicago and was hacked by the local engineering society and the Chicago Safety Council, and we had a most
successful series of meetings there, ending up with a dinner, attended by more than 500. .The; next meeting was in Detroit on a similar basis. So
we have concluded and will recommend to the incoming officers that they
continue this scheme, and in the coming year we have tentatively made' arrangements for a joint meeting with the American Society of Safety
Engineers in New York; in Chicago, in Cleveland, in San Francisco, and another meeting in the city that will be selected for next year's Congress,
in sufficient time to give them a little interest in safety work in advance
of the Congress, which is always a good plan.
.
I would like to remind you of the desirability of increasing the mem bership of our Engineering Section. "We are trying In various ways to
get the idea out to the members of the National Safety Council that the
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I Twelfth, Safety Congress
Engineering Section is not a section of safety engineers alone. Essen tially it is a section of men who are doing engineering work of all kinds. Regular membership in the Engineering Section is tased on ten years of engineering work with five years in responsible charge. Associate mem bership is based on three years of engineering work. There are no dues, as you know, no initiation fees, for men connected with companies who are members of jthe National Safety Council. Safety men should, take this opportunity to have the engineers of the organization connected with this Engineering Section. It will help the safety man because it will give him an additional contact in his organization; it will give the safety man a chance to do Just the things that Dr. Little was telling us about.
The other important thing is that it will give the National Safety Council a larger group of technically trained men, on whom they can call as members of sub-committees to work on^odes and the development of technical subjects, the solution Of technical problems which are con stantly coming up and which can only be treated by committees made up of men who should be members of this Section.
I hope that yon will all make a special effort to get behind the meetings that are going to be held during this year.
REPORT OF THE NOMINATING COMMITTEE
F. A. Davidsox, Chairman
The committee recommends that the bvdaws be amended to provide
for the two most recent past chairmen to automatically become members
of the executive committee. In this, we are simply following the plan
of the National Safety Council itself.
'
(Motion made, seconded, and carried that the recommendation of the
committee be adopted.) Mr. Da.vidson:i The Nominating Committee proposes the following gen
tlemen: for chairman, Mr. W. S. Paine; for vice-chairman, Mr. J. I. Banash; for the. three places on the executive committee that are to be filled this year, Mr. C. R. Ailing, Mr. R. McA, Keown, and Mr. J. R.
Brownell.
.'
(Motion made, seconded and carried that" the report be accepted and
the nominations he closed, and the secretary instructed to cast the
unanimous ballot, and the officers declared elected by the chairman.)
REPORT OF ELECTRICAL COMMITTEE
1 S. E. .Whiting, Chairman
We were appointed about, two years ago to accumulate statistics of electrical accidents. Our field of activity has never been very carefully outlined, but I assume that we are dealing with the electrical hazard in industry in general, not the special electrical hazard of the public util ities, which is treated in other sections more technically. I also assume that we are dealing with low voltages, perhaps below 600 or 700 volts.
Mr. Williams sent out a form of report for such accidents, and they were Quite generally distributed with the request that reports on elec trical accidents ]be sent in some detail for jus to analyze. The situation
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now is that' we have about 130 reports on these blanks. That, of course, is not sufficient to make any detailed analysis from. Unfortunately, also, the blanks are not filled out in very much detail, so that we can't say, for example, whether the accidents occurred on open switches or on enclosed switches. I should say further that these reports were for electrical shock accidents on switches rather than on other electrical apparatus. I don'jt know just why that idea was started, to determine
whether there was a genuine need, for closed switches, whether or not they were distinctly superior to the old open knife switch, .but anyhow, we are getting statistics along that line which may some time be of value.
This hazard we are dealing with on low voltage is not a trivial hazard. It may be a fatal hazard, and It we can prevent even one or two fatal ities, I think we will justify the effort to go into the hazard.
It is very generally assumed in industry that no person can be killed on low voltage; that where they are killed, apparently from low voltage, the real situation is that a high tension leak has gotten through from the primary wires at 2300 volts or higher, and charged the secondary system to an abnormal voltage. I am thoroughly convinced that that is not the situation from the experience of my own company with elec trical shock cases. We have, and are now accumulating in our own' experience and other experiences that come to us, at least 25 genuine low voltage fatalities. Some of the cases were very carefully checked up
to throw out any chance of high tension leakage. They are genuine low
voltage fatalities. ` Some of them are 440 or 550 power circuits. Some
are on 110 volt lighting circuits. The Bureau of Standards confirmed
that impression, that you can be killed on low voltage from their own
researches. So you are considering a hazard that may prove fatal. In
these 125 reports we have about a dozen that were fatalities, and pre
sumably low voltage fatalities.
.
EVEN SAFETY SWITCHES NEED CAREFUL A.TTENTION
You may feel,' if you have ordered the removal of all open knife switches in your plant and the installation of enclosed or so-called safety switches, that you have donq your duty, and that thereafter you will not have any fatal electrical shocks. Unfortunately, that is not going quite far enough, because some of the fatalities, probably most of them, have occurred on the enclosed type of electrical apparatus, enclosed switch or enclosed starting box. Some of these deaths have occurred on those safety types of equipment, where there is no exposed live part apparent. The reason is that the equipment gets out of order, the insulation between the carry ing parts that are enclosed and the enclosing case itself breaks down and places a charge on the enclosure. That has sometimes been doubted, but I have personally in two cases, a day or two after the fatality, gone out and found by actual test that the charge was on the enclosing case, and the person who was killed in the handling of that case in starting the motor or throwing on the switch put his hands on something that was alive when it was1 supposed to be dead.
Those cases are extremely aggravating for the reason, that there is a very simple practical prevention of that charging of any known current-
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carrying part of your equipment. If you will see in your plants tliat all of those cases are permanently grounded you will eliminate the danger of accidental charge, and so far as my own experience goes, you will cut out a great majority of these low voltage death cases. I don't say the enclosed switch is not justified. It is justified. But you should go fur ther and see that the switch is properly grounded. Don't depend on the electrician to do that work, because until quite recently the National Electrical Code: has not made mandatory the grounding of the starting box or the switch case, and he may therefore omit such grounding.
The matter is particularly important in damp locations. Look partic ularly to the places where you have a damp place where the operator is well grounded, because those are the conditions under which he- may get a fatal shock. On lighting equipment at 110 volts fatalities are still rare, but they are neyertheless genuine. Don't let your men use brass sockets in damp locations. Don't let them use brass sockets going into boilers or tanks, because there they are particularly well grounded, so that the low voltage is enough to send a fatal current through the body. I hope the Committee can later on make a more definite report on the subject.
(Motion made, seconded and carried that the report be adopted.)
REPORT OF MEMBERSHIP ' COMMITTEE
J. I. Bakash, Chairman
'
The chairman! in his address gave most of the aims and objects of the
membership committee. It remains for me to do little but give you the figures on the final check-up. "We find that we have at the present time
the largest membership that the Engineering Section has so far" had. During the last six months new applications have been received in con
siderable numbers, and in addition to the figures which I am going to give you, there Are several Which have been received that we have not
yet been able to!act upon. The total membership of the section at present
in good standing is 269, divided as follows: Members, .174; Associate
Members, 95. 1
We hope that during the coming year we can not only increase this
total membership considerably, but increase it in the right way, that Is, by the addition t>f people who are not onlygoing to do some good to the section and the, rest of the Council, but also to themselves from their
association with us.
.
We had one or two peculiar experiences. We have had it happen that
a man applied for Associate Membership and his qualifications were
obviously such that he should he a full Member. We felt it incumbent upon ourselves to make him "a Member, much to his surprise, I suppose.
We have had the opposite happen also, where we regretted that a man's experience did hot warrant full membership. The section has always
been particularly careful to point out to all such applicants the proper
course of procedure to obtain full membership, and to advise them the
committee would automatically advance the grade where nothing hut the
term of years was necessary.
~
(Motion made, seconded and carried thatnhe report be accepted.)
Engineering Section
405
REPORT OF COMMITTEE ON GUILLOTINE PAPER CUTTERS
W. S. Paine. Aetna Life Insurance Company, Chaiujun ; S. E. Whiting, LIBERTY MOTCAL INSURANCE COJIPAKT; F. M. BOLLEN, IT. S. Casuai/tt Company; T. S. Waluxg, McGraw-Hill Company; A. P.
COSTIGANE, ONTARIO PULP AND PAPER MAKERS SAFETY ASSOCIATION, AND
L. Wm. Ferguson, Aetna Life Insurance Company, Secretary.
Guillotine Paper Gutters used largely iix the paper, printing and book
binding industries are a source of numerous accidents of a serious nature
since loss of fingers or bands frequently results:
'
A committee appointed from the Engineering Section of the National Safety Council has been studying the hazards and methods of safeguard ing these machines 'for the past year. Inquires have been sent to most of the manufacturers of Guillotine Cutters in this country as well as to a number of users of such machines, for information as to the most effec tive and practical safeguards that may be applied, from the viewpoint of both maker and usfer. A digest of such information received together with the observations of the committee on the subject is here given.
; how accidents' occur
It has been found! that accidents on power paper cutters usually occur because one of the following conditions obtains:
(a) The machine is running continuously and the operator gets out
of time or misjudges the descent of the knife and is caught.
(b) The machihe repeats unexpectedly because of machine defects
or from lack of proper care and attention.
(e)
Someone other than the operator trips the machine by stumbling or falling against the tripping lever.
(d) Close work such as label cutting is being performed where it is
necessary to hold in position the material being cut. On such
work the pile is often unstable and it is ah easy matter for a
. hand to slip under the knife.
METHODS OF SAFEGUARDING
It is thought that the following suggestions cover the more essential features to be considered in safeguarding these machines:
(a) The tripping lever should be so arranged and so located that it
_ will be impossible for falling material or for other workmen' to
trip the machine accidentally.
,
(b) A positive throw-out device should he incorporated to auto-:
matieally disconnect the power when the knife bar reaches its
upper limit of travel, thus making it impossible for the knife to
make a second stroke until the tripping lever is pulled.
On some cutters a' safety holt or pin is also inserted automat
(c)
ically so that the knife bar cannot start through a second rev
olution until the starting lev.er is; tripped.
-
On a number of machines provision is made for disengaging
the clutch: at any point of the stroke, thereby stopping the
machine instantly.
v
40G
Twelfth Safety Congress
MECHANICAL TWO HAND TRIPPER
The regular tripping lever B is locked in the off position and cannot be lifted until,the auxiliary handle O is pulled up, lifting the lug out of the icay. (The Seybold Machine CompanyO
(d)
A number of manufacturers and users have developed two .hand tripping devices which are designed to keep both of the oper ator's bands from under the knife while the cut is being made.
! MECHANICAL TWO HAND TRIP
*
i The latches of the lioo starting levers A. lore locked in. a slot cut in the steel arcs, one of which is shoicn at C. As the two levers are rig idly connected to a common shaft it is necessary to open both latches to oper ate the machine. '(Photograph fro m American Machin
ist.)
Engineering Section
407
Devices of this kind are somewhat similar to the two-hand trip
used oil power presses and are very effective -in eliminating
accidents. In most cases these appliances are mechanical and consist: of an auxiliary lever with various connections. This lever must he pulled in order t-hat the main starting'handle may in turn he tripped and cause the machine to function.
One type of two hand trip which may be used on cutters equipped with, only one tripping lever consists of a rod placed
under the table with a handle on one end and on the other a lug which rests on top of the main tripping lever, thus holding
it in the off position. When the auxiliary handle is pulled up the lug is lifted out of the way and the trip may be operated.
Another type of two-hand trip may be applied to certain makes, of cutters which are fitted with a cam arrangement con necting the tripping lever and the clutch operating mechanism. This consists of a slot cut In the cam into which a steel bar isfitted. The bar is attached to a rod terminating In a handle under the table and is held in place by a spring. It is necessary to pull the auxiliary handle to draw thenar from the cam slot before the regular starting handle can be putied. ."When the cutter
has completed one stroke -the steel bar is forced back into the
slot by the spring and the machine is locked;
.
ELECTRICAL
TWO
HAND
TRIP
,,
The operator is
shoton with his right
hand on the tripping
lever and his left
hand on. the push button. The mechan
ical operating lever
is locked in the off
position and cannot
function until the
p u s h b t t o n is
pressed thereby re leasing a catch
which normally en
gages a notch to hold
[the lever in position.
Details of the device
are shown in the suc
ceeding photograph
tvhieh portrays a
aide view of the machine. (Eastman
Kodak Company.) .
408
I Twelfth Safety Congress
Some makes of cutters are equipped by the manufacturer with
i
a tripping handle on each side o the machine. In a case of this kind both levers are usually connected to a common shaft iand the operation of either lever engages a clutch which drives; the knife operating mechanism. This arrangement enables the operator to trip the machine from either side, depending on his position. A simple two-hand trip for such a cutter consists of two arcs formed of steel bolted to the machine frame in such a position as to hold the latches of the two regular operating levers. As the two levers are rigidly connected to a common shaft it is necessary to open both latches before: the machine can operate.
MECHANICAL TWO HAND TRIP
Engineering Section
409
(e)
One user has developed an electrical two-hand trip which is controlled by a push button under the table. The mechanical operating: lever is locked in the oft position by this arrangement and cannot be pulled unless the operator with his free hand maintains pressure on the push button which by means of a solenoid releases a catch normally engaging a notch to hold the lever in position.
Accompanying .photographs show typical examples of two-
hand tripping devices.
.
'
Label cutting, sample cutting and similar close work probably comprise the most hazardous operations performed on these cut ters. It is usually. necessary to hold the material up to the knil'e and for this reason a two-hand trip must be rendered inoperative!- It seems that so far nothing' has been perfected by the builders to remove this hazard. However, a number of users have; developed special holding devices to overcome the difficulty. Such a device may consist of a, thin piece of wood with a handle affixed to the front face. Another type consists
BELT AND PULLEY SAFEGUARDS
Safeguards provided for belts and pulleys, flywheel and knife head
connecting rod of guillotine cutter.
410 Twelfth Safety Congress
of a steel block with a spring clip which engages over the top of tiie pile to he cut and firmly holds the material in place.
A: photograph of one of these holding devices is included at the : end of the report.
SUMMAEX
In summarizing it is- thought well to lay stress on the following essen tial points:
(a) All: paper cutters should be subjected to frequent and thor ough inspections. It is especially important that the driving and: clutch mechanisms be kept properly cleaned and lnbricated as well as free from defective or badly worn parts.
' All safety devices should he inspected to see that they are in good condition and functioning properly.
(b) A two-hand tripping device should be used under all possible conditions. It is thought that practically the only exception to this rule will be on label cutting, sample cutting and other fine
work where it is necessary t.o hold the material in position. A.
number of two-hand trips have been developed by manufac turers and users and it is believed that one can be devised for almost every type of machine.
HOLDING DEVICE FOR LABEL CUTTING
steel block icith spring clip tchich engages over the top of the material to lc cut and. firmly holds the pile in place. (Eastman Kodak font pant/.)
'Engineering Section
413
(c)
When label cutting and similar fine work is performed it will be necessary in many cases to render the two-hand trip inop erative. Such blocking off should be done only by someone in authority and the operator should "be provided with a holding device wliich toay be used in place of a hand to keep the mate
rial in position. When the particular job requiring this prac tice is completed, the use of the two-hand trip should be resumed immediately.
It is thought that observance of these regulations, together with rea sonable care on the part of the operator will greatly reduce accidents on guillotine paper cutters.
(Motion made, seconded and carried that the report be adopted.)
REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON FLYWHEELS
E. G. Tolsted, Chairman*
This committee was appointed at the first meeting after the last Con gress. We looked around and tried to get enough men interested in fly wheels to form a good committee, but we have not yet succeeded in Ailing it out.' We; have a few members, but not enough to cover the country as we should, and to cover the field of work that we have.
I should like to get the names of some more men who are interested in this flywheel proposition. We would also like to have reports from you as to flywheel accidents that you hear * of during the coming year. Accurate information regarding flywheel accidents is hard to obtain.
If you don't feel competent to make a report upon flywheel accidents, at
least send us the preliminary information regarding the accident and we
will come back at you with questions that will help you in making a
good report.
;
(Motion made, seconded and carried that Jhe report be accepted.) '
REPORTS ON SAFETY CODES
:
Chairman Pond a
.
You are all familiar with the safety code work that is being done by various comittees under the general auspices of the American Engineer
ing Standards Committee. While our representatives on these commit
tees are representatives of the whole Council, practically all of them are
members of the Engineering Section; their work' is of particular interest
to the Engineering Section and will therefore be reported at this time.
The Council has taken a leading part in safety code work. The Power
Press Code, formulated under our sponsorship, has been completed and
approved. Under our sponsorship also are the codes on Construction
Work, Paper and Pulp Mills, Textiles, and Forging, which have been dis
cussed at this Congress in the corresponding industrial sectional meet
ings. It should also he noted that our Chief Engineer, the Secretary of
this Section, has continued as chairman of the Safety Code Correlating
Committee which is the general stearing committee on the entire safety
code program.
.. '
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Twelfth Safety Congress
On some of the remaining codes on which we are represented, there
will be no report because the work has hardly gotten under way. Let us
now receive reports on those codes on which good progress has been
made.
j
^
LIGHTNING PROTECTION CODE
John R. Browneix
This committee has divided itself intersections to consider different phases of the lightning hazard. There have been several such sectional meetings since the last Congress, but no general committee meeting. The subject that has received the greatest^attention has been lightning rod
protection. After several revisions, that portion is now practically ready to go to the general committee and will, I think, be submitted and passed upon, probably within the next two or three months.
INDUSTRIAL SANITATION CODE
i ,. , L. D. BOTLISGAirE
A tentative draft of the Industrial Sanitation Code has been prepared, and forwarded^ to the representatives in July, 1923.
This report is divided into ten parts, including 31 sections, as follows:
Part 1: Sec. 1--Scope, Application and Compliance. Sec. 2.--Defini
tions.
|
.
Fart II: Sec. 3.--The Plant. ' "
Fart III: Sec. 4.--Ventilation. Sec. 5.--Removal of Injurious Sub
stances by Ventilation. (See Existing Code.)
'
Part IT : Sec. 6.--Lighting. Sec. 7.--Glare and Brightness. Sec. S.--
Exit and Emergency Lighting. Sec. 9.--Illumination Values Desirable for
Different Clashes of Worfe. Sec. 10.--Maintenance. (See existing- Code.)
Fart V: See. 11.--Toilet Facilities- Sec. 12.--Chemical Closets. Sec.
13.--Privies, ^ec. 14.--Urinals. Sec. 15.--Heating, Ventilation and Light
ing of Water (llosets, Chemical Closets, and Privies.
Fart VI* Sec. 16.----'Washing Facilities. Sec. 17.--Drinking Water. Sec. IS.--Dressing Facilities. Sec. 19.--Retiring Rooms for Females. Sec.
20.--Maintenance of Personal Service Facilities.
Fart VII: Sec. 21.--First Aid. Sec. 22.--Lunch Rooms. Sec. 23.--
Protective Clothing and Equipment. See. 24.--Females, Seats and Lifting
Weights.
;
._
Fart VIII*'! Sec. 25.--Removal of Dust. See. 26.--Removal of Fumes, Gases and Vapors. Sec. 27.--Hazardous Processes. Sec. 2S.--Work in
Compressed Air.
Fart IX: Sec. 29.--Establishments Manufacturing or Preparing Food
stuffs, Confections and Candy. Sec. 30.---Erection, Repair or Demolition
of Buildings. , Sec. Si.--Labor Camps and Cannery Camps.
Part Xs Sc. 32.--Periodic Physical Examinations. Sec. 33.--Indus trial Sickness. Records. Sec. 34.--Industrial Health and Medical Service.
Engineering Section
413
The above was sent out for the purpose of securing criticisms and com ments by members, and it is understood that within a short time the organization of the sectional committee will be more fully effected, when a meeting will be called to consider the numerous suggestions and com ments which have been received, and which have been tabulated.
The proposed code is comprehensive in its scope and it is believed should be of value in unifying the practices in all sections of the country.
SCHOOL LIGHTING CODE
G. H. STICKETEY
The committee has been organized under the regular procedure of the
American Engineering Standards Committee, with the scope of adopting
an American Engineering Standard Code of School Lighting under the
sponsorship of the Illuminating Engineering Society and the American
Institute of Architects. There are representatives on the sectional com
mittee of about twenty different organizations, which are understood to
include all of those having any major interest in the School Lighting
Code.
-i ,
--
The chairman of the sectional committee is Mr. L. B. Marks, consulting engineer of New York City, who is also chairman of the Illuminating Engineering Society's committee on lighting legislation.
The general movement to prescribe lighting for school rooms,' started a number of years ago, and in 1918, the Illuminating Engineering Society issued such a code, for the purpose of advising school authorities and forming a basis foi* legal regulations. This code was adopted by the New York State Board of Education and applied to schools receiving state aid. It also formed the foundation of the school lighting regulations for the State of Wisconsin, which were issued in 1921.
The practice has : advanced so rapidly in the last six years that the 1918 code was found to require complete revision. In order to facilitate action, it is planned by the Illuminating Engineering Society to submit the code formally to the sectional committee when It is in a form satis factory to that society. A preliminary draft of the code is now In definite form and has already been subject to a number of more or less extensive changes to meet criticisms received from various authorities. The code has been informally before the .sectional committee, the members of which have made sdme comment.
With the consent of the sectional committee, a draft was printed and submitted to the convention of the Illuminating Engineering Society at Lake George, N. Y., September 24 to 28, 1923. No important criticisms were brought out at this meeting, so that it would appear probable that the code will be formally submitted to the sectional committee at an early date for whatever action the committee may see fit to take.
Preceded by an explanatory introduction and definitions, the code con
sists of three sections, namely: Kules, why fulfillment of the rules is
important and how to comply with the rules.
.
414 Twelfth Safety Congress
The rules consist of a general requirement that buildings be so designed as to provide ample and suitably natural illumination in class, study and similar rooms during the hours of normal daylight, and fur ther, that all parts of the school plant shall be provided with suitable illumination, natural or artificial, to insure safety and freedom from eye strain whenever in use. Eight detail rules specify the specific require ments for securing and maintaining this condition, the title of these rules are as follows:
1. Intensity of Illumination.
2. Avoidance of Glare.
'
3. Distribution of Artificial Light.
4. Color and Finish of Interiors.-
5. Switching and Controlling Apparatus.
6: Exit and Emergency Lighting.
7. Inspection and Maintenance.
8. Black Boards.
This section thus comprises a specification in engineering form, on
which legislative or departmental regulations may be based. As far as practicable, it prescribes results to be obtained so as to leave as wide a
latitude as possible regarding the means to be employed. In some cases,
however, it has been found necessary to specify the means.
The fulfillment of rules section discusses the rules explaining why good
lighting is important and why various features are specified.
The how to comply with the rules section explains and suggests means
of complying with the rules, especially with regard to the present state
of the art. This section contains a treatise on illuminating design, iUtas-
trated by specific problems. It warns against a number of common
faults and points out practical methods of maintaining illumination con
ditions and preventing depreciation. The chapter on Glare Is a compilation of the best information and
theory on this subject. It grades both the requirements and various pur
poses of the .light sources in a practical way. which should prove of real assistance In eliminating this menace. The improved methods of window
shading receive careful consideration under this heading.
The code as a whole, is based on a wide range of experience, both in
lighting practice and lighting regulations. Not the least important is the experience in prescribing the Industrial Lighting Code, which is now an
American Engineering Standard, and which has served as a foundation
for the industrial lighting regulations now in force in a number of the
leading industrial states, such as New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania.
Wisconsin, California.
**
When a few minor points still under consideration are settled, your rep
resentative believes the instrument will be the best that can be produced at this time. Recognizing that it will still be desirable to modify the
code slightly from time to time with the increase in knowledge and with
the advancement in the art, your representative is convinced that it is
an important contribution to safety, and that it will do much to facilitate
great work of preserving the eyesight of the school children of the nation.
Engineering 'Section
415
Believing the School Lighting Code is in full harmony with the pur
poses of the National Safety Council, your representative recommends it
as worthy of your hearty support.
'
DUST EXPLOSION HAZARDS COMMITTEE OF THE NATIONAL FIRE PROTECTIVE ASSOCIATION
H. M. Nichols
I am pleased to report that the Dust Explosion Hazards Committee of the National Fire Protection Association has made substantial progress in the last year. Tentative regulations for the control of explosion hazards in flour and feed mills, and the grinding and pulverizing systems for cocoa have been worked out in tentative form. These tentative regu lations were submitted at the annual convention of the National Fire Protection Association In May 7 and were adopted by the association in tentative form.
In addition to the above, regulations for pulverized fuel systems were submitted with a preamble exempting power plant Interests for the ensu ing year in order to afford representation of these interests on the Dust Explosion Hazards Committee. Regulations covering the important sub ject of terminal elevator control were submitted as a progress report in order to comply with the request of the Terminal Elevator Grain Mer chants Association for representation on the Dust Explosion Hazards Committee, and to secure the cooperation of the trade during the coming year.
The National Fire Protection Association took the following action on
the various regulations submitted:
-
The regulations for sugar pulverizing, flour and feed mills and
cocoa pulverizing were tentatively adopted in the convention on May 8, with the understanding that the committee would make the minor changes necessary. The pulverized fuel regulations were adopted with the preamble recommended by tbe committee and the elevator regulations presented as a progress report and referred back to the committee to afford an opportunity for rep resentation by the Terminal Elevator Grain Merchants Asso
ciation.
-
In addition to the above regulations which were submitted to the National Fire Protection Association, this committee is actively working on the following codes for industries:
1. Regulations for starch factories.
.
2. Regulations for installation of sulphur crushing and pulverizing
systems. '
3. Regulations for pulverizing metals.
4. Regulations for spice plants and coffee grinding.
5. Regulations for paper mills, woodworking plants, rubber and tex
tile plants.
-
416
Twelfth Safety Congress
IDENTIFICATION OF PIPING SYSTEMS
H. P. Weaver and S. H. Kershaw
The Committee on Code for Identification of Piping Systems was or ganized October, 1921, the American Engineering Standards Committee assigning its sponsorship to the American Society of Mechanical Engi neers and the National Safety Council. The personnel of the committee appears in ah appendix at the end of this report.
The first year was spent in collecting data and getting into touch with
the wide range of organizations whose interests will be affected by the
code.
'
At a full commitee meeting, the report of the Sub-Committee on Plan and Scope was presented, discussed, and accepted with slight modifica tions. This report covered the work of the period just mentioned, and may be briefly summarized as follows:
It provides for sub-committees to carry on future work in identification
by color, classification, identification markings, other than colors and
executive committee.
'
The work already done by the sub-committee on plan and scope limits the code to identification of piping systems in industrial and power
plants not including pipes buried in the ground. Piping systems includ
ing the fittings, valves, and pipe coverings are defined as hollow conduit for the transport of gases, liquids, semi-liquids or plastics. A power plant is given a wide interpretation, but does not include operations per formed for other purposes than the transfer of units of heat from one form into another more readily usable form.
The sub-committee during its year of work gave considerable thought to identification by colors. It had two difficulties to face. First was tb.e impossibility of assigning a particular color to every product liable to be transported. This was met by dividing all products Into five general classes as follows: safe products, extra valuable materials, dangerous materials, protective materials, and fire control equipment.
Each of these divisions is to be given a major color, and the various
sub-divisions that a plan might need are to be obtained by the use of
numbers, names, or the like, painted in white or black upon background
of the color selected.
.
The second difficulty has been to find paints which would retain their colors under all conditions of service. Members of the committee with the widest experience in this matter have found it almost Impossible to use paints when subjected to various fumes. Taking the present state of the art into account it was thought best to make the following tentative assignments :
Safe products ......................................................-............................................. .Yellow
Extra valuable materials......................................................
Aluminum
Dangerous materials ................................................................................. .Black
Protective materials..............................................................................................Green
Fire control equipment .................................................
Red
Engineering Section
417
In the future prosecution of the work it is proposed:
,
That the Sub-Committee on Identification of Colors make the suggestions for various colors, giving confirmatory evidence that these colors can be universally used and "preparing specifi
cations tor the preparations of the paints selected.
That the Sub-Committee on Classification communicate with the representatives of the various industries obtaining from each a list of the materials piped through its plants, this data to be combined, and each then classified according to the five major classifications already selected.
That the Sub-Committee on Identification Markings Other Than Color investigate form and shape methods of identification, and
_ make recommendation as to the most practical method of mark ing. Upon agreement it shall meet jointly with the Sub-Com mittee on Classification for the purpose of applying definite markings to the list of materials submitted by that committee. It is further recommended that upon the completion of the Code and the dissolution of the Main Committee, a Permanent Committee be appointed by the American Engineering Standards Committee, this Permanent Committee to sit continuously, modi fying the Code from time to time according to changes in requirements.
The two representatives of the National Safety Council on the Main Committee are Mr. S. H. Kershaw, of Hercules Powder Company, Wil mington, Delaware, and Mr. H. P. Weaver, of Independence Bureau, Philadelphia, Pa. They are serving on the working sub-committees of the general committee.
PERSONNEL OF SECTIONAL COMMITTEE ON CODE FOR IDENTIFICATION OF PIPING SYSTEMS
SPONSORS----National Safety Council, The American Society of Mechanical Engineers.
CHAIRMAN-- A. S. Hebtole, Southern Pacific Co., American S.- S. Lines, Pier 49, North River, New York City.
SECRETARY--------I. G. Hoagland. National Automatic Sprinkler Association, 80 Maiden Lane, New York City.
Organization RepresentedName and. Business, Affiliation of Representative
Class of
AMERICAN GAS ASSOCIATION--
Representative
H. E. Rates, Asst, to Chief Operating Engineer, The Peoples
Gas, Light & Coke Co., Chicago, 111..................................................................
C
AMERICAN SOCIETY OF SAFETY ENGINEERS----W. J. Venning, Supervising ' Safety Engineer, Aetna Life Insurance Co., 100 Williams St., New York City.............................
GI
AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERS, DEPT. OP WATER SUPPLY, GAS AND ELEC
TRICITY-- H. S. Wynkoop, Electrical Engineer, Dept, of Water Supply,
Gas, Electricity, Room. 2300, Municipal Bldg., N. Y. City. .
C
AMERICAN INSTITUTE OP CHEMICAL ENGINEERS--: Crosby Field, National Aniline & Chemical Co., 21 Burling '
Slip, N. Y. City............................................................................................................................
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41S
Twelfth Safety Congress
AMERICAN SOCIETi' OF REFRIGERATING ENGINEERS-- F\ X. Speller, Metallurgical Engineer, National Tube Co., Pittsburgh. Pa..............................................................-..........................................................
AMERICAN SOCIETY OF HEATING AND VENTILATING ENGINEERS-----
A. K. Olimes. Consulting: Engineer, 101 Park Ave,, New York City ------;..............................................................................................................................................
BUREAU OF STANDARDS-----
-
I. J. Fairchild, Bureau of Standards, Washington, D. C.............
ASSOCIATED MFRS. OF ELECTRICAL SUPPLIES----Oscar Hoppe, American Circular Loom Co.. 90 West St.. N. Y. City....................................................................................................................................
compressed; GAS MANUFACTURERS' association-- H. S. Smith, Prest-O-Lite Co.. Inc.. 30 East 42nd St., New York City.......................................................................................................................................
HEATING AND PIPING CONTRACTORS' NATIONAL ASSN.-- R. A. Wolff, Wolff & Munier, Inc., 405 Lexington Ave., New York City..................................................................................................................................................
INTERNATIONAL ACETYLENE ASSOCIATION----R. E. Bruckner, United States Gage Co.. 44 Beaver St., New
York City .............................................................................................................................................
NATIONAL SAFETY COUNCIL----H. P. Weaver, Independence Bureau, 137 South Fifth St., Philadelphia, Pa...............................................................................................................................
NATIONAL SAFETY COUNCIL,----S. H. Kershaw, HerculesPowder Co., Wilmington, Del................................
NATIONAL PAINTS. OIL AND VARNISH ASSOCIATION-----
.
H. A. Gardner, Educational Bureau Scientific Section, Paint
Mfrs. Assn., 1845 "B" St., N. W,, Washington, D. C.....................
NATIONAL PAINT MANUFACTURERS* ASSOCIATION----F. P. Ingall3, Chief Chemist, John W. Masury & Sons Co., 44* Jay St., Brooklyn, N. Y....................................................................................................
NATIONAL VARNISH MANUFACTURERS' ASSOCIATION------E. J. Cole, Chief Chemist. Hilo Varnish Corporation, Marcy and Flushing Avenues. Brooklyn, N. Y..........................................................
NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF ELECTRICAL CONTRACTORS
AND DEALERS----- -
F. C. Smith, J. P. Hall-Smith Co., 320 Fifth Ave., N. Y. City. .
NATIONAL FIRE PROTECTION ASSOCIATION-----
J. C. Forsyth, Electrical Engineer, N. Y. Board of Fire Under writers, 123 Williams St., N. Y. City.............................................................
NATIONAL ELECTRIC LIGHT ASSOCIATION----G. W. Saathoff, H. L. Doherty & Co., 24 State St., N. Y. City. .
NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF STATIONARY ENGINEERS----Willis Lawrence, Interboro Rapid Transit Co., Power Station. Fifty-ninth St. and N. R-, N. Y. City..........................................................
NATIONAL AUTOMATIC SPRINKLER ASSOCIATION----I. G. Hoagland. National Automatic Sprinkler Association....
SOCIETY OF NAVAL ARCHITECTS AND MARINE ENGI
NEERS-- A. S. Hebble, Superintending Engineer, Southern Pacific Co..
American S. S. Lines, Pier 49, North River, N. Y. City____ -
THE AMERICAN SOCIETY OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERS-- W. S. Morrison. N. Y. Edison Co.. 130 E. 15th St., N. Y. City. .
THE AMERICAN SOCIETY OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERS----Ross S. Peck. Dwight P. Robinson Co., Inc., Grand Central Palace,' N. Y. City. -............................................................................................................
U. S. NAVY DEPARTMENT----L. W. Bates. Project Manager. Power Plant Section, Bureau of Yards and Docks. Navy Dept., Washington. D. C...................
U. S. NAVY" DWPARTMENT----Lieut. G. W. Nelson (CC). Bureau <?C Construction and Repair, U. S. Navy Dept.. Washington, D. C...........................................
STATE OF NEW YORK----It. C. Taggart. New York. State Department of Architecture. The Capitol, Albany. N. Y.........................................................................................
Classification of Personnel Producers .............................................................. .............................................. 4 Consumers .............................................................................................................. 14
General Interests............................................................................................... 9
27
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Engineering Section
41.0
AERONAUTIC SAFETY CODE
George E. Peterson
The work of preparing the Code was at first divided into five parts: airplane structure--design, construction and test; power plant--design, construction and test; equipment and maintenance of airplane; lighter than air craft, Walloons, airships, parachutes and kites; airdromes and traffic rules, landing fields, airports, signals and qualifications of pilots. Later, this work was again subdivided so that now there are seven parts to the Code.
The section on airplane structure is divided into 16 parts as follows:
1. General Features of Design.
.
2. Longitudinal Stability, and Balance.
3. Control Arrangements.
4. landing Gear.
5. Accommodation of Pilot and Passenger.
6. Precaution Against Injury in Accident to Airplane.
7. Material of Construction.
8. General Requirements of Wooden Members.
9. Specific Requirements of Wooden Members.
10. Metal Parts.
11. Fire Prevention. General Requirements.
12. Fire Resistance in Airplane Construction.
13. Engine Installation.
H. Exhaust Manifold Arrangement.
'
15. Ignition and Other Electrical Apparatus.
16. Fire Preyention and Equipment.
.
This draft was circulated as widely as possible with, the result that over 200 individuals had an opportunity to review and criticise the work. In the work on power plants, it was necessary to go into minute details bat effort was made to lay down rigid requirements without undue hard ship on the manufacturer. This section deals with engine specifications, propellers, lubrication and cooling ignition, ground test in various ways, engine mounting and general accessories, such as control and instruments.
The sub-committee on airplane structure held its last meeting a.t Washington on September 26. It is estimated that 90 per cent of the work is now completed.
WOODWORKING CODE
Chairman Fonda: Our representative on this committee, Mr. Regula,
is not present so I will call on Dr. Chaney, chairman of the committee.
Dr. Li. W. Chaney: The present situation with regard to the Wood
working Code is that a few minor changes and additions must be made
to the Code, and it is .hoped that it will be possible to submit it to the
Engineering Standards Committee at the next meeting after the October
meeting.
.
Two other Codes have been completed and actually approved, the Code
on Mechanical Transmission of. Power and the Code on Ladders for
various purposes. In some cases the printing of these Codes Is done by
the sponsor bodies; in certain other cases the Codes have been turned
over to .the. United States Bureau of Labor Statistics, which is publishing
them as the Safety Code Series of its Bulletins, so that the U. S. Bureau
420
Twelfth Safety Congress
of Labor Statistics is undertaking- to supply in practically unlimited quantity copies of these various Codes as they finally come to the point of approval by the American Engineering Standards Committee. ,
(Motion made, seconded and carried that the report be accepted.) Chairman Fonda: I will ask Mr. Paine, the newly elected Chairman, to preside during the balance of the meeting, so that you will know who Mr. Paine is and can give him a good start on his next year's program.
ADDRESS OF CHAIRMAN-ELECT
W_ S. Paine
I want to fake this occasion of thanking you for this opportunity
of serving as Chairman of this Section, because I speak truthfully
when I say that it is a duty and a chance really to do something.
We have developed, this past year, a few researches which will be
of benefit to the Council and I hope that next year we may take on
four or five more. I want to emphasize the point that we don't want a
"high-brow" development under the name of research, but we want a
good, practical development of every problem we tackle. So I am going
to ask you, if you have any specific problems with which you are labor
ing, to seek the Council for help on that specific problem, and I will
guarantee if it is within our power we will not send you a simple photo
graph that was printed ten years ago and say that is the solution, but-
will do our best to bring the matter up to date. I make that explanation
because I have seen some reports in which there are photographs which
you men have reviewed nearly every year for ten years. Now let us
shake ourselves from that state of lethargy and let us do some real
development work. You only have to work on the color for traffic
signals, and get the correspondence with various police and city officials
from coast to coast, to realize how little work has been done on certain
phases of public safety, and what a crying need there is for aid along
these specific lines.
_. ..
PRESSURE VESSELS
Samuel S. Caskey, Engineering Department, E. I. du Pont de Nemours & Company, Wilmington, Del. -
The subject "High Pressure Vessels" as understood in this discussion
deals with those vessels employed in chemical and similar processes
other than steam vessels, such as boilers, steam accumulators, digesters,
air pressure tanks, hydraulic apparatus, etc., for which laws have already
been laid down and formulae for designing have already been authorized
and compiled by many states, "The American Society of Mechanical
Engineers," and other engineering societies. They are variously called
in the trades autoclaves, converters, . reactionary kettles, thionators,
chloronators, carbonization kettles, dissolving kettles, fusion kettles,
jacketed nitrators, sulphurating kettles, etc. The typical vessel I have
selected is the autoclave, or closed, high pressure, high temperature,
agitation vessel, carrying pressures from 60 to 1,500 lbs. and temperatures
from 212 to 600F.
.
Engineering Section
421
Eight or ten years ago most of the designs followed English and German practice; since then the apparatus has been redesigned and built more according^ to American ideas. In the same time there have been built in this country about 200 different types, of which I have designed 70 or more for'the company with which I am associated. In fact, during that time the advance in high pressures and high temper atures has been very marked, and it is hard to tell how rapid the demands on our ability to design and our knowledge of materials will be.
We are at present reaching pressures double this and temperatures approaching the critical temperature. The distinguishing feature of all these vessels is the combination of such advanced pressures and tem peratures which set up complicated and terrific strains and I wish to tell you some of the troubles we have had in our experience in design ing for efficiency and safety. You will appreciate these troubles when you learn some of the requirements of the processes.
The higher pressure vessels are nearly all closed fusion reactionary vessels and seldom have there been two of one design, some detail always varying for a special reason. Heating and cooling in these ves sels is nearly always very rapid to save time in the process yet some of the processes last three to four days. One instance of terrific grief to any kind of vessel is the case we have of a reaction kettle in which at a critical point in the process and when the materials are at red heat, water is introduced to produce pressure within the vessel for decanting a very quick setting material. Imagine the expansion and contraction strains under this treatment; the control depends entirely on the opera tors watching the steam gauge. In many cases the reactions get beyond control and safety valves must be relied on. In other cases it is hard to get the proper heat arrangements so that there may be ' uniformity
of heating. Some vessels requiring low temperatures may be heated by steam,
jacketing. High temperature vessels must be heated by oil jacketing and vessels requiring still higher temperature may be fired directly with gas or oil, and we have still other types that must be heated to the critical pressure and critical temperature, which means that this com bination of pressure and temperature is the point at which water and steam have the same properties, that is, the same weight per cubic foot and the same heat content. Another way of putting it, is that we have come to the end of our steam tables as they are used today and modern authorities differ as to their exact value. You will see that we have already arrived at a mechanical and manufacturing stage which had its inception over fifty years ago and had to do with the realm of thermo dynamics. In fact we are beginning to work with a condition that is very unstable and beyond which little or nothing-positive is known as yet.
At this writing we have news from. England printed in the magazine
Power of a steam plant using 3,200 lbs. pressure and 706" F\ temperature.
422
Tivelfth Safety Congress
To go deeply into the subject of design would require a great deal more time and space than we have at our command at present. The divisions and sub-divisions of the facts to be considered in designing are very numerous and we will only speak of th most important points.
GBNEBAI. CHABACTEBISTICS IN' DESIGN
Our first task and first consideration were metallurgical, that is,
whether the vessels should be made of cast iron, steel, or welded steel,
and what quality of welding should be used.
Most European designers carred extreme fiber strains which were too
high for this class of manufacture, because there is a safety factor for
expansion and contraction required beyond anything allowed in the
past. Seldom, if ever, do we allow strains gerater than 6,000 lbs. in
cast steel, 1,500 to 2,000 lbs. in cast iron. Autogenously welded vessels
are permitted to carry 8,000 lbs. extreme fiber strain, but electric or
acetylene work should not be used except for very moderate pressure
in welding pressure-vessels because of the human element entering into
the welding operation, and the greater susceptibility to corrosion of tne
weld.
-
Our second problem was to design a vessel of such shape as could
economically handle the quantity, of material which was to be worked,
and of such shape that the greatest strength-, and adaptability would aid
in the fabrication of the vessel.
In all of these different types and combinations of temperature and
pressures, we have the difficulty of supplying proper safety valves or
relief mechanisms. The standard steam and air types were inadequate at these high pressures, because while the valve would iu most cases
relieve at the proper pressure, it would not return to the seat until the
vessel was emptied, this being due to the fact that after the valve
started to discharge, we had to contend with the inertia of the discharge
which required more power to return the valve to its original seating. Furthermore, the valves and pipe connections o them became clogged,
and it became necessary to discharge safety valves into catch tanks in
order to save valuable material. To overcome this difficulty, we intro
duced safety discs in tandem with the safety valves. The safety discs
were made of taggers tin which were inserted between 1 inch pipe flanges
located in a pipe line of tee construction at a distance of 3 feet above
the autoclave cover. Due to the inaccuracies of manufacture and lack
of homogenous quality in the tin, these discs were found to be uncertain
but within safe limits. In one case the disc had fractured and the valve
was found to be choked with material and the valve stems rusted in
their bearing. The valve was cleaned and oiled and, with a new disc,
was replaced on the autoclave. The difficulty in securing uniformity of
strength in the taggers tin compelled us to start a series of tests which
are still continuing and we are making tests of other alloys for the
purpose of substituting a better material if possible. Continual surging
under normal conditions, however, does not seem to effect the strength
of the tin.
.
Engineering Section
423
These discs start to stretch immediately a small amount of pressure is applied; this stretch continues until the material in the disc assumes a semi-convex shape which occurs when 75 per cent of the total fracture pressure has been- applied. There is no perceptible stretch after this percentage has been reached. When the fracture pressure is reached,
the disc cracks for a distance of % in. across center, then turns toward
edge along two lines about % in. in length, making a gap in the disc which relieves the pressure.
To solvei the difficulty, we have already designed two types of safety valves, neither. of which was entirely successful and it is our problem to go further with this item.
The general outline of the vessel in mind is a flanged cylinder with a spherical bottom, closed with a lid also spherical and flanged, with the drive mechanism, manholes, thermometer wells, and sampling entrances that are to be accommodated and superimposed. The most difficult problem is that of making the joint between the lid and body. The material of the Joints must first withstand the chemical action of the charge. It must also be tough enough to resist the pressure on the joint. The ordinary fabric and composition materials fail very often and quite often we must introduce grooves and metallic gaskets, but we are not yet able to consider this matter solved.
The fact that all drives, manholes, thermometer wells and sampling entrances must be accommodated on the lid and all joints packed makes the problem one of machine design.
All the foreign frame work on drive mechanisms was so designed that the strains from the gearing were transverse, requiring a great deal of material in the construction which even then permitted in the case of bevel gearing a toggling strain in the teeth of the gears, which in some cases raised the power consumed to double and triple. The frame work was usually of cast iron and of eye section and the gearing and other rotating parts were uncovered and improperly oiled. All this we have redesigned, placing the strains in torsion and housing all gearing with the gearing running in oil. Another foreign feature which we had to do away with was the step bearing which not only became clogged and jammed with material, but due to the corrosive action of the con tents, loosened all rivets or bolts and when we attempted to weld it In place this action attacked the welding. To make up for this our upper bearing of the agitator shaft was supported in a long suspended tube reaching as far into the autoclave as was permissible. When oil was permitted at all within the autoclave, we provided means for carrying oil to it. The bushings in this bearing were sometimes cast iron, some times brass and sometimes graphite-filled. At the upper end was placed a double stuffing box of material depending on the beat of the process and the nature of the chemical, and many had to be water or oil jacketed.
424
- Twelfth Safety Congress
'i
AGITATOB
Another trouble, subject for consideration, is the agitator which at present has no system of design whatever. The energy consumed by a badly designed agitator is very great, and I might say-the efficiency and the yield of any process of necessity depend on whether an agitator does the proper work or not.
The introduction of thermometer decanting and sampler tubes extend ing deeply into the autoclave interferes with the design of the agitator, cutting the transverse members which were often required for stability and producing the proper needing of semi-fluid material and creating
proper vortex tendencies in fluid material. It is known, every material entering into mixing vessels must have its own characteristic handling by the agitator. Types of agitators are gridiron, paddle, spiral and reverse spiral, crank motion or needing arms, plow and harrow, and many propeller types, open and closed, and all of them must be sus pended from the upper or lid bearing; in fact there are those in which the agitator must be raised and lowered in and out of the mass.
Our experience has taught us that in designing bolts for the head, care should be taken not to have these bolts too powerful, for the reason that in erecting the autoclave they might be pulled so tight as to strain the flanges and thereby make the joints conical. Once this happens, it is almost impossible to recover tightness.
We have learned also that when open slot holes are used in the upper flange of the vessel, .they positively must be round and not square at the bottom of the slot, because in casting, shrinkage strains develop at sharp corners, and in bolting, they will gradually fatigue under repeated tightening of the bolts and rupture. In casting a vessel, it is necessary to cast it with the flange up so that the bottom will be of clean material without blow-holes, sand-holes or cold shots. Therefore, such material should be run as a header to the flange metal to make a homogeneous and perfect flange. This same applies to the lid. We have been com pelled to give up casting vessels of so-called semi-steel, except in very small dimensions, for it Is impossible in a large casting to keep the
steel from segregating at the bottom while cooling in the mould. It
invariably results in a distinct line of separation between the cast iron and the steel, and particularly in direct firing, will result in the expan sion and contraction taking place - in thfs particular line and nearly always breaking away causing damage and danger.
In all this design work we have had constantly before us a safetyfirst thought as a duty in this work and the object of this paper is simply to introduce to the National" Safety Council the subject of this class of vessels and what we have aimed to do along safety lines.
Considering the increased requirements over usual custom and. after a discussion with all those concerned, we ordered to be followed out a definite plan of periodic inspection and report to detect weakness and forestall accident. Following out these orders, an inspector versed in this work and with proper mechanical training, was appointed to make the first inspection. For his aid, I prepared two questionnaires, one for
Engineering Section
425
data to b<e collected, aad one on wbicb to report inspection facts. All vessel* were fitted wit& t&erxDO-co'aples and potentiometers for observa tion and coscrot dertag operations. Test data of manufacture was stamped wtwm ppgaffW and poster* of tfce last inspection were attached to create eosMeaee ami eocaMSeit morale. We bare followed, and are
still foBowins n these hmcrtoM.
rmcM. jesrpotcr op inspection a*ay 3i,, 1923.
uagpgcTKae op pbesscbs vessexs
DESIGN DATA
Works;
' Hoose: BttUdnr NumtHtr
TitIf-: Awtetav* X*. 2
Drawing;
Mnniflttmw:________________________________Dai ftwtaCwt:
DfaoMtsr aoe leagxh Cspec-tty J srtacn: Mattriia u< >;tense* of shell: Type an* elkaaq < Umetgu seam: Size and spaaing eC met Poles; Type and iiltderieir ctr. seam: Size aa<t etua *f mt holes: Shape sad thickwess of cover; Kind of material to cower: Shape and thickness of bottom: Kind of material in bottom: Number and diameter of bolts: Calculated bursting pressure:
Steel Hammer lap-weld 7*5*
Nece
None None
Concsee Cast steel
Cbnvex X*&Plate steel-welded
Z1-----3" dbu nickel steel, 109,000 T- S, *.800--55,096 x 70 X 2 X LS
45
Test pressure:
950 lbs.
Working pressure:
050 lbs-
___
Stress in shell:
14.000 lbs. TJP. 9,730 lbs. W.P.
Stress in 'Cover:
9.500 lbs. T-P. 6.500 lbs. W.P.
Stress in bottom:
14.000 lbs. T-P. 9.750 lbs. W.P.
Stress in holts:
11.600 lbs. TP. 8,000 lbs. W.P.
Kind, of gaskets:
Norway Iron
Source of heat:
Gas fired
Extreme temperature:
200'CL
Remarks: Safety discs as Installed by actual trial fractures at 1,350 lbin
which would have allowed the material in vessel to reach its
elastic limit.
____
June 29. 1923.
INSPECTION OP PRESSURE VESSELS
.
DESIGN DATA
Works:
Title: Autoclave No. 1 Manufacturer:_______________________________
House: Building Number Drawing No.
Date Installed:_______________________________________
Diameter and length (inside) :
Capacity in gallons: Material and thickness of shell: Type and efficiency of long, seam:
Size and spacing of rivet holes: Type and. erfieiency of cir. seam: Size and pitch of rivet holes:
Shape and thickness of cover: Kind of material in cover: Shape and thickness of bottom: Kind of material in bottom: Number and diameter of bolts: Calculated bursting pressure:
3'0"--5'9Uj."
325
'
Cast steel 2%~
None
No rivets
None
No rivets
Convex Cast steel Convex
S^66l 20--3" diameter
4,800 lbs.
Mayarl steel 55,000 X .7 X 2.25
Test pressure:
Working pressure: Stress in shell: Stress in cover:
Stress in bottom: Stress In bolts (middle): Stress In bolt3 (main):
Kind of gaskets: Source of heat:
Extreme temperature:
Remarks:
900 lbs. 600 lbs.
7,200 T.P.
7,200 T.P. 7,200 T.P. 15,500 T.P. 15,000 T.P. Gas fired 240C.
4,800 W.P.
4,800 W.P.
4,800 W.P. 10.200 W.P. 10,000 W.P.
36
426 Ttcelfth Safety Congress
INSPECTION OK PRESSURE VESSELS
: INSPECTION DATA
Works:
:
Title: Autoclave No. 6
Manufacturer:
House: Building- Number Drawing No.:
Date Installed:____ ______
Date of Inspection: May 31. 1923 Hydrostatic test applied: Test temperature: Duration of hydrostatic test: Description of leaks:
Pressure ordinarily used: Maximum working temperature: Size and type of safety valve: Number of safety valves: Location of safety valves: Safety valves loaded to: Type, size and thickness of safety disc: Number of safety discs: Location of safety discs: Fracturing pressure of safety disc: Date new safety disc was inserted: Condition of bolts and studs: External condition of shell: Internal condition of shell: Requirements of apparatus:
Remarks: (S) M. E. Bonyun
Date of last inspection: March 31, 1923
875 lbs.
95*C. 15 min.
None (did leak slightly at manhole,
stuffing box: and thermometer well)
600 lbs.
175*0.
None
,
None
Tagger's tin--diameter 1 % " x .010 2
On T-pipe leading to catch tank 1.250 lbs. (50% high) June 2, 1923 Good Good--as far as can be seen Good Charged with neutral dye; begins at at
mospheric temp.--goes to 175"C*--0 to 6o0 lt>. pressure; hold temp, and pressure for 3S hours. Cooled down
in 3 hours and discharged. (S) F. P. Ernst, Supervisor
INSPECTION OF PRESSURE VESSELS.
INSPECTION DATA
Works:
i
Title: Autoclave No. 1
Man ufaoturer:
Date of Inspection: June 29. 1923
July ii. 1923
House: Building Number
Drawing No.: Date Installed: Date of last Inspection:
Hydrostatic test, applied: Test temperature: Duration of hydrostatic test: Description of leaks: Pressure ordinarily used: Maximum working temperature:* Size and type of safety valve: Number of safety valves: Location of safety valves: Safety valves loaded to: Type, diameter and thickness of
safety disc: Number of safety discs: Location of safety discs: Fracturing pressure of safety discs: Dale new safety disc was inserted:
Condition of bolts and studs: External condition of shell: Internal condition of shell: Requirements of apparatus: Remarks: (S) M. E. Bonyun
900 lbs. 120"-I25C. 1 hour None 600 lbs.
240C. Lonergan--found loaded to 750 lbs. One On discharge line outside of building 750 lbs. Tagger's tin, 2 3/16" diameter, .012"
thick--found broken One Between vessel and safety valve 750 July 10, 1923, Tagger's tin, .010 thick.
23/16" diameter
Good Good as far as can be seen Not examined Same as No. 3
(S) H. A. Mahr, Supervisor
- DISCUSSION
Mr. J. 1. Banash: I am glad to hear Mr. Caskey's remarks, about rup turing disc for high pressures. I have recently heard of considerable work that has been carried on in the last year or so which I know will interest him. I am assured by the investigators, although I have not checked the tests, that control of high pressure can be obtained from very low pressures up to 2,000 or 3,000 pounds with an accuracy in the
Engineering Section
427
neighborhood Of five per cent,' which is pretty fair and. I am assured these discs are Quite completely sheared. Any contribution in that direc tion from individual firms or from the Engineering Section Is going to be of distinct value to industry, because we all know that poppet valve construction, while it has reached a degree of perfection suitable to some Industries, is not suitable for others, owing to the inertia effects and certain other functions, such as settling of some of the material on tbe seats. It is' very difficult to be sure that a poppet valve is going to close after it has performed its function, and if it has not been called upon to function for a nurnber of years, we are not entirely certain it will func tion when called' upon.
Another point was Mr. Caskey's conservative, carefully worded state ment regarding how far they go with welding. I think from his view point, and undoubtedly from his experience, he said just about all he wanted to at .this time. My personal opinion, speaking from my fairly close contact with oxyacetylene welding, is that the technique of the art, the actual application of the process, is developing from day to day to meet conditions as they come up, and that this technique will be developed together with the improvement in the actual filler rods, so that the industry can look very hopefully toward progress from year to year and in the course of a few years the results obtained will be com parable perhaps with the difference in Mr. Caskey's work compared with what Messrs. Maxwell and Latour could not do at all and quit trying to do in their time.
With your permission, Mr. Chairman, I would like to move a vote of thanks to Mr. Caskey because this paper is in the form of an address and not a report of a committee.
(Motion seconded and carried.)
Mr. Caskey: I don't want to give anybody the impression there is any
criticism on acetylene welding or electrical welding. We have stacks
of equipment of that kind. It Is only that queer combination of hot
acid, hot material and the pressures combined with It which won't allow
you to take any chances. I call electrical welding "tailoring". I haye
seen the most remarkable things made with acetylene welding apparatus.
I saw a full crosshead made of pieces of plate, just as good as one cast
from steel. It is simply that in those hot acid conditions, with. the
material submerged at the bottom, and half a dozen things gnawing at
it, it does happen that way.
:
THE PRACTICABILITY OF BEONZE FOB SAFETY DISCS
Mr. Bonyun: I would like to ask Mr. Banash what the material was that he is using for the safety discs, where he is able to get a close rating on the uniformity of rupture, far in excess of what we have been able to get.
Mr. Banash: I think the disc will probably be bronze, but it will be supported and carried in such a way that when it reaches the limit of fiber stress it will shear and the results seem to show that It shears
428 Twelfth Safety Congress
practically in a circle for this particular construction. It has not been put on the market yet, and I hope that it will be within a very few months.
Mr. Bonyun: Bronze is an alloy of copper and won't stand up properly for an hour. We have almost discarded that except it be very heavily tinned. It seems as though tin is probably the most universal member in the face of chemical action that could be used, and therefore, if anything is used other than that I would imagine it would' have to be pretty heavily tinned, especially where ammonia is used.
Mr. R. D. Center: I would like to ask, in discussing the disc versus the poppet valves, whether there seems to be some tendency to get away from the poppet valve. The disc is probably safer in many cases in the mechanical industry where you want to relieve pressure and at the same time you don't want to blow out your entire charge. There is a critical time at the high pressures where that pressure could be relieved and the danger would be past, and you could come back to a normal state, but the disc would not admit that- It seems to me a poppet valve or some self-closing valve is a little more reliant in keeping the plant safe and going on.
Mr. Caskey: Mr. Center's question is well-taken. We have designed a valve but have not reached a very creditable point. When the valve lifts and that inertia sets up, you have got to use that inertia as energy to close the valve There is no attempt to depend entirely on the disc.
Mr. Banasb: Nothing was farther from my thoughts than to substitute
discs for safety valves, but as an ultimate safety device, sometimes they are extremely* useful. There are certain tilings tliat have worked to jh.elp
safety valves sekt. For example: it they are continuously inspected and
frequently operated by hand, if necessary, so that you know in the first
place that they are not stopped, and in the second place that either you
can slightly grind the seats together or. If one of them is semi-soft, that
they are seating, that would be of considerable help. In certain devices
the construction specifications call for actual mechanical mechanisms to
actually lift the safety valve from its seat and let it reseat every time the machine in question is discharged.
orChairman Paine: A member
the Section has asked if it would not
be a good thing for the Engineering Section to provide a certificate of
membership. We discussed that in the executive committee last evening
and we did not reach any definite decision, but we said we would throw
it open to the section and let every one have a voice in it-
Air. Fonda: If the Engineering Section should issue a certificate of membership, which, some people seem to think would he of value, it would mean, perhaps, making a nominal charge from 50 cents to $1-00. Some of the engineering societies make a charge of $2.00 for the certi ficates issued. It is just a question of policy. We have not in the past had any reason for making any charges for membership dues or any thing of the kind. This would simply be a certificate of membership issued to those who asked for it, and it would not be issued to anybody
Engineering Section
429
who did not want it, and the executive committee would like to know from the membership what they think of the idea of having a member ship certificate issued.
I make a motion that the Engineering Section through such committee as the chairman may appoint, look into the matter of preparing a suit able certificate of| membership to be issued to members of the Engineer ing Section upon demand, for which a nominal charge, would be made, depending upon the cost, this to be within the jurisdiction of that com mittee to decide.
(Motion seconded and carried.)
ADJOURNMENT.
THE ENGINEERING SECTION AND THE COUNCIL
. David Van Schaack
(Presented at the Smoker, Wednesday Evening.)
I think It will be readily conceded by everyone seriously interested in
safety that the Engineering Section of the Council, through what it is
doing and through what it stands for, has come to be considered an
essential factor in the Safety Movement, and should be even more so in
the future.
'
There are at least two lines of activity in which the section has already done good work but in which it has so far only scratched the surface. One of these is the bringing together of safety engineers in all branches of Industry, as well as governmental and insurance engineers, at meetings held between the annual congresses and in various parts of the country, for discussion of their more important problems. The experience and progress of a whole year cannot be compressed into an`:
annual congress, huge as this has now come to be. Local safety councils necessarily devote their attention primarily to the more popular and "A B C" subjects. The Council's industrial sections are naturally restricted to their specific industries. It is the opportunity and the duty of the Engineering Section to fill the gap by such meetings as have
been held during the past year in New York, Chicago and Detroit. I am glad to know that more meetings of this kind are planned for the
coming year, and I hope that eventually such will be held in every
important city, in cooperation, of course, with the local councils where
such exist.
It should be unnecessary to urge every safety man within reach of one
of these meetings to attend it and obtain the benefits of it whether he calls himself an engineer or not. With the simpler problems of safety practically solved and the accident prevention movement established on
an economic basis the safety man- will not long be considered an important factor In any live industrial organization, unless he masters
the more intricate hazards of the industry which are still causing, in
many instances, far greater monetary leaks than he is often willing to
acknowledge.
.'
430
Twelfth Safety Congress
During the last year, for Instance, the National Council on Workmen's Compensation Insurance analyzed about $9,000,000 of payments on account of accidents, and the significant development from this analysis was the fact that In many ladwtries the accidents at the point of opera tion of specific machine* canned from 20 to 45 per cent of the total payments.
There is not a single safety engineer who has solved all his problems. No one man can keep abreast wkdk all scientific knowledge, and he must utilize the experience a&d abCBty of acAcnti&c experts to aid him in his endeavors to solve each important problem as It presents Itself.
The second line of auUittf. and as even mote fundamental one. is the work of your research committee* on the so-called "unsolvable prob lems" in the accident field. Tonr section has done a little along this line; you ought to do * gr sat deal snore. Here is the great opportunity for real engineering ability end imagination, with the background of special information which only the specialist can be expected to have.
rmsL AsrjxtMt r mq m.it. utiox
This is a day of specialists- Developments in one or another line are taking place in rapid woeenkm. and wise Is the safety man who can avail himself of these developments and secure their application to his specific problems which are not only causing his concern excessive pecuniary loss but are also bringing great suffering and much sorrow to many human beings.
You men who call yourselves electrical, mechanical, chemical and what-not engineers, who are members of the Engineering Section of. the Council--you men who are often dreamers but whose dreams have the potentialities of practical value--should carefully avoid that' state of lethargy, which so often stifles engineering consideration of safety, and come forth with the solution of some of these so-called "unsolvable problems", thus aiding and attracting to your clientage many of these young safety men who are struggling with specific hazards that can be solved only by minds trained in scientific methods of attacking problems.
One of your leading confreres in the engineering profession has said: "An important weakness in the mental processes of the engineer is his lack of knowledge of human nature, and worse still, his lack of sympathy with human problems." If this be true, there is no more profitable and fascinating field where you can obtain this knowledge of human nature, and develop that sympathy, than through safety engineering work, in which you can help in the - elimination of hazards that are daily pro ducing both human suffering and economic loss.
With our rapid industrial development has come a greatly increased hazard to human life and limb, and it is up to the engineering pro fessions, which are responsible for so much of this development, to realize their equal responsibility for keeping this hazard within reason able bounds, for preventing our industrial success from being marred by too heavy a toll of life and limb.
Engineering Section
431
For instance, developments in electricity have been nothing less than marvelous, but with this harnessing of nature's energy to our use, there has come, too, a destructive force equalled only by lightning itself. No one has the hey to solving the hazards of this most useful but destructive servant save the electrical engineer, who knows its various treacherous kinks. It is to him, therefore, that we look for ways and means of utiliz ing this energy without its becoming a rampant destructive force. With the safety of human life uppermost in his mind, the electrical specialist can develop these new electrical features so necessary to our modern mode of living and at the. same time make their use practically.harmless
to society.
'
The mechanical engineer in many of our industries has replaced hand
processes with mechanical appliances that are almost human, but too
often he has entirely forgotten the human beings who are still exposed
to the crushing teeth of open gears, the mangling rolls of pressing machines, the shearing jaws of punch presses, leaving his masterpiece
only partially completed; for in these days of civilization, we can praise
no engineer's work as "well done'' when his design leaves his drawing-
board without evidence of any thought of the man, woman or child who
must be daily exposed to its. dangerous moving parts..
The chemical engineer who has met practically every emergency
demand in producing our drugs, our dyes, our fuels, and hundreds of our
chemical substances, owes to society the distinct obligation to- keep well
in mind the fatalities he may prevent if he invariably seeks a method of
offsetting the hazards of every newly developed poison, explosive or other
dangerous product, or insists that society be educated to knowledge of
the exposure encountered in the use of such chemicals. Often certain
chemical are pressed into use without' any precaution being taken, and the resultant menace continues until society is compelled to pass rigid
laws to protect itself.- The chemical engineer can, and should, greatly
enhance his value to society by being in the vanguard of the safety
movement.
'
.
PROBLEMS CAX BE SOLVED OX LY THROUGH COOI'ERATIOX
These considerations point a moral not only for engineers but for
those of us who are not engineers but are connected with companies
or organizations having engineering and other scientific departments or
experts. Such experts do not call themselves safety men, but frequently
they are working on problems of the highest importance to safety. We
know this, if they do not. Many of the "unsolvable problems" of safety
can be solved only through the cooperation of these engineers, chemists
and the like.
-,
Every company which is a member of the National Safety Council should have one or more of such men enrolled in the Engineering Sec tion and prepared to work on its research committees. The National Fire Protection Association, not to mention others, has proved beyond a doubt the possibilities of cooperative engineering research, and your sec tion should follow its example. But it can do so only with the help of
432
Twelfth, Safety Congress
members of the Council in enlisting the assistance of their technical staffs. I understand that membership in the Engineering Section is open, as it should be, not only to safety engineers but to any qualified engineer associated with a member company. In other words, the sec tion furnishes the means for complete mobilization of the scientific talent included in all membership of the Council. If even a small part of this talent, of these latent energies, can be effectively organized through the Engineering Section, the possibilities for greater safety literally stagger the imagination. It is unbelievable that there is any problem of safety, no matter how intricate, which cannot be solved by the scien tific brains of i this country--the brains which in every field of industrial development have set a standard for the world.
In closing may I bring to all of you Dexter S. Kimball's "Challenge:" "The problem of universal well-being offers a challenge and a call to
duty that the engineer may not refuse. The primary conditions and re
sponsibility for universal well-being now rest upon his shoulders, and the engineer does not like to be concerned with a half-finished 'Job.'
There is good reason to believe he will do his share of work In attain
ing the ultimate results desired. Already there are significant signs
that^he has accepted this duty. . . . Unless we can in some manner
change our industrial system so that we can more nearly attain universal
well-being and distribute the fruits of our country more equitably, we
have no reason for believing that our civilization shall endure, and its
bones will surely strew the shores of time with those of the great civiliza
tions that have preceded us."
'
Joint Sessions
Health Servitbe Section and American Association of Industrial Physicians and Surgeons
October 2 and 3, 1923
_
DB. C. E. FORD President, American Association of Industrial Physicians and Surgeons
DR. RALPH ELLIOTT Chairman, Health Service' Section, National Safety Connell
. TUESDAY MORNING SESSION
HAIRMAN FORD: I have great pleasure in introducing Dr. Russell
C Hibbs of New York.
"
SURGERY OF THE SPINE
Russell A. Hibbs, M.D., New York Crrx
Until recent years there has been very little surgery done upon the spine, except for disease or injury to the cord, laminectomy. In 19X0 some work was begun at the Orthopedic Hospital in New York City for the treatment of tuberculosis of the spine and for scoliosis. The study incident to the perfection of this operative technique led quite naturally to a. study or the development of the column and better knowledge of its evolution to meet the n&eds of the biped posture, of the irregularities incident to this evolutionary change, a better knowledge of the shape and size of Individual vertebrae, tlleir articulation with each other, and
the relationship of the whole column to body weight and movement. This anatomical work was done with Doctor Huntington at the College
of Physicians and Surgeons, and the clinical, x-ray and operative studies
at the Orthopedic Hospital. It very soon became evident that the development Irregularities of the
spine, especially at the lumbosacral juncture, which had long been known to anatomists and studied in anatomical specimens In museums, had a very practical relationship to pain and disability in the living subject and were therefore of interest to the surgeon.
It is not my purpose in the time at my disposal to consider all of the developmental irregularities of the column, but those about the lumbosac ral juncture and pertaining cbiefly to the fifth lumbar and the first sacral vertebrae and the angle at which they articulate.
433
-to-t
J. II. T !J LI (. AJtl'J litj; u' 1/ fty ' &oo
The most frequent of these irregularities is an attempt at sacralization
of the fifth lumbar expressed by a development of one or both transverse
processes forming an articulation with the sacrum. The same irregularity is also sometimes seen in the spinous processes of the fifth lumbar.
The angle at which the lumbar spine articulate with the sacral varies, as determined by the dissection of some sixty subjects, and is from 90 to 140 degrees. The sheering force exerted at this juncture is met by a development of the body of the first sacral or not, as the case may be. As
the angle approaches 90 degrees, there, is no more adequate provision for this force, other things being equal, than a development of the first sacral body to meet it. When this posture does not occur, there is very
definite strain at this juncture, and it always gives pain, especially to those engaged, in laborious occupations.
The irregularities of the planes of the facets of the articulation of the
lateral processes of the fifth lumbar and first sacral have a very important
bearing on the stability of this articulatio.n-
Failure of the development of the first sacral arch is of frequent occur
rence, and impairs the ligamentous stability. A case of failure of develop
ment of both pedicles of the fifth lumbar and one with failure of develop
ment of the pedicles of the first- sacral have come to operation.
As has been indicated, the most frequent of these irregularities seen
is an imperfect sacralization of the fifth lumbar, expressed by development
of the transverse processes on that vertebra so that it forms articulation
with the sacrum on either one or both sides. This would appear to be an
attempt on the part of nature to include the fifth lumbar in the sacrum
in such cases. These cases always give symptoms of lo*
pate sud
of sciatic pain, especially as people grow older, Contact of two or more
spinous processes has been found in many case*. ovwtefWiV i*
with other abnormalities and at other times wot.
STXFTOJW
The symptoms of all these <3erekpiota#i gyetfasSfrrafter te tee opine rarely occur until ossification approximates cqsntp'h-'teawiw-. vetem She hones lose their capacity to accommodate teems Stem te tewwg strata*. X-rayevidence is positive in these case* of teH>crTsCT eaersaf&swetes, te tteee of the exaggerated lumbosacral angle. teerg vh* awwait of tee spinous processes and those with imperfect drrwtepmgnt of tee -Sms sacral arch, hut not so in those cases with failure wt tfroBteupwswt ef the pedicle of the fifth and first sacral. It is case* of this eteun teat ftatoe made up. in my judgment, those considered to have dteturbuBie'es of tee sacro-iliae joint, so-called relaxation, I think soch a cwdate very rare, and if it exists, it is doubtful if there are any symptoms ajwiuctstcd with it. It must be borne in mind that there is in all normal people a degree of movement in sacro-iliac joints, and it is undoubtedly true that this degree of mobility may vary considerably without producing symptoms. The fact that patients with low back pain get relief from wearing belts and supports is no reliable guide to pathology, because anything which gives support in this region will give a certain amount of relief.
Health Service Section
435
Here we have, however, the suggestion for treatment of this class of
cases. It is safe to say that anything which disturbs the integrity of the
vertebral articulation, whether disease, injury or inflammation, disturbs
its usefulness to body weight and movement, and as long as there is
mobility in such articulations, there will be a greater or less degree of
pain and distress associated with it. It would, therefore, appear to be
Wise to eliminate motion in such disabled articulations by fusing the
bones that participate in their formation, and this can be safely and easily
done by the fusibn operation so successfully used in the treatment of
vertebral tuberculosis, scoliosis and fracture herein referred to.
-
I will now cite briefly the history of some patients illustrating the
varieties of developmental defects referred to.
D. if., a -man-, 33 pears of age, five years before -operation had a severe
strain in his back from lifting a heavy weight, with a `'giving-way'' sen
sation in his low back. Otherwise be was a perfectly healthy man. A
question of compensation was involved in his case. For the previous
two years he had been unable to assume an erect posture without
crutches, thus taking his trunk weight from his lumbosacral Juncture.
A lateral ic-ray picture of his lumbosacral juncture showed a lumbosacral
angle of 90 degrees. Operation was done to fuse his fifth lumbar to his
first sacral, thus transferring his lumbosacral Juncture to the fourth and
fifth lumbar, a perfectly stable articulation- At operation it was found
that he had a gross abnormality of movement of the fifth lumbar, with
a defective body of the first sacral- His relief has been complete.
Miss V. I., aged 44 years, was seen in cwtactoteft hr symptoms of low
back pain and pain of a sciatic character do it fiber left teg, A diagnosis
of arthritis of the hip had pwhsiity been Meade. A an** careful search
was made for the cause e her fMriR- SMI
jfroBiufe of view1, and none
could be found. An x-ray gbftOTb i/iumB't SMF g gave a* imperfect sac
ralizdtion of the fifth Insober on t*> ieft ssHfe is- iMftclig wfifc this woman
it was found that she bad been eBBiucSeu* ed *
bowft tllif Bad since
young adult life avoided t&snin WHBMCt-- mgBtth fl'eecetftJiffCijr TBoBW strain. At
operation it was found that tmm *ertt mem oftSr
aenawaiwa abnVe. referred
to. but a development of tbe
jurennainj.
Cpgfr HMISer. so that
it was one and th rec-toortB* EbsWuai wnbL: MMfeatd- uwftChft SPfth the hmrth
above and the first sacrat heBifr.
mm momv- *- wooajptiTtiry kk~
ralize the fifth by fewtad ft fib lumbosacral Juncture ee the
JftT.it Bo frag,
riMSi'r?!' rrTniK her
ft* fftftk mem bee PWTuC
complete..
Mrs. c. X-, aged 33 year*, wm mem Sb dmnwrUtWiafteft f*m a-
sciatica,
following a faU two years
`3PBSI* mm sbt
wnmC inter
esting cases I have' seen, WHm mm m frBrbwwny ludMlji |M*nn in every
way, with no pathotoey that mK bo TBrshtt Pm saMpiMM S*. ymin. X-ray
both anterior-posterior and- IbtiB.nfri
tfto WBabb'^ocni jcactcn showed
no abnormality except a fWftnft So rbe tett Bbh* of the fifth turnbar to a marked degree. Her symptoms* worn- so iffmtriartltuc sad ear knowledge
of the cause so slight that an exploratory operation was advised, think
ing that some abnormality might be present which the x-ry did not
reveal, because it must be remembered in the study of all cases of disease
436 Ttrelftk Safety Congress
or injury of the vertebrae, that the x-ray does not give complete knowl edge. At operation there was found abnormal articulations of the lateral processes of the fourth and fifth lumbar and the fifth lumbar and first sacral vertebrae. They were of the antero-posterlor type rather than lateral. The right' lamina of the fourth lumbar was shortened and the lateral portion displaced downward so as to impinge upon the upper surface of the laminae of the fifth, the interlamineal space being ob literated On the right. What appeared to be the laminae of the first sacral on the left was present but nothing corresponding to it on the right. What appeared to be the lamina "tin the right of the second sacral con tinued proximally and articulated with the fifth lumbar to the antero posterior articulation, leaving a wide defect between the fifth lumbar and the sacrum on the left. There was markedly exaggerated 'mobility between the fifth lumbar and the sacrum on the right of a slipping char acter, approximately one-fourth inch in respiration. The operative find ings in this case were described to Doctor Huntington, the College ana tomist, who interpreted this as being an absence of the development of the pedicle of the first sacral on the right side.
Miss Lt. <?., aged, 18 years, was among the most interesting cases which
I have seen. A young girl having recently finished her graduation from college and about to sail for Eurppe, was seen in consultation with the family physician because of a mild degree of backache, with no obvious cause. The only thing obtained by examination was an exaggerated lordosis. X-ray of lumbosacral Juncture laterally showed a slipping for ward of the body of the fifth lumbar on the sacrum of three-fourths of an inch. The interpretation on this picture was that she had had a fracture. After the most careful search, however, no fracture or Injury could be found. At operation it was found that the arch of the fifth lumbar was completely detached from the pedicle on both sides with marked angula tion antero-posterlorially at this point. The proximal ends of the pedicle could not be reached at operation. Fusion was made of the third, fourth and.fifth, lumbar and the first sacral, thus transferring the lumhosacral Juncture to the second and third lumbar. It was thought at operation that she had had a fracture of the pedicle, and the displacement- forward of the body of the fifth was so great that it could not be reached. Again these findings were submitted to Professor Huntington, who interpreted them as being not a fracture of the pedicle of the fifth lumbar, but failure of development of that pedicle, a condition not infrequently seen by anatomists.
Miss C. Jl.. aged 2^ years, came to the hospital complaining of very
severe pain in her lumbosacral region which has increased in severity during the past three years, and which was increased by the erect posture or bending backwards. She was otherwise a perfectly healthy woman. After very careful examination, the rc-ray showed contact between the spinous process of the third and fourth lumbar vertebrae. At operation half of the spinous process of the third and half of the spinous process of the fourth were removed, with complete relief. ' This class of case is of fairly frequent occurrence.
! Health Service Section
437
V. It., a man, SI years of age, was seen, on account of pain in his back,
of increasing severity for the past five years. He gave a history of hav ing fallen from a tree at the age of twelve. His pain was not severe but during the past, years had been constant when in an upright posture. He was a strong, well-built, muscular, active man. INTo cause could be
found for his pain until a lateral x-ray of his lumbosacral juncture re
vealed a slipping forward of the fifth lumbar, both in its relation to the first sacral and to the fourth lumbar, with contact between the spinous processes of the third and fourth lumbar. Operation confirmed the x-ray findings, and that he had a fracture of the pedicle of the fifth lumbar, probably at the time of the injury in early life. In any case, the proximal end of the pedicle was found and fusion was made of the third, fourth and fifth lumbar to the sacrum. Complete relief was obtained.
(?. W., aged, 30 years, was thrown from a bicycle three years previously,
sustaining a fracture of the right femur. He was treated in the Presby terian Hospital, and got a most excellent result; he resumed his occupa tion of driving a truck. Upon beginning work, he began to have backache in the lower spine and found it difficult to continue his occupation. X-ray pictures were unsuccessful and an exploratory operation was done. At this operation thd* entire lumbar region was exposed, and the fifth lumbar was found to have been fractured and the neural arches on both sides were ununited. Fusion was done from the second lumbar to the first sacral and relief was complete. This case illustrates again the fact that
x-ray is not trustworthy in determining fractures of the laminae. I have
operated on one other case with, an ununited fracture of the lamina of the fourth lumbar on the left side-of fifteen years' duration.
It is evident from the foregoing that anything, whether disease, injury or developmental defect which impairs the articulation of the .vertebrae, changes. the normal function of the joint so that as long as they have mobility they give symptoms. It is obvious, therefore, that the logical thing to do in such cases is to eliminate mobility by fusing the bones which participate in the formation of this changed articulation.
The sacro-iliac relaxation we have all been busy about, and I have yet. to see a single case of relaxation that gave symptoms. I have seen a great..-many people that I diagnosed as having relaxation. I relieved them by putting on support, and therefore, concluding the sacro-iliac joint was relaxed. Now that won't work. As a matter of fact, all of our sacro-iliac have a very definite degree of mobility, and should have. It is conceivable that sometimes following childbirth there may be relaxa tion of sacro-iliac joint that might be giving some disturbance. I haven't seen it, but it is conceivable, but I think the sacro-iliac is responsive no more and no less to injury and disease than any other joint in the human body--perhaps less.
There is no injury of its very stable ligaments. The ligaments as in-, tegrals of the sacro-iliac joint are probably the best in the human body, and I think we have got to give up loose diagnosis of people having pain
438
Twelfth Safety Congress
in their back as having 3acro-iliac joints. Strapping them gives them
relief, all sorts of braces give them relief, but we have got to start our
study and find out definitely what is the matter with them.
All these cases which I have shown you are people who have been
treated for years and years for sacro-iliac relaxation. All the talk you hear about slipping back dislocated sacro-iliac joints, I think is loose
talk. It is like my assistant who examined this man and cured him. He
slipped something back, and we noted this experience I have been trying to tell you about. "We would have said he had a slipped sacro-iliac joint, and we put it back. I don't think we know what we are doing when we
manipulate these people on a theory that is unsound, and I think as we study this region of the human body more and more, it will become
clearer to you, and we will get rid of that almost universal error, in my
judgment.
-
CAN SICK-BENEFIT ASSOCIATIONS PROFITABLY ENGAGE IN DISEASE PREVENTION WORK?
L. R. 'Titompsox. Svrc.eox, asd Dean K. Bbcsdabe, Assistant Statistici.vx, IT. S. Public Healtii Service
There are in this country hundreds of organizations of industrial em ployees for financial protection against protracted illness. They operate usually with the cooperation and oftentimes with the financial assistance of the corporation which employs their membership. In many instances, a majority, and sometimes a very large majority of the employees of a company contribute to the fund for sickness insurance. The work of most of these associations consist of the collection of dues from members, the investment of the funds, the investigation of sickness claims and the payment of benefits in accordance with the constitution and by-laws of the society. In certain instances these associations have established reading rooms and clubs, operated employment bureaus, organized savings banks, and undertaken, various activities of a social. nature. But we do not hear of any organized and well-directed endeavors to eliminate the waste of effort and of money in paying out benefits for avoidable sick ness and for preventable non-industrial accidents.
Industrial accident hazards have been greatly minimized in recent years. The achievements of the safety movement have been notable. As a business proposition it has been found better to organize for safety than to let things drift and pay unnecessary claims for industrial ac cidents. Nevertheless, may not an opportunity for handsome profits to a sickness insurance organization exist in this hitherto unexploited field? It is not our desire to attempt to assert that this is so, but merely raise the question, and to present what facts we can that bear upon the matter.
MOETAtlfi- KATE IS DECBEASINO
Deaths have been postponed and the length of' life correspondingly extended by the health conservation work of life insurance companies. The cost of preventing deaths, it is claimed, is much less than the
Health Service Section
439
amount of the claims which would have come in had the deaths not been, postponed. In 1909, the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company began a campaign to lengthen the lives of its Industrial policy holders. In the years following 1909, the mortality experience of the company consistently improved, and the improvement has been much greater than in the registration area of the United States. According to the statement of the president of the company, the improvement of the company's mortality in 1920 over 1911, in excess of the improvement in the registration area at the comparable ages, 1 to 74, for the same years, constituted a saving of 23,910 lives and $4,700,000 in death claims.
The company's campaign to prolong life consists of education of policy
holders in personal hygiene by distribution of specially prepared booklets
and pamphlets to teach them the fundamentals of health and the pre vention of disease; by organization of a visiting nurse service to care for policy holders when ill, and incidentally to teach sanitation and hygiene; development of an industrial service bureau to cooperate with employers of labor in securing better working and living conditions for their work people; and cooperation with health and other officials of states and cities to secure adequate legislation and appropriations for the conduct of constructive and progressive health work. Incidentally, the company prepares exhibits, makes sickness and sanitary surveys, carries on "clean up" campaigns, and attempts to supplement the activities of social and civic agencies in the improvement of health in their respective com munities. Would' similar activities on the part of large employee sickbenefit associations affect the morbidity rates enough to make this work profitable in dollars to them?
For the past two or three years the Public Health Service has been receiving monthly reports from a group of 27 sick-benefit associations each of which has a waiting period of seven days; that is, sick benefits begin with the eighth day of continuous disability. The associations represent several different industries and are scattered over the northern states from Maine to Illinois and Wisconsin. They all pay benefits for essentially the same list of illnesses, venereal diseases and certain other conditions being uniformly excluded.
In 1921, the lowest sickness frequency rate in this group of 27 associa
tions was 4S cases per 1,000 persons; the highest was 349 cases per 1,000
persons. In 1922 the lowest rate was 56 cases per 1,000 persons; the high
est rate was 568 per 1,000 persons. The variation is exceedingly wide.
However, the association having the very high rate of 349 cases per 1,000
members In 1921 and 568 cases per 1,000 persons in 1922 probably should
be excluded from present consideration owing to certain unusual pro
visions which tend to exaggerate the real sickness rate. With this associa
tion eliminated, and the next highest rate taken as the upper limit of the
range in rates, we find a variation from 48 to 174 cases per 1,000 persons
in 1921 and from 56 to 213 cases per 1,000 members in 1922, or a range of
360 per cent in 1921 and 380 per cent in 1922.
MO
Twelfth Safety Congress
. SEX AND AGE ABE RECKONING FACTORS
There are, of course, a number of factors which might be expected to influence to a certain extent the indicated sickness rate of any fund.
The sex and age composition of the membership of an association are factors to reckon with as well as the working conditions in the various establishments included, and the sanitary situation in the homes and communities represented. Other considerations are the economic status of the members of the funds and of their families, the extent and efficiency of medical and hospital service provided by the establishments or by the funds, the specific regulations governing the payment of the benefits other than those relating to- the waiting period and to the duration of benefits, and tbe local practices tbat may effect tbe administration of the funds. The amount of the cash benefit paid by tbe different associations is also a matter which may influence the size of the indicated rate. Furthermore, the nationalities or racial stocks composing the membership of the dif ferent societies, marital status, especially if the proportion of married women is large in the association, the extent of adjustment to the working environment as measured by the number of years in tbe company's service may all be factors of sufficient importance properly to include in any sort of detailed morbidity study.
It would advance the purposes of the present inquiry if some of these factors could be eliminated by knowing the extent of variation in sick ness rates among different employee groups when they all work in the same industry, live in the same general locality, and are. governed by the same policy of administration of the funds. Fortunately, there are now available the morbidity statistics of two sick-benefit associations which meet these requirements. In the city of Flint, Michigan, is an industrial mutual association with thousands of members, representing the person nel of nearly all of the large factories in the automobile industry located there. In the neighboring city of Pontiac is another sick-benefit associa tion with a membership composed of employees of all the larger plants in that city, most of which manufacture either automobiles or automobile parts and accessories. The Pontiac association is a child of the Flint idea; the two organizations have an almost identical constitution and set of by-laws. The managing secretary of the Pontiac association was trained in the Flint society. * In short, the conditions generally in the two associa tions appear to be so much alike that it is believed the sickness rates for the plants in Pontiac are comparable with the rates in Flint after deduct ing from the rates of both associations all cases of rheumatism about which the rules of the two associations differ.
FREQUENCY BATES
'
The highest sickness frequency rate in the two associations is 151 cases per 1,000 persons per year in a plant at Flint, and the lowest sickness incidence rate is 62 cases per 1,000 persons per annum in a plant at Pontiac. The highest rate is thus nearly 2% times the magnitude of the lowest rate; to be exact, the range of variation is 243 per cent.
Health Service Section
441
These rates are on an annual basis, but they represent the morbidity of two years, the years 1921 and 1922. Being two year averages, these rates should be more stable than figures for a single year. Nor do small numbers explain the variation, for in'the plant having the-highest rate the average number belonging to the association in the two years under consideration was nearly 400 persons; and in the plant having the lowest rate, the average membership was 338. The .number of persons con sidered is thus large enough for the calculation of significant rates.
Of course, we need to know how much of the variation was due to differences in the sex and age composition of the membership of the various groups under consideration, for we have found from the tabulation of certain morbidity data that the frequency of cases of disability lasting one week or longer averages 50 per cent more among women than among men, and that the frequency of sickness lasting a week or longer is more than twice as great among males in the age group 55-64 inclusive, as among men 25-34 years of age.
We can dismiss from consideration the question of the sex composition of the membership of the two associations for the reason that the pro portion of women in either association is probably too small to affect appreciably the sickness rates of any fairly large group. 'The question of
age composition Is a little more difficult to deal with. It was found that the higher sickness rates occurred in the plants at Flint with a few ex ceptions, most of the Pontiac establishments appearing near the bottom of the rates. The data from the Flint association was not available in such a way as to permit the computation of sickness rates according to age groups, but the age of claimants was reported. By tabulating the sickness claims according to age groups it was found that there were more claims to the extent of 1 per .cent in the Flint association at the ages 45 to 54 in clusive, than in the Pontiac society, and 4 per cent more claims at Flint in age group 55 to 64 inclusive, thus suggesting that there were relatively more people in the Flint association above age 45 than in the Pontiac group. But these percentages are not large enough to suggest any very striking differences in the age composition of the two populations. It is possible, however, that in certain establishments the age differences were more marked than this, and account to a certain extent for some of the
differences in the rates. On the other hand, it is conceivable that an ad justment for age might even increase the present differences in the rates for some of the establishments. A plant having a relatively high propor
tion of employees in the older age groups might, on account of .certain
favorable circumstances, show a fairly low or even a very low sickness incidence rate. .We should not assume that every difference in sickness rates will be diminished by adjusting for the age factor.
FREQUENCY OF SICKNESS VARIES
These statistics therefore, afford the interesting proposition that even
under conditions Which are similiar in many respects, the frequency of
sickness may vary considerably. What, then, are the causes of these
wide variations?
-
442
Twelfth Safety Congress
It is unfortunate that we cannot proceed' further with the analysis of the statistics of the Flint and Pontiac associations. If we had additional data we could measure the influence of each of the important factors affecting sickness; sex, age, nationality, occupation, department of the plant, number of years employed in the establishment, marital stains, etc. Having evaluated the importance of each factor, we could adjust the rates in any given group for these several factors, and thus come to know some of the fundamental causes of the variations. However, when all the factors not directly subject to control such as sex, age, nationality, etc.
have been taken into consideration, it would seem from the wide differ ences in the crude rates that there would still be considerable latitude for the effective operation of organized endeavor to preserve health and prevent disease. The range in rates, however, affords no very definite
idea of the amount of possible pecuniary profit to a sick-benefit society which may carry on a campaign for the conservation of the health of its members. Associations doubtless would like to know what the actual possibilities are for profit.
EACH ASSOCIATION IS SEPARATE PBOUJLBM
Each association obviously constitutes a separate problem in this regard.
The size of the association has to be considered. The cost of prevention doubtless would vary greatly, depending upon such circumstances as whether facilities for medical service along preventive lines are already
available in the ; community or whether a new organization would have to be built from the ground up.
To take a specific problem, let us see what some of the possibil ities for profit are in the Flint society. In the two years under con sideration the average number of calendar days of disability per case at Pontiac was 25.4 days. This figure includes the waiting period
of five secular days. In the Flint association the average duration
of cases was 34.6 days or a difference of 9.2 calendar days per case in favor of Pontiac. Now if the handicap of an older age distribution at Flint could be overcome by a closer follow-up of cases to see that every disabled member was being cared for so as to shorten as much as possible the duration of his incapacitation so that the average duration of cases
at Flint could be reduced to the rate experienced by the Pontiac associa tion. the savings in sickness benefits at the rate of $9 per week would amount to $22,448 per annum. (9.2 calendar days means $11.79 In sick ness benefits at the rate of $9 per week. The average annual number
of new cases at Flint based on the experience of 1921 and 1922 is 1,904 which when multiplied by -$11.79 gives $22,448.16.) This saving does
not contemplate the prevention of a single case; it is based entirely on shortening the duration of disease.
The prevention of illness obviously is more difficult than the prevention
of industrial accidents, for the causes are more perplexing, and oftentimes much more difficult to control even when they are known. But these
surely are not valid reasons for giving up all attempts at finding a solution
of the difficulties-
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Now ft, in addition to a plan for assisting the disabled member to obtain the right sort of care and treatment for his particular ailment, associations desire to go into the preventive side of health conservation work, what diseases and conditions should they attempt to prevent? Since this presentation is entirely from the point of view of cold dollars and cents and purposely excludes humanitarian motives and considerations, we shall say that the diseases to be prevented are those which cost the society the largest amount of money. From this standpoint an association should not devote too much time to the study and prevention of the contagious and infectious diseases such as smallpox, diphtheria, typhoid fever, measles, etc., because in non-epidemic years, judging by the experience of the Flint and Pontiac associations, these diseases cause only about six per cent of the total cases and about six or seven per cent of the total number of disability days for which sick-benefits have to be paid. Neither is the prospect for handsome financial returns very alluring in the case of prevention of breakdowns of the circulatory system and diseases of the genito-urinary system and annexa, for in the Pontiac association these .diseases taken altogether accounted for only five per cent of total cases and seven per cent of total days of disability, and in the Flint associar tion for eight per cent of total cases and eleven per cent of total days lost. Nor would diseases of the nervous system and organs of special sense (eyes, ears) be the proper field for specialization since this disease group was responsible for only about five per cent of all the cases and for five per cent of the time lost. Similarly, diseases of the skin show about the same proportion of morbidity. Combine all these groups of diseases which have just been mentioned, and the sum of the time lost from them all is only 25 per cent of the total number of disability days to be paid for.
RESPIRATORY GROUP IS MOST SERIOUS
But there was one disease group which caused 37 per cent of the cases and 34 per cent of the total disability days in the Pontiac organization, and was responsible for 38 per cent of all the cases and 34 per cent of the time lost in the Flint society; and another disease group accounted for about 20 per cent of the expenditures for sickness benefits, these groups being the respiratory and digestive groups respectively. The respiratory group includes influenza and grippe, pulmonary tuberculosis, and diseases of the pharynx. The digestive group as considered here is the same as in the International List of the Causes of Sickness and Death except for the deduction of diseases of the pharynx.
Combined, these ailments caused more than hglf -of all the cases oc curring, and more than 60 per cent of the total days for which benefits were paid. In diseases of the respiratory and digestive systems it would therefore be profitable to concentrate preventive endeavor. But what specific diseases should an association attempt to prevent? The seven worst offenders from the standpoint of diseases causing the largest number of days of disability per person in the Flint association are as follows: (1) influenza and grippe, (2) bronchitis, (3) ulcer, and other
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Twelfth Safety Congress -
diseases of the stomach, (4) appendicitis, (5) tuberculosis of the lungs, (6) tonsilitls and other diseases of the pharynx, and (7) pneumonia. The experience of the Pontiac association was similar, though as much time was reported lost there from pleurisy as from pulmonary tuberculosis.
It is,.of course, very difficult to estimate the number of cases of illness that can be prevented. However, in the present example, if preventive methods could minimize the differences in the two associations due to the ages of the members and to other possible factors that might come to light, and succeed in reducing the sickness frequency in the Flint association to the rate of the Pontiac society, the benefits saved at the rate of $9 per week would amount to $12,528 annually.
The difference in the frequency of cases in the two associations was 28.6 cases per 1,000, persons per annum in favor of the Pontiac society. The average membership of the Flint association was 16,773 which, multiplied by 'the rate of 28.6 gives 480 cases at Flint in excess of the Pontiac rate. The average duration of benefits at Pontiac was 2.9 weeks which at $9 per week cost $26.10. A saving of 480 cases per year at $26.10 per case would, mean $12,528 saved in sickness benefits.
This would be in addition to the saving of $22,448 calculated as possible through cutting down the duration of incapacitation to the rate experi enced at Pontiac. The total saving in disability benefits to the Flint association would therefore be approximately $35,000 annually, on the assumption that preventive methods might be expected to overcome what ever handicaps exist at Flint aver the Pontiac group; and achieve the lower illness frequency and severity rates of the Pontiac people. Against this sum, of course, would have to be charged the cost of the health conservation work.
THE VIENNA PLAN
An undertaking of the sort suggested to prevent sickness is not altogether an untried experiment. Doubtless some of you are familiar with the plan in operation in the city of Vienna. Mr. Lee K. Frankel of the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company explained the Vienna plan to the Detroit Conference in 1913. According to Mr. Frankel's exposition of the plan, the various sickness associations in Vienna which are organ ized largely along occupational lines, a few years before the World War formed a central body in Vienna known as the Federation of Sickness Societies. To this federation was allotted the task of providing proper medical service which each constituent society paid for on a pro rata basis. Contracts with physicians and apothecaries were made by the Federation and specialists in medicine and surgery were engaged when their services were required. Every attempt was made to effect a cure at the earliest possible moment. The prophylactic and preventive side was developed, the Federation employing' for this work a competent student of conditions in industry. In its efforts to determine the extent of avoidable sickness, the Federation made use of the statistical method. The diseases occurring in each establishment were tabulated and the rates studied in connection with data in regard to the hygienic conditions
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of places of employment. When correlation was found between high
sickness rates in a given workshop and dust-laden air, poor ventilation,
or other untoward condition, the federation would send an inspector to
confirm the statistical results and if the investigation proved the correct
ness o the data previously obtained, the federation officials would tact
fully approach the employer and call his attention to the deficiencies in
his establishment. It is stated that the moral suasion which the federa tion brought to hear on manufacturers resulted In marked improvement
in the conditions of their plants. The same method, it would seem, could
he used to advantage in the improvement of community sanitation where conditions are shown by correct statistical evidence to be deleterious
to health.
'
Before launching any health conservation campaign or program of disease prevention, the society for sickness insurance needs, above all, the morbidity statistics that will define the problems and establish the goal. It is necessary to know first the extent to which a given sickness rate can be affected by health work. This can be done by adjusting such factors as sex, age, racial stock, etc., to a standard population, and deter mining what the rate for a given group would be if the distribution in respect to sex, age, nationality, etc., were the same as in the standard population. With this information available, it is possible to get a better idea of what; should be done in any given circumstance. As an example of the advisability of such a procedure, several months ago the officials of a national sick-benefit association consulted the Public Health Service in regard to the morbidity rates of their society. It was found that their sickness frequency rate was nearly 100 per cent higher than the average sickness frequency in a group of 27 industrial mutual associations report ing to the service, the waiting period of course being the same in all cases. The age distribution of the two groups was the next investigated, and it was found that more, older persons belonged to the sick-benefit association under study than ordinarily compose the membership of an industrial mutual association. Certain tabulations are now being made to find out how much of the 100 per cent excess in sickness can be accounted for by the difference in the age distribution of the two groups. If, after correcting for this factor, we still find a high sickness frequency which is not explained by the composition of the membership. It Is pre sumed that environment, particularly the working environment or the con
ditions outside the working places had something to do with the causa tion of the excess disability. When the officials of a beneficial association are armed and equipped with morbidity facts obtained In a correct statistical analysis, a powerful argument is afforded for the correction of conditions which are believed to be reacting unfavorably upon health.
OBTAINING NECESSABY DATA
The question of obtaining the necessary data for proper statistical analysis is not particularly difficult. The records of most sick-benefit associations would have to be modified only slightly to obtain all essential information, and the present or past records of many societies could
446 Twelfth Safety Congress
easily be made use of for certain inquiries. , The record of dues or the membership card usually show the necessary "exposure" data from which to obtain the number of years of membership by sex, age, department, etc., and the record of "closed" claims usually includes a good share of the needed facts about each case. The main difficulty consists in getting the records analyzed by someone who has had experience in the analysis of morbidity records from the standpoint of health conservation.
But the sick-benefit associations in this country, except in a few rare instances, have undertaken neither statistical^inquiry nor the prevention of disease to any great extent. It has not been considered a function of the industrial mutual association to investigate and attempt to eradicate the causes of any disease which might break out among the membership. That function has generally been deferred to the public health official and to the industrial hygienist. Could not greater effort and more thought on the part of all agencies concerned be expected and therefore ultimately greater accomplishment if associations for sickness insurance made it part of their business to investigate the incidents of disease and to study the conditions that affect the frequency and severity of illness?
Unfortunately, we have no outstanding demonstration in this country of what can be accomplished from a program of this sort. It would be in the nature of a venture to do it in a big way because the trail has not been blazed. Imagination and boldness would be essential qualities for the success of the experiment. It would be a speculation in the field of public health. As the subject was expressed by the president of the British Medical Association when he recently appealed for "better housing and living accommodations in order to reduce the high cost of sickness and disablement, "if we have not been afraid to speculate in adventure, in arms, in trade, and in business, why should we be afraid to speculate in health?"
PREVENTION, REHABILITATION AND MEDICO-LEGAL ASPECTS OF SPRAINED BACK
John N. Bassix, M. I)., Medical Adviser to New Your State Insurance
N.Fund and New Jersey State Department of Labor, Newark,
J.
In view of the abundant literature on the subject of diseases and injuries affecting the spinal column and contiguous tissues, this paper is limited to a practical consideration of the traumatic phases of sprained back with its multiple lesions, apparent on clinical findings in the rehabili tation and hospital clinics and workmen's compensation courts.
Physical rehabilitation of industrial workers by the state is a com paratively recent experiment. The economic prospect for the necessary co-operation of the entire profession is still too remote. Morbidity statistics on the subject are either incomplete or entirely lacking. Steady progress is "nevertheless being made, and information from various sources in the industrial and hospital field is gradually becoming more available.
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One. of a umIm of several hundred so-called "labor backs" examined, reference fai made to the observation and study of 456 actual sprained becks, followed to the initial surgical stage. ^ The sprain fracture cases among those involved in sprained backs have been previously reported by the writer in a paper on "End Results of 442 Fractures of Industrial Origin." published in the April. 1921, issue of the Journal of the :New Jersey Medical Society, page T16. On this particular occasion, spinal sprain fractures observed In this injury are advisedly classed as of a sprained back.
Comparing notes on similar cases of the non-compensable variety from the clinics and records of the Long Island College Hospital, and the Hospital for the Ruptured and Crippled, New York City, one is singularly impressed with the idea that this group of patients, seeking nothing but relief from pain and suffering, is actually more disabled than the objec tive clinical symptoms would warrant in the usual examination. Occa sional negative X-ray and laboratory findings often contribute to the uncertainty unless one is on his guard and examinations are repeated.
In the final analysis, prognosis is the main'asset of the compensation rehabilitation scheme, which will save industry millions of dollars and return the injured workman to proper earning status.
Eliminating the neurotic and the malingerer, prognosis is all the more important in dealing with a sprained hack, since there are no safety appliances thus far devised to prevent- it, excepting a mechanical girdle or other orthopedic supports. As for estimate of disability in compensa tion and negligence cases, the prognostician is of greater value than the diagnostician, even though the latter is indispensable.
ETIOI.OGICAI, COXSIDEEATIOXS
Etiologically, most of these injuries are sustained in the course of
gainful occupation requiring heavy lifting, or else caused by sudden hyper-spinoflexion by direct or indirect force. The young robust indi vidual suffers no more pain than an acute spinal myositis, so-called strained back, would impose, in the course of several days' duration.
When the accidental force is severe, the middle-aged worker whose back is thus involved. Is especially subject to complications and pro longed morbidity. When workers are permanently disabled for usual
occupations, their earning power is materially diminished, and the prob lem is therefore more complex both medically and socially.
As these cases are seldom operated on by the open method, and as such never come to the postmortem table, more intensive clinical study is the only alternative, and prevention a paramount issue. To that end research work is now being 'directed by Professor Jaques C. Rushmore of the orthopedic department of the Long Island College Hospital Medical College, all other departments co-operating.
The minute pathology of the acute and chronic changes is now help fully recalled in the muscle and ligamentous tissue tears, the capillary hemorrhage, round cell infiltration, and sero-fibrinous exudate. It is difficult to imagine the escape of Injury to the nerve filaments,, especially
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Twelfth Safety Congress
the organs of Golgi at the tendon insertions. The muscle bellies are never reported as completely torn, but the muscle tissue contraction Is soon impaired reflexly, first by stasis and later by unabsorbable fibro plastic deposits within the muscle and muscle sheaths around tendoperiosteal attachments and intervertebral spaces. The subsequent calcifi cation and osteophyte formation restricts spinal joint excursion render ing it more painful, as impaired muscle balance favors deformity.
The gross pathology of the later stage, as evinced by laboratory and clinical findings, in the final analysis points to a chronic fibrosis* and calcified deposits about the spinal column in the shape of excrescences or osteophytes.
Symptom evaluation of a fibromyositis, periarthritis, with or without accompanying joint involvement, is not difficult excepting the latter, which presents occasional differences of opinion, principally ascribed to the various stages of osteo-artbritis.
The painfully weak back, reflex muscle spasm of superficial layers and actual rigidity of lower muscle planes, the distorted statics of normal weight-bearing, the angle of compensatory deviation at the hips in the
sitting posture, the undue fatigue and the guarded gait and motions ot
the patient unconsciously seeking hand or elbow support while sitting and leaning up While standing, are very reliable signs, even more' so than those entirely based on the degree of impaired spinal joint and muscle function. A forced mobile spine of this type Is often debilitatlngly pain ful, unlike a rigid poker back, which is not half as fatiguing and much less discomforting.
' DIAGNOSIS
In the cases observed, the following structures were apparently involved:
1. The tausculo-tendinous segments of the erector spinae group.
2. The tendo-periosteal attachments. , 3. The ligaments and bone and joint areas of the lower dorsal, lumbar and lumbo-sacro-iliac girdle.
The latissimus dorsl was useful in evaluating tender points when the transverse, intertransverse, and interspinous muscle attachments were brought into play in the presence of a fracture of the spinous processes of the vertebrae. (This diagnostic feature is invaluable in the acute or subacute stages, if the patient is co-operating.) It was not unusual to note signs pointing to involvement of one or both saero-iliacs, and the seldom mentioned and most often sprained lumbosacral articulation.
There was some difficulty in establishing a diagnosis where tendoperiosteal tears and joint loosening were present, though unrevealed by the X-ray until some time later as a periosteal thickening with an occa sional deposit of an osteophyte which could not be discerned from those seen in chronic spinal arthritis unless similar deposits were also present higher up on the spine or elsewhere about joints.
The pathognomonic signs of acute lumbar myositis, the pain, disability, tenderness and weakness ascribed to spinal strain often becloud this affection unless a painstaking differential laboratory diagnosis is made.
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Physicians treating these cases are often misled. The doctor is often
chagrined to Gad these patients turn up in the compensation courts for
formal hearing months after the accident with corroborative diagnosis of sprafn fractures of one or more transverse or spinous processes of the lumbar vertebrae, a chronic fibromyositis often extending to the perineurium of a sciatic nerve, and presenting all the earmarks of tangible chronic disability.
These errors not only contribute to the undoing of self-supporting citi zens, but have the psychological effect of promoting malingering while the employer and carrier are unduly penalized by defraying costs for long periods of temporary disability, and a substantial expense for permanent partial or total disability.
It Is therefore strongly recommended to treat all these cases as serious spinal injuries until every element of doubt is eliminated. Expert advice at this time is especially invaluable.
Before coming to court, the physician should occasionally consider the effect of ascribing to an apparent pre-existing general or focal infec tion all there is to the case. One must keep in mind that a spinal arth ritic is not necessarily disabled until long on in years and the blood stream fs constantly taking care of by-effects from focal infections unless there is traumatism and the establishment of a locus resistentiae minorts
awhen the injury causes fulminating lesion. The court usually interprets
and ascribes such aggravation of a pre-existing disease to the accident.
Luxation of the lumbosacral articulation is less pronounced and may be equally undiscernible by the X-ray than that of the sacro-iliac syn chondroses. This lumbosacral articulation involvement is often misjudged because of the normally varying angle at the promontory of the sacrum in different subjects, unless it is recalled that the lumbosacral joint is so placed that at best it bears the bulk of strain of the entire body weight before transmitting it to the sacro-iliac and hip joints, by virtue of guy ropes, represented by spinal muscles. This mechanical consideration is corroborated by the often overlooked crush fractures of this region.
CONTRIBUTORY CAUSES
It must be conceded that the so-called rheumatic diathesis, syphilis, tuberculosis, gonorrhea, pre-existing static weight-bearing deformity of the spine or lower extremities, or the ever-present focal infections, are singly or otherwise contributory factors to this affection. But these organic conditions must be diagnosed and treated early, or else the patients, innocently unaware, continue their work without apparent disability until the accident, when preventive medical measures are at an end.
Whether or not the physician is now dealing with a new or.old lesion, aggravated by the alleged accident, in the presence of a corroborative history. liability is established. The most pathetic picture is the patient himself who in spite of compensation is a 'chronic invalid with all the suffering and economic waste that such affection entails.
Preventive measures are the careful selection of-employees for manual labor, and painstaking examination of the individual with an emphasis
452 Twelfth Safety Congress
Eaxly diagnosis and treatment in the initial surgical stage is the only
economical kind ot rehabilitation, which sooner or later must supplant
all other physical means which experimentally precede the true or voca
tional rehabilitation of "sprained back."
_
As a preventive as well as curative measure, the element of fatigue should be guarded against by applying suitable lumbosacral-iliac sup ports while the patients are being treated and after they are discharged.
In the neglected or intractible cases, prognosis is of the highest value in the workmen's compensation, or otherwise called negligence cases of sprained back when such come up for final adjustment.
(Dr. Bassin showed three a:-ray plates.)
WEDNESDAY MORNING SESSION
The second session was called to order at ten-fifteen o'clock at the Buffalo City Hospital by Dr. C. E. Ford.
Chairman Ford: Inasmuch as we are the guests of this institution, I want to ask Dr. Walter Goodale, the superintendent, to say a few words
to us.
_
Dr. Walter S. Goodale: On behalf of our Board of Managers, I want to bid you a very hearty welcome. Unfortunately, our president. Dr. Edward J.! Meyer, met with an accident a few days ago; he stumbled
over a barbed wire fence at his farm up at the lake shore, and he is now nursing an injured ankle. Were it not for that he would be here in person.
X would like to take advantage of this occasion to make a formal re quest of your organization. I have the honor to be in charge of preventive medicine and hygiene in the University of'Buffalo. We have recently enlarged this school so that we are now a full-fledged university in every sense of the word. Our chancellor. Dr. Samuel P. Cannon, is an educator of national repute. The school Is conducted on an endowment fund of practically- $5,000,000. In medicine, we hope to keep up with the proces sion and he progressive and maintain our place. One of the departments that is especially anxious to make progress is the department of preven tive medicine and hygiene.
Western New York, as you know, Buffalo, Niagara Falls, Tonawanda, Lancaster, and other points, are great industrial centers. We believe that the department of preventive medicine and hygiene will never be com plete until it includes a section on industrial medicine. I don't mean to say that we can put industrial medicine into our regular preventive under graduate course and turn out physicians who will be industrial physi cians and surgeons; that is far from my thought. I do believe however, that the undergraduate should get some instruction in industrial medicine and that the university should offer a graduate course of industrial medicine and surgery for the physicians of Western New York. I merely want to bring this to your attention, stating that the University of Buffalo is ready to cooperate with you in the inauguration of such a venture.
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I am not asking that you help us get funds or anything of that sort. The
school is ready to embark, I believe, into the" business of making this
addition to its curriculum. We have the plant, we have the people at
present who will help give the course, the local people, voluntary teachers
like myself, but what we need most is advice and moral support and
expert assistance, and naturally I think that your organization is in
position to furnish that if you feel that you care to promote an enterprise
of this sort.
.
I will leave the subject in Dr. Ford's hands to handle as he sees fit.
Last. but not least by any means, I want to cordially invite all the
visitors to have lunch with us after you finish your program. Im
mediately after lunch we will have guides available so that if you care to
see the institution you will be escorted about.
Chairman Ford: The industrial physicians in industry have been giv ing great attention to the preparation of the young man going into the field. I think we have about arrived at the conclusion that a complete course in industrial medicine is so wide and far-reaching in its influence
and the ordinary medical course or the standard medical course as given
by most universities is so full that until such time as we have another
year in preparation for medical careers, it would be unwise to include a
definite course for undergraduate students. I believe that industrial
medicine is wholly a post-graduate affair.
THE ECONOMIC VIEWPOINT UPON SYPHILIS IN
INDUSTRY W. Loi-is Haiitma?,*, M.D., Detroit, Michigan
r have been giving this subject serious thought and obtaining statistics
for the past five years, the last three of which has been very intensive,
and found the expense to the industrial is appalling.
,.
We will consider first the matter of taxation as one avenue of expense
that has been treated without consideration, which when taken in a
serious-minded way, the figures are colossal. Of course the first and
greatest subject to be considered .is safety first, or prevention of accidents.
These can. be materially reduced by having our employees fit, both physi
cally and mentally. The mental attitude of the employees is farreaching
when it comes to the question of accidents. When we reduce the number
of accidents we in turn make a' vast reduction in our insurance rates.
The greatest number of accidents that occur in the industrials are in the
first two working hours and the last two working hours of the day. The
accidents in the first two hours are the result of mental preoccupation or
disturbance. The last two a result of fatigue. Those whose mental state
is below par from disease have the highest percentage of accidents in the
morning. Those in the afternoon due to physical defect.
The cost of an accident cannot wholly be computed as to what it may
be in the individual case, but disorganization enters largely into the
subject also. Labor turnover is another expense which' often is directly
chargeable to mental and physical conditions, and last, but not least,
strikes and labor troubles in general.
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Twelfth Safety Congress
and some faulty cerebration one should be suspicious and mate repeated examinations of the eye in order to confirm his diagnosis in the early states, so as to prevent an irreparable damage that may result during the period between the onset and the time of thorough development of the disease. In these cases, if the subject is given sufficient time to focus upon a given subject, the confusion will clear up. In other words, the difference between the color conception and visual acuity of the cerebral syphilitic and of the normal person is the same as that of between a time exposure and instantaneous -photography. Therefore, i't can readily be seen that when-a person has this defect he is capable of destroying a great deal of material, especially where fine work is being done. So it is quite essential to have the eyes of all suspects closely examined, as in a casual .examination they might be able to deceive. I believe that in all cases where there is any suspicion the eye grounds should be examined.
While the oculists differ with me as to the findings, my experience has shown their importance. If an eye examination was practiced upon all of our employees we would be able to detect and make earlier diagnosis in in syphilitic brains, for, as a rule, the eyes are the first to tell the true story. A stiff or pin point pupil is one of the earliest diagnostic signs, and yet if it is not present at a given examination this condition is lacking, and perhaps, the next day in the same subject it wftl be very easy to discover.
When these examinations are made on all of our employess there are
many other conditions of the eye not a result of syphilis, which will be
detected, correction made, and visual acuity brought up to standard. Thus
the fatigue and slowing up of the subject can be corrected, and full effi
ciency obtained.
'"
There are other conditions which will reveal themselves through an ocular examination, so that advice can be given, the proper treatment di rected, and as a result the subject saved and a nasty accident possibly pre vented. Periodical physical examination, conducted carefully by compe tent men, is the greatest "Safety First'' procedure that we have, and will be a greater advance in this direction than any other thing that has been discussed so fjar.
The industrial heads are going to say right from the start that period ical physical examinations cannot be done, as the employees will not stand for it. I will admit the truth of this if they continue to handle the subject as it has been handled in the past by sending out pamphlets and posting notices for this procedure: it will get them nowhere, as in the first place the pamphlets will not be read; and. in the second place, the employee will become suspicious that he is being picked out as a mark and will lose his position if found with physical defects. Therefore, a campaign of personal education by a properly trained person must be carried out in a tliorougli and painstaking way and advise the employee that this is for his benefit as well as that of his employer. Point out to him that it is the intention of the employer to help Instead of harm and, where disease
is found, to see that intensive treatment is carried out to eradicate the same and bring him back to 100 per cent efficiency. When this is done
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they will find that there will be very little dissension. Those that will create dissension you can rest assured, are the ones that the disease has made its inroads on, and as a result are defective mentally and should be cared for, and are more to be pitied than censored.
EMPLOVEBS SHOULD BE EXAMIXED
Failure in industries_are by no means always to be credited to labor,
be it .common or expert, engaged in the manual work in the factory, but frequently the trouble lies within the executive force, as often there is found in the executive family some unsuspected member who has a dis eased brain and goes on unnoticed sufficiently long to wreck the depart ment for which he is held responsible. There are certain periods in some forms of brain degeneration which extend from six months to two years, when the mind is single tracked or like that of a child. The subject is simply accredited with being eccentric by his associates, and by the time the condition is so far advanced that they notice there is something wrong, that department may have become completely wrecked--occasion ally sufficiently to ruin the whole plant- In the early stages, before con siderable damage has been done, the only way such a condition can be detected is through an examination by an expert in the disease, which pro duces this deterioration of the brain. The general run of medical men are liable to overlook it unless they are searching for it particularly. This I have seen happen many times, and will cite cases later on. Therefore, none but a trained man in this particular line should be allowed to pass upon individuals who are responsible for any part of the industrial, whether they be executives or otherwise.
Syphilis alone costs the industries in this country countless millions of dollars every year, which could be saved if the proper precautions were taken, such as looking after the health of the eriiployes.
In my experience many cases have come under my observation where the results were very disastrous and could have been wholly avoided if periodical examinations had been carried out by competent men. In one large manufacturing concern whose business was going to pieces from an apparently unknown cause, it was found that the production manager was suffering from paresis. Like all of these cases, he had been running along nearly a year with a single track mind, without detection. The only thing noticed, by bis associates was that he was working bard and had become somewhat eccentric. In another case a man with a syphilitic trouble was taken out of service, but later on was supposed to have re gained his health sufficiently to he capable of managing a certain branch of the business. -He did so for a time, but like a thunderbolt out of a clear sky the concern woke up to the- fact that he had cost them nearly a quarter of a million for some grave errors that he had made. This man was not- responsible because he had a sick mind. It was the indus trial that was at fault for not keeping a close check., by way of physi cal examination, on this individual, when it was known that he had gone wrong before, and under the circumstances was liable to go wrong again.
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Tivclfth Safety Congress
some new Idea or brought old ones to light, as new ideas are few and far
between, the most severe criticism has come from those that are ignorant
from the fact that they have not given the subject study and serious
consideration, and I always feel that they need my sympathy rather than
my wrath.
.
From my observation of the subject of syphilis and statistics gathered and the various expenses incurred by this disease my opinion would be_ that a billion dollars would be a very conservative estimate of-what it costs annually in the United States alone.
I only hope that the heads of all of our industrials will take a few moments of their time to consider this subject in a serious manner and then ask themselves whether they are doing the right thing by their fellow men and dealing full justice to their employes as well as their stockholders if they do not try to remedy conditions. There is a remedy and that is not by advising laws or having any political affiliations in the matter, but by a campaign of personal education, and to bring this about the greatest, and to my mind the only channel, is through the industrials. Through their co-operation. 90 per cent of the battle will be won to wipe out one of the greatest curses in the world today.
, discuss lore
Chairman Ford: One thought occurs to me to be very important, that is the double curve of accidents. Some years ago I made an analysis of some 12,000 accidents that occurred in our industry. Here is the beginning of the day, and here is a jieak about nine-ten. and then there is the usual afternoon peak in the curve. What was the cause of that?
Mr. C. P. Tolman: This subject is one on which those who are especially interested will find a quantity of literature in the National Safety Council Library. It has been exhaustively studied. Dr. Ethelbert Stewart would undoubtedly answer your question very thoroughly.
Dr: Ethelbert Stewart fU. S- Commissioner of Labor Statistics): There are two elements in that. One is that a large number of our workers come from hoittes that are unsanitary: they sleep in rooms badly venti lated, they are muggy and tliick-lieaded when they come to work, they live in a much worse place than the factory, and the first hour or two hours they are not in as good shape as they are after they work two hours with air and light and better conditions.
Tiien there is another tiling that is true all along the line. and. that is that industry is practically 'an instrument and it takes a certain length of time to get in tune with your piano, as it were, to key yourself up to the harmony of the thing.
Now we find that the old Monday morning business that we used to charge to whiskey doesn't decrease when liquor is entirely shut off. It takes about the same time to get into swing with your machine, and the accidents that occur in the morning are very largely from that source. I won't say that there isn't a morning peak, that is probably true, but in
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461
industry as a whole it isn't a very high peak in any except the more delicate industries where it does take a little time to get yourself tuned up to your machine.
Dr. F. Li. Rector: That curve of production followed the curve of acci
dent occurrence. From the investigation that we have been able to make
in our work, we have found that those two fall very closely together,
and I think the explanation has been given, by Commissioner Stewart, the
man has to get limbered up and settled into the daily stride, and when
he does that his production increase^ and at the same time his accident
increases.
''
Mr. Curtis: In the 6,000 cases we handled in the compensation depart ment of the Building Trades last year, we found that the greater part of our accidents happen about two o'clock in the afternoon and then again between ten and eleven.
Dr. Hartman: . There is one point I -want to bring out in regard to the early morning accidents, and that is the troubles that a great many men carry with them from home. Before they settle down and forget their home troubles they have their accidents, they haven't their minds on their work. I have had twenty-three years' experience in factories, and it has been my experience that the first two hours in the morning and the last two hours in the afternoon are the hours when accidents predominate by far.
Chairman Ford: We are especially honored this morning in having with us Sir Thomas Oliver of Newcastle-on-the-Tyne, England, but that is not really true. He is rather of the world.
- SIR TIIOXIAS SPEAKS
Sir Thomas Oliver: I just followed with interest what you were
talking about--this question of the accidents in the morning and after
noon. I think Dr. Stewart has put a very true explanation before you
when he told you that some of this trouble is likely due to what has
taken place at home. These people who are in the factories, after their
long day's work carry home with them the products of fatigue, and unless
they are sleeping in well ventilated houses they do not get rid of that
before the morning, so the person begins his work in the morning with
the effects of fatigue of the previous day not cleared up and also with a
slight toxic condition of his respiratory center. I think these two things
together may be the explanation of the number of accidents in the
morning.
'
Dr. Ford called attention to the decline in the number of accidents in
the afternoon. Sometimes we And in England that the numbers are in
creased toward the end of the working- day and at other times they are
diminished. During the war I carried out some experiments in regard to
this question of muscular fatigue toward the end of the day, and I found
that several of the girls really had better muscular force toward the end
of the day than they had in the forenoon, and I think that has been found
by others as well.
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Twelfth Safety Congress
Another lesser group are the "Life Extension" examinations made at the Union Health Center within the last few years of those who desired a thorough physical examination to determine their physical condition.
Finally, during the last six or seven years, a large number of examina tions was made of workers, voluntarily coming for examination or treat ment either to the general or special clinics.
Methods of Examination--These differed according to the purpose for which the workers were examined. The most thorough were the life extension examinations. These patients first undergo a preliminary ex amination by the resident physician, who takes a full history and makes the preliminary tests. They then are examined by the internist and then by those specialists to whom the internist may have referred them for special examination. As a rule, they are examined by not less than four physicians.
The methods of examination of those who apply to the internists or specialists for treatment does not differ from the general examination given for this purpose in any clinic or dispensary.
The least thorough examination is given to the candidates for ad mission to the union, as the purpose of this, examination is simply to exclude persons suffering from active, infectious, general or special dis eases. The examination is general and rapid, although whenever a chest or other condition seemed doubtful, a second examination was ordered usually. As a rule, no candidate is rejected or accepted as a non-benefit case without a subsequent, more thorough examination.
Time Spent for Each Examination--This differed according to the pur pose and the character of the examination. A life extension examination usually takes no less than three-quarters of an hour by the resident physician and internist, with an additional 15 to 30 minutes by each of the other physicians. The examination of patients coming for general and special treatment lasts on an average about 15 minutes. The time for examination of an applicant ranges from 5 minutes to 15 minutes, with an average of 8 minutes. Life extension examinations are made with patients fully stripped; for all other examinations they are stripped to the waist.
Medical Examiners--The physicians connected with the Union Health Center are practitioners of five years or more experience and are paid for each period of one hour and a half the sum of $6.00 to $7.00.
The Workers--The patients belong to the International Ladies' Gar ment Workers' Union, an organization of 150,000 workers throughout the country, having a membership of about 65,000 in New York City. About 15 per cent of the 65,000 workers are Italian, 5 per cent are Russian and Polish Slaves, a small percentage Colored and American, with the bulk belonging to the Jewish race.
The Trade--The women's garment industry in New York City is housed principally in the loft district, between Second and Forty-second Streets in Manhattan, with a few hundred shops scattered on the East Side, in
Health Service Section
465
Brooklyn, and in Harlem. The trade is highly seasonal, there being two principal seasons of activity, one beginning in February and lasting until about May, the other beginning in August and lasting until December or January.
Until 1919 the pressers only were week- workers, the rest being piece workers. A few years ago the union made a demand for a general week work in the industry, basing their claim upon the fact that piece work tended to overwork during the seasonal months, to overfatigue and other conditions which were detrimental to the health of the workers. At present most of the workers are paid weekly wages.
The Sanitary Conditions of the Shops--The women's garment industry
has been regarded as one of the typical sweat-shop trades. Prior to
1910 there was a great deal of home work done and a great many of the
shops were located in the Fast Side tenements and small lofts, in stores,
as well as in basements and cellars, with inadequate light and ventila
tion and very deplorable sanitary conditions.
'
Since 1911 the Joint Board of Sanitary Control, which, has been created by the protocol, has undertaken to clean up the "Augean Stables" and has established a thorough control and supervision of all the shops in the industries. Thorough semi-annual inspections are made of every shop in the industry, all shops are classified according to their sanitary character, and an intensive educational campaign is made to enforce all the standards of the board and all the rules and regulations of the Labor Law. A large number of Inspections are made during each year by the inspectors of the board.
The improvement of the sanitary conditions of the shops of the in dustry has been very notable during the last 10 years. There has been a steady reduction of the most important sanitary defects, although a constant supervision is still necessary to enforce the minor violations which constantly occur in the shops.
Occupational Effects--There are comparatively few special factors act ing unfavorably upon the health and physical condition of the workers. Owing to special conditions prevailing in the loft districts in Manhattan, there is considerable fire hazard to the workers.
There is a comparatively small number of accidents in the industry. The accidents that do occur are cuts with cutting machines, burns from pressing irons, and finger injuries by needles.
When the work was done on the piece rate basis, there was a con siderable hazard because of overwork and fatigue. Under the week work basis, this has been largely eliminated.
Insufficient and improper illumination is still a cause of concern and many workers are suffering from defective eyesight due to overstrain or glare.
A considerable hazard in the industry is the faulty posture and de fective seating in many branches of the trade, conditions' which have been made special studies of by the board and attempts made to remedy.
46S
- Twelfth Safety Congress
There was about two per cent of the workers suffering from pulmonary
affections, notably fibroid phthisis, asthma, emphysema and chronic
bronchitis. This also presents a much smaller group than in former
investigations.
.
There were 556 cases of chronic cardiac disease among the 36,510
candidates for admission to the Union.
About 15 per cent Of the persons examined suffered from some form
of gastro-intestinal disease, a large proportion of it of a neurotic type.
Neurasthenia is still a very prevalent disease among garment workers,
to the extent of about 25 per cent. While there is much less than shown
in former investigations, the percentage of neurasthenics is still too
great and is partly explained by racial and economic conditions of the
industry.
.
The other diseases that we have found quite frequent among our
workers are rheumatic affections, various forms of neuritis, a considerable
number of diabetes, and quite a number of endarteritis obliterans.
We have not as yet undertaken the enormous task of thoroughly study
ing in detail all our 50,000 records. The result of such a thorough study
will undoubtedly be of greater value than our present preliminary survey.
DISCUSSION
.
Dr. Benedict (Birmingham) : The examinations which were reported
involve an enormous amount of work to be done. The work we have done
along the lines of examination has been to protect the company and
incidentally to make every employee feel that the fellow next to him was
holding down his job and doing the amount of work he was called on to
do. To date, we have examined 25,000 men. The examination is very
brief. I feel that by absolutely stripping a man you get more information
than you do by asking him a lot of questions. We require that every man
be stripped. The Interesting fiiidings are that one per cent of the men we
have examined are perfect. When I say perfect 1 mean as to weight,
defects of vision, teeth practically perfect, no physical defect. Those men
were classified as A men. The next classification was B. These formed
about 73 per cent of all the men who were examined. Ten per cent were
rejected. How much this will increase the efficiency of the company, of
course, cannot be told, but it has certainly lessened very materially, the
compensation which has to be paid on these cases, and the general health
of the employees is very much better.
Malaria is something that we have to consider and which, in this part of
the country, you see very- little of. It is a bugbear more or less with us,
and a man with acute malaria is not accepted until he is placed in the
hospital and given 30 grains of quinine on three consecutive nights and
then agrees to take (a written agreement) 10 grains of quinine two
months. If he refuses to do this he is rejected. This is one of our
problems. We have only been at it about two years, but I believe it
certainly lias been worth the money that has been put into it. The
employee pays nothing. The company pays for every examination that
is made.
Health Service Section
469
THE ENDICOTT-JOHNSON MEDICAL SERVICE
C. M.D., Y.'
Dakiel
O'Neil,
Binghamton-, N.
.
"Sickness is a hazard to which all are subjected and to which many
fall victims. Those who are disabled by sickness suffer losses of time and
cost of care which vary from slight burdens, easily borne, to those which
fall with crushing force on individuals and families." (Report of Commit
tee A. M. A. 1919.)
.
The activities and results of public health work and preventative
medicine have diminished the death rate, but it is the common lot of all
mortals to be subject to various physical and mental ills and to need advice
and care and treatment. Up to the present, public health movements have
done little to assist the individual who is actually ill; public health deal
ing largely with education, sanitation, control of contagion, safeguarding
water and food supplies and collecting vital statistics.
The highest form of humanitarian effort is to smooth out the rough places in the life of the industrial worker. It is of far greater impor
tance for the individual, suffering from pneumonia, or gastric ulcer, or
boils, to receive adequate treatment and relief than to know the statistics
that have been collected or the studies that have been made. From care
ful observation during the past few years I believe that a great fear is
lifted, when a worker feels that he has steady employment in a suitable
occupation. His next great fear is the incident of ill health to himself
or his dependents. The income of the average worker shows so slight a
margin over his actual living expense that a few weeks' illness, an opera tion, or the coming of a baby in his home, will force him into debt or
cause him to seek service from charity organizations or hospitals. To
allay this fear, to make their workers more contented, and free from the
worries that would interfere with working efficiency, the Endicott-John-
son Corp., manufacturers of leather and shoes, employing about 16,000
workers, located in the three communities of Endicott, Johnson City and
Binghamton have developed and maintained a medical service, available
without .cost, to all their workers and dependent members of workers'
families. '
.- '
HOW MEDICAL SERVICE IS KEA'DERED
It will be my endeavor to present to you a short sketch of the plan by
which this medical service is rendered, the character of the work done and
the results obtained.
.
Before the enactment of the Workmen's Compensation Law, a full time
physician and. surgeon had been employed to render first aid treatment and subsequent care to those workers who met with industrial accidents.
The service rendered was satisfactory to the workers and they showed theii- appreciation by consulting the company doctor for various troubles
not of industrial origin. The company doctor advised and treated these
complaints and in a short time was burdened with work. Additional
physicians were employed to meet the demand. It Was only a step further
for the worker to ask to bring his wife or child to the office and a small
dispensary was thus established. It supplied the simple remedies required
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Twelfth Safety Congress
made last year. Any medicine or appliance for the use of the patient is
also dispensed, without charge, and the patient instructed in its use. If the patient requires special treatment, laboratory work, dental examina tion, or the opinion of a specialist, these examinations are arranged for and the patient instructed how and when to procure them.
Once each week a special period of the afternoon is set aside for a baby
clinic and the wives of the workers are encouraged to bring their "well babies," who are examined, weighed and measured, and, to receive in structions in the proper care and feeding of these babies. This feature of the medical work has been enthusiastically received by the mothers and their co-operation and interest is ample reward for the effort re quired. No doubt much good will result from the careful observation of the development of these babies. The plan has been in operation too short a time to show marked influence on mortality statistics, but I am sure we are seeing fewer sick babies than formerly and I hope that there will be fewer deaths.
DENTISTRY, X-RAY AND CHEMICAL DEPARTMENTS MAINTAINED
Each office maintains a dental department--equipped to make dental
examinations, administer treatments, fillings, do extraction, and general prophylactic work. Special dental records are- made of each dental visit.
No restoration of lost teeth or gold work is attempted and when such
work is indicated the patient is advised to consult his private dentist.
One central X-ray outfit is used by the three stations for all X-ray work.
The service is fully used for any patient requiring diagnostic or thera
peutic roentgenology.
Two of the offices maintain a chemical and bacteriological laboratory.
Any further laboratory service required, is obtained from commercial lab
oratories.
'
All Wasserman examinations are obtained from the State Department
at Albany. We do not do a routine Wasserman on each new patient but
all patients with chronic conditions or in whom the diagnosis is at all
obscure are given the benefit of a Wasserman test.
Each office is equipped and is treating energetically those of its patients
who are suffering from syphilis. About 200 were under treatment last
year. Either Salvarsan or' Neo-Salvarsan is used with an intravenous
preparation of mercury depending on the choice and judgment of the
physician in charge of the work.
Two eye specialists with well equipped offices for examination, refrac tions and treatment work are available and are used by the doctors and
/
workers to a large extent; more than two thousand refractions being made during the past year. If the worker is able to pay for the lens that is ordered, he may obtain them at cost from an optical manufacturing concern having special arrangements with the company. Any worker, having a large family and to whom procuring glasses would prove a burden, can obtain them without cost.
Among our patrons, many of whom are children and young adults, the second in order of frequency and the first in order of importance, is disease
Health Service Section
473
of the nose and throat and associated structures. To meet this condition, two physicians are devoting their entire time to the care of these demands. Offices for examinations and treatment are located in the clinic and a house has been converted and equipped as an operating hospital for nose and throat cases. Tonsillectomies are done five mornings each week, the patient remaining in the hospital for about twenty-four hours following the operation. During the past year, the last six months of which the hospital was in operation, about 800 tonsillectomies were performed. The present year will show a considerable increase in thib work, which is now
more thoroughly organized and established. A trained masseur is employed to administer massage and manipulation
to suitable cases such as injuries to joints, fractures and paralysis. Practically all of the major surgery is done by one surgeon who devotes
his entire time to this work. As a matter of convenience patients needing surgical treatment are sent to one hospital, located near the center of the three communities. In the last year 281 major operations were per formed and of course a corresponding number of minor ones.
WORKERS' FAMILIES SERVED DAY AXD NIGHT
All of the three centers constantly receive calls by messenger or phone
to send a. doctor to the homes of the workers. The territory served by
each office is apportioned and the calls are distributed so that each com
munity may be most conveniently served. Some one of the staff in each
center is on duty during the entire 24 hours and service can be obtained
at any time. The workers are advised and instructed to make as few
night calls as possible and in a great measure this instruction is quite
faithfully carried out. However, a very small number seem to develop an
urgent illness during the night hours and require immediate attention
after midnight for a trouble which has existed all day.
.
When calling at the home of the worker the visiting doctor drives a
car furnished by the company and is prepared to supply any indicated
medication or do any required dressing. If suitable supplies are not at
hand they may be obtained at once from the medical office.
The company maintain a staff of visiting nurses whose services are
available as assistants to the doctors in the homes of the workers and
who do general visiting nursing and the "follow up" work in each com
munity. Each nurse is provided with an auto so that she is able to
cover a large territory and give service in many homes each day.
The staff doctors made 75,000 visits to the homes last year and the visiting nurses made about 15,000.
Any worker or dependent having an active pulmonary tuberculosis is
given the benefit of- sanitarium treatment if this is advisable and accept
able to the patient. At present about seventy patients having tubercu
losis are under treatment at the expense of the company. It has been
proposed that at some future time the company will establish its own sanitarium for the care and treatment of this class of patients.
A home in the country, in charge of a trained nurse, has been in opera
tion for the past five years where working girls and women, convalescing
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Twelfth, Safety Congress
"Dr. O'Neill: There are 16,000 workers, and last year the company pro duced with those 16,000 workers something over 32,000,000 pairs of shoes. The cost is not against wage; it is against production. It would cost about a cent and a quarter per pair of shoes to maintain the medical service. Increased production, nor contentment, nor all the things which go with contentment in the avoidance of labor trouble and smoothness of organ ization are not due to the medical service; they are due to a spirit, which is something intangible, something I can't put down in figures and which wouldn't appear in statistics. I tried to carry to you the message that the whole effort of the management is to instill in the worker a spirit of partnership, a desire to do the thing that is necessary to make that work er's living conditions in the factory and at home and in the community the best that can be had.
There are two self-contained communities; two of them largely given to the city, Endicott-Johnson being centered about the shoe manufacturing industry. Perhaps a third of the workers reside in Binghamton, which is a larger city and which has only one plant.
The layettes, the photographs and other things are things which would come as a burden to poor people which it is easy for the company to fur nish as a particular feature. Prophylaxis, dentistry, treatments, metal fillings without gold, porcelain and amalgam, and things of that kind can be done without a great expense and will put the worker or his children in good condition, but if It were to run into the item of plates, bridges, crowns, it would be very expensive, and I don't think $400,000 would hardly do if you did all the.work that presents itself. Then there might be an amount of dissatisfaction that might come from unsatisfactory work. There is no necessity of restoring teeth in order to put a man in reason ably good health.
FURTHER STUDIES IN MENTAL HYGIENE IN INDUSTRY
Frederick W. Dersiiimer, M.D., Cr.EVJa.AJ'.'i), On jo.
In a previous paper I endeavored to discuss in a general, yet not entirely impractical, way the subject of mental hygiene in industry. In that paper 1 asserted that every physician practices mental hygiene and that his success as a physician depends more upon his use of psychotherapy than upon any other one factor; that the development of this branch of medi cine as a science carries with it the obligation to practice it in a scientific way; and that when we learn to do so we will deliver an extremely hard blow to all quackery. The logical next step `appeared to be a more thorough study of some one phase of the general subject, and malingering appealed to me as being one of the most imxiortant from the viewpoint of industry. Unfortunately for tills study, my connection with industry was broken several months ago. Consequently, I have not had the oppor tunity to study in industry the wealth of material which would have been available had this not occurred. I will, however, offer some suggestions in tlie hope that they may be of value in stimulating someone else to carry forward the study of this important subject.
Health Service Section
4H1
In the past we have been in the habit o looking upon malingering as
a very simple matter. A malingerer was just an employee who had delib
erately determined that he would simulate a disease or injury,, or
magnify an. 'injury or its results, in order to enjoy a vacation at the company's expense. It never occurred to us that malingering was a
disease and the malingerer, accordingly, was classed as a criminal in our
minds and considered fair game for our efforts to circumvent his scheme.
This is, of course, true with regard to real malingerers, but during the
past few years the psychiatrists have come to believe that malingering
in this sense is rather a rare disease. White has stated that malingering
is not a sufficient diagnosis. Reeve, in a personal conversation, told me
that while there were, undoubtedly, malingerers in the army, the great
majority of cases diagnosed as malingering proved to be hysteria.
Rosanoff states that he saw but one proven case of malingering in his
entire army experience, whereas he saw innumerable cases of hysteria.
Other psychiatrists have similar opinions, and I am inclined to believe
that in industry, also, many cases diagnosed as malingering are cases of
hysteria.
.
DEFINITION OF HYSTERIA
It may appear that such a distinction is merely a useless play upon words. Despite the fact that Janet and others demonstrated some years ago the true nature of hysteria, many of us. lacking opportunities to keep in touch with the progress of psychiatry, may continue to look upon hysteria, also, as being a deliberate effort to deceive. This being true, it seems advisable to make ah effort to understand the disease.
Janet defines it as follows: "Hysteria is a form of mental depression
characterized by the retraction of the field of personal consciousness and a tendency to the dissociation and emancipation of the systems of ideas and functions that constitute personality." Such a definition is not very helpful to those who, like myself, are not psychologists. The terms used in it are without meaning to me when I am confronted with a patient. I find the same difficulty with other definitions of the disease and with the descriptions of it as well. I will, therefore, attempt to describe hysteria as I have seen it.
In making his complaint and describing his symptoms the hysterical patient usually exhibits considerable emotion. He appears to fear that the physician will not believe him, and makes every effort to impress upon him the importance and seriousness of his condition.
The history frequently discloses the fact that other members of the family have exhibited signs of nervous instability. Invariably inquiry will show that the patient has failed to adjust himself to his environ ment and is unhappy as 'a result. This maladjustment may be in connec tion with his home life, his work, or his broader social relations. Hys terical attacks in girls are not infrequently the result of disagreements with friends or sweethearts. Very often, though not in every case, it will be discovered that some relative or friend has had similar symptoms in the past, or that for some other reason the patient has been led to
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Twelfth Safety Congress
he never stammered in giving signals. In those circumstances his superi
ority was established; for the time he was in supreme command of his
universe.
So far .one gets a picture which is far from that of an ideal man. Yet
the patient was a rather high type. He was a good son. a bright, hard
working student who was making every effort to earn his own way
through college and meeting with considerable success since, at the be
ginning of his junior year, he had about $1,000. A11 things considered,
he was rather a likeable chap. The paradox can be understood only
when it is realized that the patient was totally unconscious of the mental
mechanism underlying the stammering from which he was consciously
trying hard to free himself. In a. very mild degree it was another case
of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, who, after all, are present in each of us to
some degree. Proof that he was unconscious of this mechanism is evi
denced in the fact that the stammering began to disappear rapidly as
soon as we were able to explain the cause of it. At the end of ten sessions
with him it occurred very rarely. No other form of treatment was
necessary.
-
Now to apply the facts in this case to hysteria in general. Every
hysterical manifestation represents an unconscious effort on the part of
the patient to attain some object which he feels is unattainable by more
direct methods. In other words, he strives to compensate for a fancied
inferiority. As soon as he can be shown the true mechanism of such
manifestations, they disappear. Frequently even this is unnecessary. A
cure can often be made by admitting that the symptom is all that the patient thinks it is, and then stimulating him to go ahead and show his
ability by succeeding in spite of this handicap. This course allows him
to develop a feeling of superiority which compensates for the inferiority
complex which is at the root of the trouble, since a moderate success in
life despite such a handicap seems to mean as much as a greater success
without it.
'
No doubt this explanation seems far-fetched to some. Yet it is every
bit as reasonable as, and ratlier more easily proven by experience with '
patients than Ehrlich's side-chain theory, on the basis of which he evolved
the arsphenamine which we all accept as an invaluable addition to our
therapeutic resources. S.ince we have to admit numerous failures in
treating hysteria patients by other methods with a large resultant financial
loss to industry, it would seem worth while at least to investigate this
theory further.
Let us pass to more practical and definite details of prevention and
treatment. As stated in Janet's definition, hysteria is a form of mental
depression. Happy people do not suffer from it. It is evidence of failure
on the part of the individual to adjust himself to the demands of life.
Prophylaxis, then, must depend upon searching out those who are dis satisfied, finding the cause of their dissatisfaction, and aiding as far as
possible in remedying it. As stated above, the fault may lie either in the
individual or in the environment or in both, and some investigation of
both is usually necessary. The physician in industry has an unusual
Health Service Section
481
opportunity to know the conditions under which the individual works,
and he has more or less opportunity in different plants to remedy bad
conditions. He must usually depend upon a visiting nurse to investigate
and report on home conditions, which he may be powerless to remedy.
His greatest opportunity lies in treatment of the patient. In most cases
the potential hysteric is such because he is failing to use the opportunities
presented to live'a fuller life. He can develop a hobby or skill in sports,
or he can improve his philosophy of living if he will, and in many cases
he will do these things if ordered to for the sake of his health by a
physician.
.
TBEATMEMT OF HYSTERIA
In the treatment of hysteria the first essential is confidence in the physician. If this cannot be secured it is hopeless to continue treatment, and the patient should be referred to another physician. The case must be studied in order to determine, if possible, what the symptom represents, since it is always an ungratified wish of the patient. In industry it may be the desire for compensation, but frequently it is far more complex. The real underlying wish is likely to be for appreciation of his services, pro motion, revenge on a foreman for what the patient considers injustices, sympathy from his fellow-workers or family, etc. The desire for revenge
has been especially common in my brief experience, and it is essential that this emotion be relieved. In my earlier paper on this subject I described how this was done'in a case where a patient had been injured when another employee pulled her chair away as she was sitting down. The employee at fault was properly reprimanded while the one injured was carefully examined and shown every courtesy within the power of the
medical department.
Frequently the wishes underlying an hysteria are such that they can
not be gratified. They are incompatible with the demands of civilization.
In such cases it is necessary to have some knowledge of the normal in
stincts of man and .to trace the wish back to its basic instinct, after
which it is unusually possible to find a legitimate outlet for it in some
other direction. For example, sexual desire and the desire to create are
manifestations of the same instinct, and the-former can be greatly lessened
by absorption in creative work of any type in which the patient can be
come interested. Such a statement may seem ridiculous, but even as
conservative a man as Osier recognized the truth of it and most of us know
that the person who has found work or a hobby, or both, into which he
can throw himself whole-heartedly is not apt to be bothered by a sex
neurosis. The two are compatible.
Drug treatment of the symptoms of hysteria is useful. It should be
kept In mind, however, that drugs never cure the condition. They help
by suggestion and may, indeed, cure the symptom, but the focus of mental
infection, if I may use such a phrase, remains. Drugs often aid distinctly
in securing the'confidence of the patient, however, during the time when
the source of the rouble is being sought and thus pave the way for the
cure. Hygienic advice is valuable in a similar way.
.
482 Twelfth Safety Congress
Most cases diagnosed as malingering in the army proved to be hysteria on further study, and it seems probable that this is true in industry.
Hysteria is not a deliberate effort to deceive. A complicated mental mechanism underlies every case but the patient is never conscious of this mechanism, and the condition disappears rapidly as soon as he is made conscious of it.
"Find the cause and remove it," the ideal of all medicine and surgery is as important in treating hysteria as it is in treating any other condition. It is usually possible to cure hysteria, and thus no excuse remains for failure to make the effort to do so.
ADJOURNM ENT.
Ice and Refrigeration Section
October 2, 1923
F. P. WAXKEK, Chairman General Necessities Corporation, Detroit, Mich.
HAIRMAN WALKBE: For several .years the ice industry has been in terested in safety work in a more or less haphazard way. By that, I
mean that there has been no co-ordination of effort on the part of the mem bers of the industry, although a large number of men have been actively engaged in safety work. Tbe necessity for some co-operated effort has been recognized by a number of these different individuals, and a little more than a year ago an effort was made at the last Safety Congress to form a section. At the time there were not sufficient' members of this particular industry who are members of the National Safety Coun cil to enable us to organize a section of our own, so we combined with the Taxicab and Transfer Section.
At tbe time of the last Congress, that section was organized, and the name changed to the Taxicab and Delivery section and shortly afterwards it was recognized by the members of ice industry that we did not flt in that particular section. The president of the National Association of Ice Industries at the last annual convention appointed a committee to investigate the possibilities of organizing in some concrete way for the industry itself.
This committee has done considerable work during the past year and has succeeded in interesting about forty members of the industry in membership in the National Safety Council, so while we haven't very many of those gentlemen with us this morning, we still have the mem bership in the council to go ahead and organize the section.
It is hardly necessary for me to say anything about safety work to any of you gentlemen, because I naturally assume that you are all as much interested in it as I am myself, so I will not dwell on that phase of it at all.
APPOINTMENT OF NOMINATING COMMITTEE
The next thing on the program that we are required to do in order to effect an organization is to appoint a nominating committee, and I will appoint Mr. E. G. Hitt, chairman, and Mr. F. F. Hooker and Mr. C. O. Hero as the other two members of the committee.
483
484 Twelfth Safety Congress
It is necessary for us to elect a set of officers this morning: and the
committee will be expected to report following the discussion of the
papers. The officers to be nominated are a chairman, a vice-chairman
and a secretary.
*
.
There is a list here of the members up to date so far as I have been able to get them from the Council, and which the nominating commit tee can take to make their choice from.
We will undoubtedly be able to build up this section from the refriger ating end or a great many industries. Some of the larger automobile plants have extensive refrigerating plants. We tve a representative of one of the packing companies here this morning, I believe. There is no doubt that there is plenty of room for the whole packing industry, from the refrigerating angle, in this section, because the American Society of Re frigerating Engineers are very much interested . and are working with a committee at the present time on the statistical end.
So, in the course of the ensuing year, we should be able to, I would say, increase the membership of this particular section to 200. We ought to have at least 200 members.
There will be several committees to be appointed but from the fact that the annual convention of the National 'Association of Ice Industries will be held in Cleveland, November 13-16, at which time a large number of the members of this section will be present, it has been deemed advis able to lay-over the appointing of committees until that meeting. At that time, one afternoon will be given over to a sectional meeting on safety, at which time will com into its own in a very tangible way.
We can now proceed with the program as outlined, the first number being "Accidents in the Ice and Refrigeration Industry and Their Cost."
When this safety committee was appointed by the president of the
National Association of Ice Industries, one of the members of the com mittee was selected for the reason that be was engaged, and has been engaged for a number of years, in the insurance field, particularly as applying to the ice industry. That man was Mr. Bruce Dodson of the Casualty Reciprocal Exchange, Kansas City. Mo. Mr. Dodson, unfQrtunately, is unable to be here himself, but he has sent a very capable substitute in the person of Mr. C. O. Hero, so I take great pleasure in presenting to you Mr. C. O. Hero.
ACCIDENTS IN THE ICE AND REFRIGERATION INDUSTRY AND THEIR COST
C. O. Hero, Reciprocal Exchange. Kansas City. Mo.
The need for a concerted action on the part of all persons interested in the industry is most, apparent, as we will indicate by the quotation
of a few figures which, while approximate, are essentially correct.
Our paper will deal more particularly with the companies which would be classified as ice manufacturers, ice dealers, ice harvesters, ice cream manufacturers, creameries and dairies, beverage manufacturers and bottlers, and cold storage warehouses. This, of course, does not cover
Ice and Refrigeration Section
485
all of the industries which use refrigerating machinery, as refrigerating machinery is used to a large degree in twenty-five to thirty prominent Industries. For that reason, this paper will be more or less general In its scope.
The figures which we shall use for one of our insurance years are, to
the best of our records, correct. The analysis will compare only a repre sentative cost of personal injury accidents as reported in connection with workmen's compensation and employer's liability insurance. The reports for some few states are missing, but tbe figures which we shall quote are nearly complete for the entire country.
Accidents for insurance purposes are divided into classes of severity, death or permanent total disability cases being considered as of the same
seriousness. The compensable cases are those which have Involved time loss on the part of the injured employee for a period of about fourteen days- or more. In addition to the compensation costs, a medical expense will be reported which medical expense will include first aid treatment in minor cases and the more serious work of rehabilitation in major cases.
TABUI.ATION of accidents
A total of 64,863 tabulated accidents involved a total cost of $1,323,510.
The amount of actual wages expended during this same year showed a
total of $114,018,000. Approximately 1.20 per cent of the amount of wages
was expended to pay losses and medical expense because of injuries
suffered.
'
There were 83 deaths and permanent total disability cases involving a total cost of $290,500, an average of approximately $3,500 per case.
Serious injury involving a loss of fourteen days or more, resulted in 4,324 accidents. The total cost of the 4,324 cases was $800,886 or approxi
mately $185.22 per accident.
.
Other accidents tabulated for the purpose of classification, in-addition to the above mentioned, were 60,456. The cost of these accidents was $232,124.
Remember that t,hese figures do not represent one dollar of loss or
expense involving teams or automobile accidents. It*is safe to say that
our industries suffered their proportionate number of accidents from the
use of automobiles and teams.
Accidents are always explainable, if not excusable, which facts make a record important. By an analysis of the causes, the safety engineer is
enabled to focus attention to that cause, bring pressure to bear through
proper channels and eliminate, in a large degree, the circumstances respon
sible for the tremendous loss which is charged to the industry.
The following tabulation covers forty accident causes, covering a wide
range:
-
Defective Wiring................................................... Attacked by Bandit............................................................................................ Elevator Cable Broke........................................................................................ Falling Horse .....................................:................................................................ Explosion ............
2 3 4 6 8
486
Txcelfih Safety Congress
Firing Boiler ................................................................................................... 11
Wagon Struck by Railroad Train............................................................ 12
Burn from Escaping Steam ....................................................................
12
Cranking Car ................................................................-.............................. 12
Machines (Point of Operation).....................................................
56
Oiling Machinery .......................................................................................... 56 Runaway Team .............................................................................................. 125
Knocked Down by Horse............................................................................ 127
Wagon Passed over Foot............................................................................ 168
Sudden Start of Team................................................................................... 169
Stepping on Kail............................................................................................ 206
Slivers (Wood) .............................................................................................. 225
Dog Bite ...................................................
260
Slivers (Steel) ------................................................................................ 281
Pushing and Pulling................................
327
Stepped on by Horse..................................................................................... 333 Automobile Accident ................................................................................... 368
Cleaning Machinery ..................................................................................... 387 Alighting from Wagon.............................................................................. 387
Fellow Employee............................................................................................ 398
Wagon Struck by Street Car...................................................
560
Defective Equipment ................................................................................... 624
Repairing Machinery .................................................................................. 1,049
Machinery (Moving Parts) .................................................................... 1,294
Flying Particles ......................................................................................... 1,973
Lifting ................................................................................................................. 2,023
Horse Kicks and Horse Bits.......................................
2,595
Striking Objects ............................................................................................. 3,597
Falls ........................................................................................................................4.046
Caught Between Objects..................
4,496
Hand Tools ........................................................................................... 7,223
Falling Objects .............................................................................................. 9,217
Handling Material ........................................................................................12,924
Slipping and TTipping.......................
17,240
64.863
As is seemingly natural, the most prolific cause of accidents in our in dustry is chargeable to the slipping and tripping hazard, wet floors, and the presence of small particles of ice in certain departments. Next in importance is the handling of materials. The use of hand tools has swelled the frequency and here is perhaps one important point which may be brought out typifying the attitude of the average employee to safety programs.
The use of ice picks and ice tongs injure drivers and distributors of ice more seriously than any of the other causes and yet it is next to im possible to impress some of the dealers with the necessity for carrying the ice pick In a shield.
Ice and Refrigeration Section
487
Especially important is the need for proper sterilizing of . cut or wound when an accident occurs. This is difficult for employees on delivery sys tems, since they are away from the plant and are more or less apt to ignore trivial wounds. Infectious cases develop, however, most frequently from a neglect of these seemingly trivial accidents.
We know that our industries are responsible for 64,863 accidents in one year and that they cost $1,323,510. This loss is charged directly to the industry through insurance charges and remember this, that the com panies contributing to the greatest amount of those losses suffer through an increased plant overhead, through increased insurance charges, through a reduced plant efficiency caused by an excitement in the plant and a dis turbance of the general plant morale. Quite important also, is the fact of a possible reduction in the quality and quantity of production of the plant product.
We will not endeavor to discuss the accident prevention measures which could be undertaken, as these are not covered by our subject. The force of our appeal should rest upon the emphasis of the tremendous cost of accidents which occurred in our industries, and the waste which the cost occasions.
The industries covered in this paper are seasonable industries to a large extent, the peak seasons lasting for an average of three months. For this reason it is quite necessary to engage men unfamiliar sometimes with the labor they will be required to perform.
It is important that the green employee be instructed in the duties which he will take up, which work should be delegated to a shop commit tee or to the man in charge of the particular department where that man is employed.
The Ice Manufacturers Association in some states is doing a good work by an educational program through bulletin service. This bulletin service depicts in a graphic way the most frequent causes of accidents by use of large posters. The bulletins are posted in a conspicuous place on the walls or on a bulletin board in the plant and the thought of the em ployee continually directed to the Safety First problems.
EDUCATION IS MOST SUCCESSFUL METHOD
It is the experience, I believe, of the insurance companies, as a whole, that education is the most successful method of combating the increasing ratio of accidents in all industries. The insurance company furnishes protection for a certain fixed sum. This protection should be limited to the payment of losses and the settlement of claims. Competition has made it necessary, however, for the insurance carrier to cut down the high cost of accidents as a matter of seif preservation. In order to do this and bring the cost of the protection down to an absolute science, actuarial and statistical bureaus were formed. These bureaus tabulate loss costs and accident causes, which facts are used for purposes of rate
making. . It requires no stretch of imagination to realize that the insurance com
panies must obtain an adequate premium to absorb the losses that are developed in any industry. If the industries represented here are in-
488 Twelfth Safety Congress
terested to obtain a low insurance cost, it necessarily follows that they must
co-operate to cut down the losses that accidents create. This can be done largely by co-operation with the insurance company through the inspec tion and safety engineering departments which are maintained. In fact, this service is fast becoming one of the most important services of the
insurance carrier. The various forms of coverage provided for the manufacturers make it
possible for the individual concern to allocate costs for losses which would
not otherwise be possible. It is just as important for a firm insured to cut down accidents as it is for the insurance company, as accidents receive a publicity through the press and otherwise have a far-reaching result, especially with the consuming public.
I am reminded of a very important eastern railroad, which lost consid erable prestige because of a series of bad accidents which occurred within a short space of time. I believe it is true that this same result would obtain for the manufacturer who is careless of the safety and welfare of
the men employed.
THE ECONOMIC SIDE Of SAFETY
.
The economic need for a serious consideration of the problem, we be
lieve is fairly present and we hope that much_ good will have been accom
plished as result of this Congress, in conserving the life and limb of the workmen in the ice and refrigerating industries.
If there is any one point which should be emphasized more than another
in this paper, it is this: that if the manufacturers in the industries to which this paper is addressed, desire to reduce their workmen's compen sation and employer's liability insurance costs, they must reduce the high frequency of accidents which occur. If every employer will do his part In reducing the number of accidents in his plant, all of the manufacturers will be benefited.
As the manual rates for each state for each classification are based upon
a group experience as reported to the insurance departments of the respec tive states, it necessarily follows that each separate enterprise must do its part to improve the rate for that classification. Individual risks are penalized under a scientific rate making plan, for a high accident fre
quency, while the risk with a good experience and a low accident fre
quency enjoys a reduced rate. The base rate, however, is determined upon the experience of the whole. Remember this, that accidents cost considerable money and interfere seriously with the efficiency operation of the plant. They also create a harmful influence with the customer
whom you serve. It has been suggested that the Refrigeration Section of this Council in
stitute a safety program during the present Congress. If this is accom plished. please feel that Bruce Dodson offers every possible assistance in the carrying out of such a program. The work, begun some fewmonths ago seems to have accomplished a good result, but let us not be satisfied until we have eliminated to a large degree the terrific toll which has been exacted through carelessness, inconsideration, or the maintenance of an unsafe condition in any of the industries in which we are interested.
Ice and Refrigeration Section
489
Let us resolve today that we shall go back to our respective positions with this thought firmly implanted in our minds and our hearts; that we shall make our industries the most highly efficient, sanitary and the safest of any of the manufacturing enterprises,
DISCUSSION
Mr. E. G. Hitt (Chicago Ice Producers Mutual Liability Company) : Our situation in Chicago is peculiar In that most of our business is done
through peddlers. Out of forty members in the association only seven deliver their own ice, so our figures on delivery don't affect the true condition. Ice manufacturers figures do. "We have found that pick stabs have been comparatively few but tong cuts, falls and slipping and drop ping ice have been the most serious features. Our first year In operation
we had seven men killed.
We keep some pretty accurate statistics on the number of employees and we have analyzed the causes of the accidents as follows:
1921
January .........................................
10
February .................................................. 16
March ......................................................... 19
April ............................................................ 21
May .............................................................. 34
June ...................
75
July..............................
90
August ...................................
53
1922 53 11 26 11 32 68 51 66
1923 20 24 27 29 27 66 77 59
The average is running almo t the same in the number of accidents we are having, but the severity w< have been able to decrease considerably. The total percentage of accidents we had last year ran as follows:
Ice Manufacturing.......................................................,..................................... 29.80
Ice Drivers & Helpers..............................................
34.67
Ice Chauffers & Helpers................................................................................ 10.35
Ice Loading & Shipping................................................................................ 4.86
Ice Cream Chauffers & Helpers............................................'...................... 4.65
Ice Harvesting & Storing............................................................................. 7.39
Coal Yard Employees....................................................................................... 2.11
Coal Chauffers & Helpers..................................................r........................ 1.05
Alterations & Additions.................................................................................. 1.05
Ice Cream Manufacturing............................................................................. 1.47
Less Than 1 per cent.
Office Employees.
.
Ice Cream Drivers & Helpers.
Coal Drivers & Helpers.
'
Blacksmithing & Shoeing.
'
Wagon Making.
Farm Labor.
Beverages.
490 Twelfth Safety Congress
I say our situation in Chicago is peculiar in that most of the deliveries are made early in the morning. Our wagons are out of the loop early in the morning in hot weather.
HOW A. DELIVERY ORGANIZATION CAN REDUCE
ACCIDENTS TO THE PUBLIC
M. T. H ANRAIfAN. SlIPERIKTENntKT. AMERICAN RAILWAY EXPRESS COMl'ASV.
(Chicago, III.
Every organization operating vehicles, especially in large cities, faces a difficult problem of preventing accidents involving equipment. Aside from the humane consideration, there is also the economic waste, which is a serious factor, even though there may he no loss of life or injury to the public.
The humane phase of the problem is the one in which we are most concerned, of course, and speaking for the American Railway Express Company, I am pleased to say that we are devoting a great deal of time and money in an effort to do our part in eliminating accidents.
I believe there are few if any concerns in the country operating more vehicles than our company, nor any that come into more intimate contact with the public, hence, every man in our organization feels keenly his responsibility to the public In the matter of preventing accidents.
A few years ago, or at least before the tide of motor vehicles began coming in, we had a comparatively easy task in handling our business with few if any accidents over a spread of weeks or even months but with the ever increasing Hood of automobiles, together with the increase in population, in. large cities, such as Chicago, where the downtown streets are so badly congested that a half-hour is sometimes consumed in going a mile, it readily can be seen that it is a huge task to keep the accidents down, let alone to prevent them.
As an illustration of this. The Chicago Safety Council, after analyzing ilie situation in Chicago, reports for the first six months of 1923 there were 334 street deaths in Cook County I which is really Chicago and its suburbs) and, f that number, 237 were pedestrians, 151 persons lost their lives at street intersections and 157 between intersections. And the most significant thing about this situation, to my mind, is that these deaths occurred during a period when the fullest publicity was given accident prevention by newspapers, business organizations and other agencies. The question which naturally comes to one's mind in looking over these figures--is, whether the driving public is careless or the pedes trians are inclined to take too many chances. From such study as I have been able to give the situation while a member of the street traffic com mittee of the Chicago Safety Council. I believe that, in the majority of cases, the pedestrians are inclined to take too many chances, on the assumption that they are entitled to the right-of-way, regardless of street conditions or circumstances. There are a great many drivers of both horse and motor vehicles who are inclined to look with scorn on. the mas on foot and not concede him any rights whatsoever. This wrongful
Ice and Refrigeration Section
491
rlew of things on the part of both is responsible for the condition of things as we find them now, and any accident prevention work is valueless unless it can bring these two sections of the public to a common point of view.
"everything is subokdinate to safety"
Our company for many years past has, as I previously stated, devoted
considerable time and money to drilling into our drivers' and chauffeurs'
minds a proper respect for the rights of the public. Our slogan has been "Everything is subordinate to Safe.ty." While we are engaged in a
business in which time is a factor, we are not unmindful of the fact that
the conservation of life and limb is of paramount importance, and in every bit of publicity given the subject of preventing accidents, we have
stressed the point that we would sooner miss any number of trains or
any amount of express matter rather than have any man, woman or child
suffer injury or death. When the vast extent of the express business is
considered, the number of accidents in which our vehicles figure is com paratively small. I do. not wish to burden you with a lot of figures but perhaps a word as to what we are called upon to do in an average busi ness day in Chicago, will be illuminating in showing that it is no small job to move a huge traffic and have comparatively few accidents. Our ' Chicago vehicle service comprises 648 horse drawn and 306 power vehicles, including 25 tractors, with a personnel of about 2,000 men. Because Chicago is the largest railroad center in the world, there are on an average something like 400 cars of express matter in and out bound daily, the contents of which are almost all moved on the streets by vehicle service, either as local delivery, outbound collections of express or pass ing transfer. Our deliveries per day will average about 20,000 pieces and our collections about 49,000 pieces and our passing transfer something like 2,000 loads daily. Time, of course, is the important factor in han dling this large volume of business. All our vehicles have schedules laid out for them, each vehicle having a certain amount of work to do with just so much time to do it in. As is always the_ case in high pressure organizations, we have to curb the natural tendency of our 1 employes, to "step on it" as the saying goes, especially where, for some reason, like delayed trains or bad weather conditions for instance, our normal
working schedules are upset.
.
Prom long experience we have found that a safe speed for motor vehicles is about twelve miles per hour and at that speed our business can be disposed of satisfactorily and with safety. Hence, one of our first steps in promoting accident prevention work was to install governors on all of our 'motors, and a severe penalty is meted out to any chaufTeur who tampers with them with a view to getting more speed out of his truck. I can recall only one case in several years where anything of
this sort occurred, and one of the things in which we take great pride
is that we have never had a report or an arrest of one of our men 'for
speeding.
.
492 Twelfth Safety Congress
However, almost all vehicles today are equipped with satety appliances
which, are all right so far as they go, but, to my mind, they count as
nothing It the types of men who are selected to operate the vehicles
are not of the highest order obtainable. This is where our company be
lieves that Safety First principles show to the best advantage and we
very often leave some of our equipment in the stables and garages
rather than have it go out on the streets in charge of an incompetent
chauffeur or driver. Every applicant for our service Is carefully investi
gated, and to secure a position with us a man must be morally and
physically fit. "We consider that the front end or any end, for that matter,
of one of our vehicles is no place for half-wits. Too many chauffeurs
and drivers are operating vehicles today who are only a lap or so ahead
of their keeper. They are to be found among the class who sound a
warning or blow the horn and feel that their duty is ended and then
proceed to run over or into whatever object conies across their path.
A. pedestrian naturally assumes that the driver of a vehicle will do all
in his power to avoid running him down, and I have an idea that a
great many accidents can be traced to the natural assumption of the
man on foot that the approaching vehicle is being driven by a normal
man, when as a matter of fact the driver may be full grown physically
but about ten years old mentally. The careful selection of vehicle
operators is something to which every business organization should give
thorough consideration, and those of which I have any knowledge, are
fully alive to its importance.
.
ACCIDENT PREVENTION KEPT FRESH IN DRIVERS' MINDS
But careful selection is by no means tile end. 'VVe require of our men a probationary jjeriod of from 3 to 6 months before they are eligible Eor a driver's or chauffeur's position. Most of our horse drawn equipment is in charge of a conductor, who directs and supervises the driver, and we require these conductors to see to it that the driver measures up the requirements set by the company for the safety of the public.
For our motor vehicle equipment we maintain a corps of instructors, who take the prospective chauffeurs in hand and put them through a course of instruction which familiarizes the student with the mechanical features of the auto truck traffic regulations, etc., after which each can didate is given a driving test through traffic under the same conditions that our regular chauffeurs meet daily. If the prospective chauffeur passes these tests successfully, he is approved and must pass a further test by the city authorities-before becoming a licensed chauffeur.
The entire vehicle force during the 24 hours in the day is supervised by a corps of inspectors and terminal dispatchers numbering nearly 100 men, all being selected for executive ability, experience and long service. A great many of these men have been with us 25 to 30 years and none have less than ten years service to their credit. These seasoned veterans are all "wedded" to the safety first idea, and keep the vehicle men under control.
Ice and Refrigeration Section
493
By means of articles in our publication, The Express Messenger, by meetings at our stables and garage's and, lastly, through weekly bulletins we keep fresh in the minds of our men the importance of accident pre vention.
We have found also that the Motor Drivers school of the Chicago Safety Council has. been of great benefit to our' men in acquainting them with the traffic situation an.d accident prevention work presented in a manner that is interesting and instructive as well. Something of this sort should be tried with the individuals who own and drive their cars. Passenger car or owner-drivers outnumber the professional chauffeur, and a great number are woefully ignorant of even the rudimentary traffic rules. I realize, of course, that it would be difficult to interest the majority of private drivers in such instruction but it might be brought about through automobile clubs and similar agencies.
The Safety principles we" have for preventing accidents are: Keeping equipment in good mechanical condition, particularly as to brakes and other parts of the machinery which must in emergencies function properly.
SELECTION OF EMPLOYEES
Careful selection of vehicle employes, hiring only such men as are of the best type obtainable for such work. A vehicle man must have good eyesight and hearing. His manner of living must be right, otherwise he is not fit to handle a vehicle under present traffic conditions.
Education in proper operation of vehicle equipment so that in emer gencies the driver will act instinctively. No driver or chauffeur should be permitted to work out his own salvation. A carefully worked out set of principles or rules must be laid and the men held strictly account able for their observance.
Then comes ample supervision to see that what time and effort spent in preparing yeliiclemen is not -wasted. We consider this a most im portant feature in all of our operations.
The necessity for such precautions is reflected in the casualty figures published from time to time. Chicago has been recording one death this year for each 19 accidents. The accidents occur at* the rate of more than 27 daily. The average killings range around 43 per month and a forecast, under present conditions, of 516 deaths for the year in Chicago would in my opinion, be a reasonable figure. The police records indicate a decrease in the number of- deaths although the accidents are on the increase. To date there have been 6,432 accidents severe enough to warrant police at tention and official record. For the first seven months of 1923 there were 5,730 as compared with 5,118 for same period last year. This is a sub stantial increase in the daily mishaps.
The Spring and Summer months naturally are the time when accidents and deaths are greater. For instance, July, 1923, had 1,043 accidents and 45 deaths. The most frequent explanation of this is the large increase in the number of cars, the registration of which increased from 168,168 oh June 1, 1922, to 213,242 on June 1, 1923. This represents a jump of about 26 per cent. During the first 7 months of 1922 there was an accident for
494
Tivelfih Safety Congress
each 32 cars registered in Chicago. This year there has been one accident to every 37 cars so that but little progress in accident reduction seems to have been made. The present city administration is actively engaged In an endeavor to reduce accidents.
Personally, I think that the subject does not suffer for the want of publicity. What is needed to make our efforts -fruitful is something to bring home to every motorist a sense of his personal responsibility in the prevention of accidents and if this can be achieved, the Safety methods employed by large commercial organizations in this direction can be relied upon to complete the work. It takes two to cause an auto-pedestrian accident and as a rule one of the two is careless, reckless or ignorant. Our organization has done everything possible to rule out this latter class and if we can look forward to some program which will take care of the nonprofessional chauffeur in a like manner our troubles will be over.
DISCUSSION
Mr. Hitt: Mr. Hanrahan's operations are not comparable with ours
because most of his are in the Loop.
Mr. Hanrahan: We operate all over the City of Chicago. We have
1,000 wagons in Chicago and 375 are in the loop.
.
Mr. J. P. Malloy (General Accident Assurance Corp. of New York): Some of the points brought out by Mr. Hanraban are very interesting.
He brought out the fact that the American Express Company gets at the
man at the wheel. They look up his previous experience to find out what
kind of a man he is--what his record is. If the City of Chicago takes that much interest in the employment
of chauffers in issuing licenses, if they test him through the police
department, does the state do anything?
Mr. Hanrahan: Yes sir. A chauffer has to pass three tests.
Mr. Malloy: That seems to be something new. The city of New York has
no supervision over the chauffers that drive commission trucks. They
have over the taxicab and hack drivers but not over tho commission truck chauffer.
Another point he brought out was the inspection of equipment. It
seems that it is most important to have a man looking over the brakes
etc., on a vehicle.
_
Mi*. Hanrahan: I might add for your information that in our garages
in Chicago the chauffer is supposed to test his brakes before he goes out and if he finds a defective part in the machine before he goes a block,
be is to bring the car back and get another one.
Mr. Malloy: Do you keep a record of the inspection of that machine? Mr. Hanrahan: Yes, every night. The day cars are inspected at night
and the night cars in the daytime. A set of mechanics look over every
machine before it goes out. Mr. Malloy: In reporting an accident, do you Instruct your men what
to do?
'
Mr. Hanrahan: They have to bring in the names of witnesses and the
nature of the accident and turn it into the casualty department.
Ice and Refrigeration Section
495
./
Mr. Malloy: That is where it stops with you. Then I presume it is
turned over to some division to investigate the witnesses. How can you
tell whether the witness has given a false name or whether the driver
put down a false name?
.
Mr. Hanrahan: We verify the statements to see that they are correct.
I don't have an opportunity of finding that out. But, if it is the case,
the casualty department gets that.
Chairman Walker: The fact that you make a complete investigation
of the accident would make. it almost impossible for a man to get away
with that kind of thing.
Mr. Malloy: A lot of men are timid. They will stand there and then
turn to a person and say "Bid you see the accident?" If the answer is
"yes" they ask "What is your name and address?" and the person ad
dressed gives a false name and address. On the other band, the chauffer
may have no witnesses and'he is instructed to get them, so he puts down
some phoney names. '
'
-
.
Mr. Hanrahan: I have never run across a case like that.
f
REPORTING ACCIDENTS
Chairman Walker: I would like to ask Mr. Hanrahan how far their
instructions to their chauffers go, particularly with reference to reporting
accidents.
Mr. Hanrahan: If they have an accident before they return at noon,
they have to report it at noon. We have to have an immediate report.
Chairman Walker: The point I want to reach is how far your instructors
go with these men in instructing them what is the proper thing to do in the event that they have an accident with reference to getting information
for that report.
'.
Mr. Hanrahan: We show them how to fill out the forms. We have a
regular form we give the vehicle man that he carries with him. ' There is
a place on the form showing the distances and the streets, and the way
he was going and the way the other vehicle was going, and he has to
draw a diagram as to the positions of his vehicle and the other on the
back of this form.
*
Mr. J. J. Dowling (American Railway Express Co., Buffalo) : Mr. Malloy
asked a question about "phoney" witnesses. I don't believe that out of all
the accidents we had in New York City in 1916 that we had more than
five where it developed that the driver had given the wrong name.
It is usually due to someone standing around who tells the driver
that he is John Smith and gives an address. Of course, when the investi
gator that is sent out reaches that address there is no John Smith there.
I think there is a tendency on the part of the public not to give their
right names.
'
Mr. Malloy: Of course I am not in the investigation section but when
I asked a driver why he gave a certain name he said, "What difference
does it make whether I put down a `phoney' name or whether they give
me a `phoney' name, because that is all they ever give me--`phoney'
names."
.
496-
Twelfth Safety Congress
Chairman Walker: X would say that was a peculiar case because in
several thousands of cases, I have never run across that.
-
Mr. Dowling': We always request our drivers to give us all the names
and addresses.
Chairman Walker: Because o the seasonable nature of our business,
we get men who are not properly instructed and frequently they have an
accident the first day they start and they simply don't know what to do.
Mr. Hitt: We have an investigator to canvass the situation.
' "docking" the men
.Mr. Oliver Remmers (Attorney, Anheuser-Busch Co., St. Louis): I
suppose that we have the largest refrigerating plants in the country
and about forty ice plants. The safety movement is not centralized in
the Ice plants. Some years ago I had considerable difficulty with the
men falling in our Second Street plant, which is so large it is almost
useless. The men fell on the floor when lifting the ice with the auto
matic lifters, putting the cans in the hot water to release the ice and dumping into the chutes. They seemed to have a habit of falling off the floor into the pits. I made a personal investigation and couldn't find why the men fell, but they did fall, so I instructed the chief engineer
of the Second Street plant to put a double ' railing completely around
the floor and said "Now if the men. fall, we will have to place mattresses
at the bottom of the pits,'' but I discovered by putting these railings
around, especially at the point where they put the cans into the hot
water, that the accidents were eliminated.
We have no ice delivery business. A little of the ice we sell is taken
up by peddlers; most of our ice is used' for our own-purposes.
On the question of deliveries I made this observation; we carry most of our insurance ourselves. The number of cases of delivery accidents
is very small.
Sometime ago we had an epidemic of small accidents, that Is ten, twelve and fifteen dollars, where there was absolutely no excuse on the
part of the driver.
I took this remedy. Our plant is one hundred per cent unionized so
we have to do things with caution. I had the general superintendent issue
an order that any fellow that had an avoidable accident was to pay the
damage himself, and I waited for a good opportunity of getting one
where there was no excuse and made the man pay the damage. Of
course, the union officers swooped down upon us. But you would be amazed at the reduction of these Inexcusable small accidents after one
or two fellows had been docked twelve or fifteen dollars from their pay.
Mr. Hitt: We carried one of those cases to the Supreme Court and
lost it. There was about $20 involved. Chairman Walker: We have had two or three cases in court where
we have been upheld.
I don't know just what the theory was, but our courts have held that
where the man has had the accident through his own negligence, and I
think the law is clear on that point, you can collect from that man.
Ice atid Refrigeration Section
497
ACCIDENT HAZARDS OF THE ICE INDUSTRY
F.O. Wilkinson, City Ice and Fuel Company, Cleveland, Ohio
I believe that the particular company I happen to be working with is
no worse than the ordinary ice company. I think we are typical ol
what is in the ice industry.
t
.
There remains an awful..lot to be done in our industry. It Is true that we have a good many things to contend with that do not prevail
in an established business that runs the year round, but we have done
very little to cope with it intelligently, or with any effort at all.
Most of the ice companies throughout the country spend the winter
months getting ready for the summer rush and when the summer rash
is on they are busy taking care of Mrs. Jones' and Mrs. Smith's iceboxes
and forget all about trying to plan for the bigger or smaller things that go to make up such a large part of their total costs of operation.
We have in the city eighteen stations. A station comprises either a plant or delivery unit, barns and wagons, or it comprises storage, Each
plant or station is in charge of a superintendent. The city is divided into
two sections and we have a divisional superintendent-over each section. Over the divisional superintendents we have a manager of deliveries. Nobody picks men except the superintendent. The superintendent hires his own men and if there comes a hot day and he must get men to get the service supplied, we find that as a result, lie picks all sorts of fellows.
I found a man .on a coal wagon who had one arm. He was driving a fiery horse. He was a good man, but he was not qualified for the job.
We have in the height of summer about 300 delivery units, 300 routes we call them--horses and wagons. Part of that is motor equipment, but only a small part. Every winter, or every spring rather, our man In charge of live stock covers the United States to find the choice horses and get them for our company, Iowa, Illinois and Ohio.
Now, to bring those horses into the city in the spring and break them into city delivery is quite a task. So, every spring we have a number of very serious accidents.
Another thing, our horses are .seldom tied. A fiery horse has a weight, but many of these horses have been In our service for a long time and they-learn the routes as well as the men themselves. In fact, sometimes they know the routes better than the men. They know just where they are going to get an apple--the families like the horses and pay quite a bit of attention to them. If we change a horse on a route sometimes it causes as much comment as if we changed the driver.
The horses go down the street, the driver delivers ice to Mrs. Jones and comes out and the horse has already stopped at Mrs. Smith's and then he delivers ice there. But sometimes they don't work according to Hoyle. They bang automobiles, get on the curb and chew trees, and it costs a lot of money. Sometimes something unusual comes along and it frightens the horses and they run away and cause serious accidents.
498 Twelfth Safety Congress
CHANCE IS OFFICIALS' POIET OF VIEW
I find, in the last year or two, our point of view of accidents (I mean
the point of view of the higher-ups in our company) has changed materi ally. I attribute the change principally (now this is putting it on the meanest basis I could) to the more detailed information that activity in the accident department has brought to their attention. We discuss costs of accidents and the expense of It is pressed upon them at every opportunity and as a result of that, accidents are really coming to mean quite a bit to all of the officers and the superintendents of the company--
coming to be quite a factor in their operation.
As soon as the company had to pay for accidents, accidents became
of great importance to it.
.
We carry under the two main divisions--the compensation and public liability. Under public liability we have property and personal injury. We carry that ourselves. I believe tbat up until now $12,000 has been the most we have paid out in any one year for public liability. Including property damage and personal injury. I cross my fingers on that because next year we may get a $25,000 verdict.
Our workmen's compensation was costing us in the neighborhood of
$36,000. It should have been a little more than $40,000 but we got a
rebate. We have been in that a year or two years and It is costing ns a
little, less than $15,000. That saving has also been a point in our favor.
Now then, in outlining the kinds of accidents we have, I have eliminated
everything in most of this except the ice business because I assume that
we here would be most interested in that department.
'
NATCKE OF INJURIES
Our workmen's compensation for 1922 cost us two cents a ton for all
ice manufactured. Liability for the same period was 1.13 cents. total was 3.13 cents per ton of ice manufactured and delivered. injuries they received were about as follows:
The The
Fractured bones of feet................................................................ 5
. Other fractures ......................................... ....................................... 1 Crushed fingers ................................................................................... V
Dislocated members ......................................................................... 3
Infections (last year) ................
46
(Some very serious and expensive--most very slight)
.
Sprains and strains............................................................................ 65 Contusions and abrasions...................................................... . 62 Eyes and hearing.............................................................................. 5
Burns .............................'......................................................................... 4 Punctures and lacerations............................................................ 51 Occupational diseases..................................................................... 3
That made a total number of reported accidents 252--252 compensation
accidents.
This year, because of other things crowding in, accidents have not re
ceived importance. We have been putting more efforts into sales. For the first eight months we have had almost as many accidents as we had
Ice and Refrigeration Section
499
last year. And the cost of workmen's compensation for the first eight months has been a little over two cents. We have had 234 accidents in
eight months of this year, which is nearly equal to the total of last year.
We had 311 liability accidents reported last year. This Is for the whole
company--liability is for the whole company, all of our operations. The
total cost last year for all accidents including personal injury and prop
erty damage was $14,627. This year we have already spent $9,869 in pub
lic liability accidents.
'
We have all of our accidents worked out and complete records- kept
but I will not bother you with the details. I could give you causes of
public liability accidents which we have analyzed in great detail and have full data on it, but I will just point out the things that seem of impor
tance In our trouble.
We have tried to work out some way of preventing accidents and here are a few of the things we have done.
DrscmLisTAwsr methods
Starting in 1922 we made a rule that every man who had an accident
had to come to the main office. They worked all over the city and they never got to the main office unless something happened specially. He had to report to the main office the day after the accident and one of us in charge of the accident department quizzed him and analyzed to find out the causes and got the witnesses needed. That day he didn't work and drew no pay. That helped us a great deal. That was a long, long step ahead of what we had done before.
Previous to that we sometimes didn't know of the accident until the party reported it to ns. We would then hunt up the driver and he would acknowledge It and say he didn't think that it amounted to mncb.
However, it didn't work ont very satisfactorily because frequently the damage that was done was so slight that it was unfair and illogical to compel the driver to lose a day and come to the office for it. The horse may have done a dollar and a half worth of damage--it may have damaged a fender, and yet the driver had to lose a day and come to the office, and we got in trouble with the union.
We had no way of telling which driver should come in and lose a day and which should not. You must understand too that in a large degree the superintendents are against the accident department because they want the men on the job. If a man has an accident which is very bad, the superintendent is instructed to lay him oft. The big job the super intendents have is to get service to the public and get it to them cheaply, so that we are working against a handicap from that angle.
This year we changed the rule. They must come in and report the
accident but they need not lose their day's time. If it appears they are
careless or neglectful then we either ask that they be discharged or
punished in some other way, laid off for a certain number of days or
weeks.
.
500 Twelfth Safety Congress
We have been using the National Safety Council bulletins and also bulletins published by the Ohio Association of Industry. Those we have found only slightly helpful and that is the reason I am anxious to get a section of the National Council so that we can get a bulletin service applying to the ice industry. I find that it is harmful rather than beneficial for us to publish or post a bulletin which does not apply rather closely to the iceman's job.
Another thing that is helping us, as Mr. Walker pointed out, is keeping detailed accident reports. We have our accident reports for a number of years and we keep a card index of each employee's record. If he has an accident it goes on his card.
What the future holds for us none of us can tell, but I am sure that our own company is going to have a better record. I believe the attend ance at this Congress will help the City Ice and Fuel's record in the accident department. Being here has given me an inspiration to go back and do a better job than I have ever done before.
DISCUSSION
Mr, Hitt: What are your payments in Ohio per week?
Mr. Wilkinson: They are now $15 after the first week.
Mr. Hitt: We start at $14 and go to $17.
Mr. Wilkinson: The first of January ours goes to $18.
Mr. Remmers: Have you appointed any safety committees in your
different divisions of men?
.
Mr. Wilkinson: That is one point on which we are weak. It has been
hard for Us in Cleveland to get an organization of any kind. Our men are scattered all over Cleveland, and the boys work six days a week and
the pressure on them is pretty strong. We maintain a rather high output. I believe the other men present will bear me' out in that our average output per wagon ranges very high. The pressure to get work done is
very strong. The men work all day and it is difficult to get them together
either in the day time or at night.
Mr. Remmers: After a day's work they are not ready for any meetings. Mr. Wilkinson: Hast year the retail routes and the wholesale routes--
every route we had on the street--averaged about 3,200 pounds of ice
per outfit. It represented a good many hours work, because in winter time they will get down to an average of 4,000 or 3,500 pounds.
Mr. Hitt: How are you going to organize a safety organization in
your plant, particularly in times of labor shortage you can't get men
who speak English?
'
Mr. Wilkinson: We pay a good wage and as a result we get a pretty
good type of fellow. Our trouble is not with the new men or the younger
men we take on, but it is in overcoming the prejudice of the old men. Some of the old foremen are just a stone wall. Some of our superin tendents sold out to the company twenty years ago and they are still running one of these plants and it is impossible to tell them anything new.
lee and Refrigeration Section
501
Chairman Walker: I believe it is possible Eo overcome this prejudice.
You have got to sell the idea to the top man first and gradually work
down.
Mr. Hitt: I worked on our people until they got sore.
Mr! Wilkinson: With us, you understand, we haven't any man whose
duty it is to watch accidents alone. We do that overtime largely and
we haven't given it enough attention. But, we are going to start some
thing different and try to work out an organization for safety work.
Mr. Hitt: We called on Mr. Webber of the Consumers Co. (Chicago), who has had a very remarkable record in reducing accidents. He has
not been able to do any more than we have been able to do In our company,
so far as perfecting any organization in the plant.
Mr. Wilkinson: A year ago we gave all of our superintendents a
course in first aid. That helped us materially.
-
Mr. Hitt: We found they were careless. We would rather pay f2 and have a doctor.
EDUCATING THE WORKER ALONG SAFETY LINES
Mr. Wilkinson: We pay our doctor by the year, and the more cases we send doesn't cost us any more. The first aid did not help us in re ducing the number of doctor calls, but it helped us in showing the men and the superintendents how dangerous and how important it was that the injured person get to the doctor right away.
Mr. Hitt: We put up some ghastly pictures that worked on them.
Mr. Remmers: It is strange about those ghastly pictures. We also
have a wagon, department. They had a very bad picture of an Infection
up that the National Safety Council had sent out. It was put up on our
bulletin board in the wagon factory. Some of the men who saw it said
"You'll have to take that picture out or we will quit." I told them to
take it out.
.
Mr. Wilkinson: If we have an accident that is very bad and has some very annoying features about it, we write up a description of it, make it is accurate and fair as we can and post that in a bulletin board so that the whole company knows that John Jones ran over a little girl last week. It hurts John Jones to have that on the bulletin board.
We of the accident department get the accidents pouring in from all over the city, but the fellow working with 40 or 50 men, knows only those working in his plant. If we gave him a report from the accidents in the city, it would help him recognize the seriousness of it.
Mr. Remmers: While our chief officers were sympathetic to the safety movement; our general superintendent, who was one of our best men in the
line, was not completely sold on safety. He didn't want to lose any hours
working on safety. We worked up our safety movement, not from the top
down, but from the bottom up. We picked out likely fellows in the
different departments.
.
502 Twelfth Safety Congress
We have a safety engineer and it Is necessary for him to be about the
plant continuously. In connection with his work in the engineering department as a consulting engineer, he also has the title of safety en gineer. You will all be amazed to learn that our total payments to em ployees for injuries in our plant this year amounted to but ?2200. That has been a steady decrease in a five year period. Every year it shows less.
I have discovered that you have to go to the men themselves to sell them the safety ideas--ask them for suggestions, and we have safety committeemen in every department. We give them buttons. We have a general safety committee which meets once a month. There are no two men on that safety committee who do the same kind of work. We have engineers, master machinists and superintendents from the different
departments.
.
Mr. Wilkinson: Our departments have become so separated as to be almost as independent as separate companies. One of our troubles will be to get a safety committee composed of all.
Mr. Remmers: I see a wonderful opportunity with your company, that is to create separate safety organizations in each one' and start com petition and offer prizes to the unit which has the lowest number of accidents and lost time cases and also public cases. A number of companies have tried that.
REPORT OF NOMINATING COMMITTEE
Mr. Hitt: The report of the nominating committee is, Chairman.,
F. P. Walker; Vice-Chairman, Ralph Dodson; Secretary, O. F. Wilkinson.
Mr. Wilkinson: I would like to say there gentlemen, that I doubt whether I could act as an effective secretary. I believe the secretary
N
should be a man with different characteristics from those I possess and fitted differently in his own business. I think you could pick a man out of the ice industry that would be very much more capable as a secretary than myself. I will be glad to work with you and do anything I can.
Mr. Hitt: We discussed it and we felt that you were very close to Mr. Walker and you were both enthusiastic. I think it is a very wise idea to keep Mr. Wilkinson here. However, I will withdraw and submit a new nomination: Chairman, F. F. Walker; Vice-Chairman, O. F. Wilkin son; Secretary, Ralph Dodson.
Chairman Walker: We will appoint a bulletin committee at the Annual Convention of the Ice Industries in Cleveland, November 13th to 16th. Gentlemen, what is your pleasure with regard to the report of the nom inating committee?
(The nominees were unanimously elected.)
ADJOURNMENT.
Marine Section
October 2, 3 and 4, 1923
W. E. WELCH, Chairman Safety Engineer, The Travellers Insurance Company, New York City
CAJPT. LRVIN'Cr L. EVANS, Vice-Chairman Vice-President, United States P. & I. Agency, Agents for the United
' States Shipping Board, New York City
A. A. CLOSE, Secretary Wm. Spencer & Son Corporation, New York City
TUESDAY MORNING SESSION
HAIRMAN WELCH: It is with great pleasure that we welcome you
C here in the name of the National Safety Council and the Marine Section. We have but a few members at present mainly on acconnt of the very depressed condition of the American Merchant Marine, in general. It will be the duty of the pioneers of this section to Interest' those who now seem lukewarm to the great subject of safety in the marine industry in general.
The work we have done in this direction has been directed more or less by one general committee and I have been requested to make this one report for all.
This committee consisted of Charles H. Potter, president of the Potter Steamship Company and also president of the Maritime Exchange, Port of New York, and president of the American Steamship Operators' Association; Captain Irving L. Evans, vice-chairman of the section, and vice-president of the U. S. Protection and Indemnity Co., Inc., agents for the Shipping Board; A. A. Close, secretary of the section; Capt. P. B. Blanchard, of Turner & Blanchard, Inc., stevedores; Ellis Knowles, of C. I). Mallory & Co., Inc., and Frederick S. Tltsworth.
We also desire to thank the officers of the Council and Mr. Cameron, the managing director, for their always ready help.
503
504 Twelfth Safety Congress
MARINE FIRE HAZARDS
.
Frederick S. Titswortii, E. M.. Attorney. New York City; Associate
Meiiuf.r of the Society of Naval Architects
and Marine Engineers
It has been stated that the property loss from fire in the United States is $4.75 per capita for every man, woman and child in the country. This is six times the average in Great Britain where the loss is approximately seventy-two cents per capita. We burn down one-quarter as much as we build. In the United States oar insnrance costs on the average 1 per cent of policy value or $1.00 per $100. In western Europe the in surance costs average 1/10 of 1 per cent of policy of value or ten cents per $100. Of the total insurance premiums collected in this country about one-half are returned to the insured to cover fire losses and the remain ing one-half is applied to expense of conducting the business and profits
Such statements as these, together with such frightful fire disasters as that of the Iroquois Theatre in Chicago, the Collingswood, Ohio, school horror, the Triangle Waist factory fire in New York City, in which one hundred and forty-five lives were lost, have thoroughly awaltened the public to an appreciation of the fire menace. Splendid work has-been and is being done to decrease the fire hazard on land by such organiza tions as the National Safety Council, The National Fire Protection Asso ciation, government bureaus, and many local fire prevention associations. Their work, supplemented by legislation and local building regulations together with the reductions offered in fire insurance rates for better protected risks, has created a public consciousness which has been most effective in reducing losses. Today, a building cannot be erected without consideration of the fire hazard and a compliance with, regulations cover ing fire protection. Furthermore, good business practice demands that buildings shall be constructed to resist fire and shall be equipped with modern appliances for fire detection and extinction.
It is timely, therefore, that this great organization which has ac complished so much for the conservation of life and property on land, should turn its attention to the shipping world. So much can be done and so little has been done, in the interests of the ship owners and operators and their clientele of passengers and shippers that this field offers great opportunity for service in the propagation of those principles and methods of safety which have been so effective in the protection of life and property on shore. An interesting study might be made of the question why it is that almost everything connected with maritime busi ness practice is so different- from business confined to operations on land. One plausible reason may be that tradition and precedent have such great weight in shipping affairs. New methods are frowned upon and suggested change of any kind Is not as a rule favorably received.
PREVKNTaHI.E PERILS MIST UK SaKKOLAUDED AGAINST
Perils of the sea are well known. They may be roughly divided into two classes--preventable by the exercise of foresight and carefulness--
Marine Section
505
and unpreventable. which cannot be foreseen or avoided by the highest degree of baman care and skill. We are to consider only the fire hazard which is unquestionably classified under the preventable perils.
The fire menace, so well recognized on land or as the skipper would say "on the beach"', for some unaccountable reason, is not very seriously considered by the overseas traveller or by the export shippers of cargo. And yet is commonplace to say that fire is the most dreaded peril of the sea and of all calamities which might befall the ship most feared by the officers and crew.
What are the facts? What proportion of the total lives lost and prop erty destroyed at sea is caused by fire? The writer had occasion to study the available statistics in answering this question and collected them in a paper which he read before the American' Society of Safety Engineers and published in the April, 1921 number of Safety Engineering. It will not be necessary to repeat them here and we will only extend the summary there given of the property loss by fire in United States shipping as given by the Steamboat Inspection Service of the United States Department of Commerce to include the years 1921-22. In 1921, total property loss, $20,026,214; of this, $2,789,147 by firel. In 1922, total property loss was $17,298,752 of which $3,672,996 was due to fire. Con clusion was reached by the writer in this paper that fire was the cause of over 12 per cent of the total marine property destroyed. This per centage must now be increased to include the larger losses by fire in 1921 and 1922. If the two war years of 1917 and 1918 are not considered, the average marine fire loss for ten years past will be found to constitute over 15 per cent of the total property lost in hulls and cargo. Figures covering the total marine property loss for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1923, are not available but the total exceeds $3,600,000 showing there has been no reduction in the amount lost by fire. In this same paper it is found that over 7 per cent of all casualties and 2 per cent of all deaths (including suicide) on ship hoard, are due to fire.
Sir Westcott S- Abell, chief surveyor for Lloyds, a recognized authority on shipping losses throughout the world, whose judgment and opinion is unquestioned in marine circles, read a paper on sea casualties and loss of life before the North East Coast Institution of engineers and ship builders on the 4th of November, 1921. . He proved conclusively, from a critical analysis of sea casualties in British shipping for the 23 years immediately preceding the World War, that casualties caused by fire are the only ones on the increase, having increased about 400 per cent in the period under review. Sir Westcott's percentages are based on the total number of casualties and not on the value of property lost. His figures show that the fire hazard had increased so that it caused about 9 per cent of the total number of casualties at the end -of this 23 year period.
These facts should be sufficient to prove why our 'shipowners and operators should be persuaded to exercise greater precaution by adopt ing and enforcing more rigorous rules and regulations in the care and operation of their ships and by installing sufficient equipment for the
506 Twelfth Safety Congress
detection and extinction of fire so that the lives' of passengers and crew
will be better protected and the needless waste of property reduced to a
minimum.
-
I.OCATIOX OF SUII- FUSES
An analysis of the statistics compiled in the writer's paper, to which reference has-been made above, shows that the greatest menace from fire is. without question, located in the cargo holds, bunkers and inaccessible closed spaces. The superstructure is fairly well protected and Is con stantly under the supervision of the ship's officers and' crew. There the fire is easily located and can be promptly reached by the fire hose. Greater supervision however should be maintained while the vessel is in port, for a large percentage of ship fires in the superstructure can be definitely laid to lack of efficient watching. Fires in the superstructure at sea seldom lead to disastrous consequences.
There are rules and regulations, originating in Acts of Congress and
supplemented by the Steamboat Inspection Service which require neces sary fire detection and extinction equipment in the superstructure of passenger vessels only. Furthermore, the federal law requires the in stallation of 1% inch steam pipes in every cargo compartment of pas senger and non-passenger vessels alike, for the purpose of extinguishing fires in the cargo. But curiously enough, and the reason is not apparent, no rule or regulation requires the installation Of fire detecting equipment in the holds and cargo compartments where the fire menace is, by Car. the greatest.
Imagine, if you will, a warehouse built without windows or doors from three to four stories high, with each room filled with miscellaneous in flammable material of all sorts--some highly combustible and subject to spontaneous combustion. The only access to this building and its contents is through a skylight in the roof. Imagine a few ventilators leading to a few rooms, one ventilator serving several rooms.
There are no fire detecting appliances in the building. A complete sprinkler equipment is installed in each room but is not automatic--it has to be manually operated. The only possible way fire can be discovered in this building is by observing the escape of smoke from the skylight or ventilators in the roof, after the fire has gained sufficient headway to produce a sufficient degree "of heat to force a volume of smoke through these openings.
Even then, the escape of smoke will not determine the location of the fire. Can you imagine such an absurd structure erected and operated by a sane business man? Yet, that is a fair description of the conditions on board the great majority of vessels. As to the nature of the cargo with which these inaccessible compartments are filled--and packed solidly also to prevent shifting with the roll of the ship--read what Chief Kenlon of the New York Fire Department has to say on the subject. "Fill these sheds (cargo waiting for stowage) with every sort of combustible material
imaginable--hogsheads of rosin, bales of cotton, crated furniture, barrels of pitch, stacks of dry goods and such inconsiderable trifles as a few boxes
Marine Section
507
of celluloid toys and novelties, and can the inind of man conceive a col lection of heterogenous merchandise more calculated to provide the wherewithal for a conflagration."
Here also Is what Edward J. Shallow, district chief of the Boston Fire Department said in a paper read before the international Association of Fire Engineers in Chicago, June 4, 1918.
GOVERN MEXT BES POSSIBILITY IN' SHIP FIRE
"No matter how small a ship Are may appear it-should be treated as
an incipient conflagration. Why should not the Government by some action, take from the shoulders of sailors and firemen, the exclusive
burden of fighting fires on ships and place some of it where it belongs--
on the owners. On Navy vessels, the officer of the deck, by looking at a dial on the bridge at any time knows the temperature of magazines, bunkers, etc. What an advantage to a merchant captain that would be?
How much quicker a chief could get to work, if on arrival, he was told just where the fire was located. Why should not Congress pass a law
that owners must install devices to locate and control fires? Why should not every available means to locate and combat fire on ships be taken advantage of by owners and underwriters? Such action should tend to greatly cut down fires and save ships and maybe, at times, life. On arrival, the first care is to locate the fire, find what the cargo consists of and how the ship is laden. This is usually obtained from the ship's officer in charge- If he is unable to give the information, the fire chief must be guided by the volume of smoke arising from the. ventilators and the heat on the adjacent parts. By these signs a shrewd guess can be made, but It is only a guess, and the chief may be mistaken. If the ship is loaded to the hatchway, the ship must be flooded to the point of the fire. Un like In the case of fires ashore, there is little or no chance, to remove the cargo and get at the actual seat of the fire and it can be subdued only by actual weight of water or flooding."
We cannot disregard the opinion of such an eminent authority as Chief Shallow. The United States Steamboat Inspection Service is doing everything it can to bring about safer conditions In our shipping, and we feel that it would welcome more specific regulations by Congress.
Answering the question raised by Chief Shallow we would say no good
reason occurs to us why Congress should not compel the Installation of fire
detecting equipment in the cargo compartments of all ships flying the
American flag, particularly as it has already made the installation of
fire extinguishing equipment compulsory. In effect. Congress has de
clared that ship owners must put salt* on the bird's tail but has not
required them to catch the bird. This may seem an absurd illustration
but it is particularly in point, for the vast majority of conditions, if
the source is located it is just as easy to extinguish a fire in its early
smoldering stages as it is to catch a bird It you are close enough to
salt his tail.
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508 Tivelfth Safety Congress
SHIPOWNERS VS. ISSL'BA-N'CE UNDERWRITERS
But you ask, "Why do not shipowners sense this situation and, without
compulsory legislation, install fire detecting appliances throughout their vessels?" The reason is that it adds to the capital cost of the ship and does not bring any immediate returns in dollars. They argue that they can afford to take the risk and if fire breaks out the insurance under writers are the losers--not considering the possible loss through time consumed in repairing the ship. To this, you will probably say, "The insurance underwriters will quote a lower premium on ships that are properly equipped and the owner will more than pay for this added equip ment by the reduction in insurance costs." While this is true on shore, the practice is not followed in writing marine Insurance. The marine underwriter does not offer any reduction in premium rates for the in
stallation of any equipment whatsoever. There is much that could be said of the reasons why such a policy is maintained. The underwriter will tell you he is not making any profit at' present on hull raxes juad cannot afford to lower them; that competition is a real element In umist insurance and, in the last analysis,-is the final determining factor te making rates. Furthermore, marine insurance, unlike fire intcmoc. covers a variety of hazards--collisions, foundering, groundings, ex plosions, etc., in addition to fire. A loss to the underwriter is a. lew* regardless of its cause. He will tell you that if he reduced the preniaa on account of the owner lowering the fire hazard, on the next trip the vessel might, through the Incompetency of the captain or through some other unforeseen reason, suffer a total loss by collision. As the causes for loss cannot be forecast, neither can the rates based on a variety of losses he scientifically determined. Marine insurance is a gamble pretty much as it used to be in the early days when the business was first developed. ` Again the underwriters may tell you that he bases his rates on the past history of the operator and the vessels covered by the policy. He argues that it is no part of his business to suggest to the owner how he shall equip or operate his ship and as a matter of duty and good business he should install the best and most modern equipment and do everything possible to eliminate losses from fire and every other peril of the sea without being induced or paid to do so by the underwriter. That, if he will reduce his losses, the insurance rates on his vessels will surely be lower and he will be compensated for additional capital and operating expenditures. The owner, however, will tell you this sounds very well in theory but does not work out in practice, and there is no profit for him in spending money to reduce the risks which he pays the underwriter to take for him'. You will note the difference between this theory of writing marine insurance and the practice of the fire under writers who make large reductions in premium rates where special equipment is installed.
The fire hazard in the closed compartments is here stressed because It appears to the writer to be tbe outstanding sea peril to which applica tion of common sense safety measures will yield the most profitable results. But there are other parts of the ship-which should not be neg-
Marine Section
509
lected. The danger from oil fires is becoming an increasing hazard and
every ship burning oil as fuel should be equipped with the most modern
and efficient apparatus to detect and extinguish such fires and the
crews should be given special intruction in extinguishing them. Also
the Importance of general cleanliness should be mentioned. The accumu
lation of dirt and rubbish In any part of the ship should be prevented,
and to accomplish this the severest measures would be fully justified. It
is a wonder there are not more ships lost by' fire when cleanliness is
considered of so little importance by many operators.
So much depends upon inspection. The insurance underwriters could, if ft were possible for them to agree on a working plan, do much toward
encouraging owners to reduce the danger from fire by rewarding those
exercising the highest degree of care in the operation and maintenance
oC their vessels and penalizing those who do not. Here again com
petition for business blocks the way and dirty ships get by the inspectors,
and their owners enjoy the same insurance rates paid by the more
efficient operators.
'
DEPENDENCE ON INSCRANCE BLAMED
There is another very important consideration which infiuences the ship
owner and deters him from increasing the capital cost of his vessel by fanctalUng additional fire protection equipment. When a merchant has
sa overland shipment to make he is accustomed to route his goods over the railroads which he has determined, through past experience, will give him the best service in promptly transporting his freight to destin
ation and in good condition. Not so the merchant who exports his goods
overseas. His shipments are usually routed by brokers who select the vessel offering carriage of the goods on the lowest terms and sailing nearest to the time they are delivered at port of shipment. The cargo
owner secures his bill of lading, insurance and other documents at the
rime he makes shipment from the interior and never bothers himself
who will transport" the goods `overseas. In the event fire breaks out in
the hold where his goods are stowed resulting in their damage or total
destruction, the cargo underwriter pays the loss. This, the owner of the
ship and his underwriter say, is no concern of theirs unless the ship itself is damaged. A very small fire in a cargo compartment usually
leads to very large losses if the goods stowed therein are at all perishable
and, quite frequently, causes little or no damage to the ship. To be
fair to the shipowner and at the same time protect their own interests, the shipper and cargo underwriter should discriminate in favor of superior
service--rewarding by increased patronage and lower cargo insurance
rates the shipowner who gives better service through better protection
from fire and other hazards. Everything considered, the cargo under writer really secures the greatest monetary advantage from a reduced
fire hazard. As soon as the shipowner is made to feel that better service
Is demanded and appreciated we may be certain that better fire protection
will be forthcoming.
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510 Twelfth Safety Congress ,
So far. we have been considering' only tlie dollars and cents side of
this question, hut far more important is the protection of human life.
Is it right to discriminate between passengers and crew? Why should
passenger ships have to exercise a higher degree of care to protect their
passengers than they do their crews? Is it fair to say the officers and
crew expect when they ship, to take extra hazardous risks as part of their
employment? We have already stated that the fire hazard is greater
on non-passenger than on passenger vessels. The rules of the United
States Steamboat Inspection Service should be amended to apply equally
to each type and should require fire detecting as it already requires
lire extinguishing equipment on cargo as well as passenger ships. Must
we wait until a great catastrophe from fire occurs at sea with a stagger
ing loss of human life to awaken the public to demand sufficient lire
protection on our ships? Some day it will come if steps are not taken
to prevent it. If fire originating in the inaccessible holds of a ship
ever gains sufficient headway before it is located and discovered and
breaks through into the superstructure and becomes uncontrollable
the world will be horrified by the news of the disaster unless there are
no survivors to tell the tale. In that case the ship will be listed as "lost
at sea" and we will be spared the horrors of its unfortunate victims.
The possibility of this happening on any one of the great majority of
our big ocean liners," with only a few notable exceptions, is not a had
dream but a very sane conclusion from the conditions as they now
exist.
`
"
need SIIOWX by recent disasters
In 1920, there were 219 ship fires in the port of Greater New York. Fire Commissioner Tlios. J. Drennan reports losses during the same year of over $1,000,000 caused by ship fires. Has the traveling public forgotten the S- S. Volturno disaster of October 19, 1913 when 103 lives were lost and the 554 out of the total of 657 were saved with the greatest difficulty, aided by 14 different ships which happened to he able to reach the burning ship before she sank beneath the waves? The fire on this passenger ship started in the forward hold and a passenger was the first to discover it through the presence of smoke. It must have been burning for some time before it was discovered and then it was too late to extinguish it. Or has the public forgotten the S. S. Tokyo Maru, steel vessel, whose passengers and crew were saved at the last moment by our Army Transport Buford, May 2, 1921, which reached the vessel in response to the wireless call "on fire and sinking fast"--or the S. S. Honolulu, swept by fire 670 miles off the coast of California October 3, 1922, and whose 73 passengers and 145 officers and crew were forced to take to the lifeboats and rafts less than four hours after the discovery of fire before the arrival of the freighter ."West Farolon? A calm sea saved them, for had the disaster happened during a storm or heavy sea, probably all would have perished before they could he rescued.
Secretary of Commerce Redfield called an advisory conference on the subject of making passenger vessels more secure from destruction by
Marine Section
511
fire which was held in his office in Washington, May 3, 1916. He told the
conference he had a record of 63 vessels more or less completely
destroyed by fire within two years. No legislation resulted from the conference and the matter was dropped due no doubt to the participation of our country in the World War.
There are three well proven methods of extinguishing ship fires in cargo spaces. Water, of course, is the medium most frequently used
and has the double advantage of not only smothering the flames but
also reducing the temperature and thereby preventing a second out
break. But on board ship the use of water has very decided limitations. To be effective it must be delivered at the seat of the fire. Usually this cannot he done in cargo fires as the source is inaccessible and a stream of water cannot be played on the flames. Furthermore, flooding of the hold seriously endangers the stability of the ship and is also destructive to cargo. The use of water is therefore confined to parts of the vessel other than cargo compartments. Steam is a well recognized fire extinguishing medium for the cargo spaces, especially when applied during the early stages of combustion. It operates by. replacing the oxygen of the air upon which the fire feeds, thereby preventing its spread and smothering the flames. Because of its gaseous nature, steam can be forced through all the interstices between the cargo and quickly reaches the source of the fire. It holds it in check and prevents its spreading, but has the disadvantage of not appreciably reducing the temperature of the burning mass. It also is damaging to cargo but not nearly as destructive as water, and unlike water, does not in any way endanger the stability of the ship. Of course, steam can only be used in the closed spaces of the ship not reached by passengers or crew. The third method--by the use of carbon dioxide (carbonic acid gas) is the latest and probably the most effective fo'r the enclosed spaces. It has the advantage when used in a liquid form of reducing the temperature
and the further advantage of being harmless to all kinds of cargo be it delicate fabrics or perishable food. As the use of carbon dioxide as a fire extinguishing medium will be covered in a separate paper at this session of the Marine Section it will not be further considered here.
METHODS OF EXTINGUISHING FIRES
The methods of extinguishing fires in the superstructures, machinery spaces, stoke holds and other open spaces of the ship do not differ from the practice on shore. Water delivered from the fire pump through hose, also water used through sprinkler systems, preferably the dry pipe type, is most effective. Also the various approved types of portable fire extinguishers are serviceable. Every ship should be thoroughly equipped to reach every accessible part with fire extinguishing equipment. It should he added that the use of oil as fuel makes imperative the installation, of special equipment to extinguish oil fires. Water cannot be used here but there are types of apparatus using various forms of non-combustible foam which are very efficient. They act by producing
512 Twelfth Safety Congress
a foamy liquid -which can be sprayed over the fire thus excluding- oxygen and smothering it. Every oil burning ship should be equipped with this type of apparatus.
There are two classes of fire detectors--one depending on the develop ment of heat to sound the alarm and the other depending on the detection of smoke and locating its source. Of the first class, the electro-thermo static type is the more generally used. They are dependable and are usable on ship hoard throughout but are not advisable in cargo holds be cause of the danger from sparks caused by the supervising current through wires broken by the ship's motion or loading of cargo. The same objection applies to fusible plug detectors, but can. tie and Is overcome by careful wiring as these systems are used successfully on our Naval Vessels. Another type of detector depending on heat, operates on the principle of the expansion of an air column in a fine tube operating against a diaphragm attached to an indicating alarm. When the temperature rises the air expands and presses against the diaphragm. This system will only indicate when there is a sudden rise in the tempera ture. It can he' adjusted to meet the various changes in the atmos phere. These three types of fire detectors operating by heat can be used throughout the ship but are most effective in the superstructure and other open spaces. The second class of fire detectors operate by con tinuously withdrawing a sample of the air through pipes which terminate in a central station. Any smoke in the vicinity of the pipes is drawn through them and detected by the smell and sight. This class is, of course, only adapted for use in the enclosed spaces of the ship.
Thus, it will be noted that ship owners have at their command depend able and efficient equipment for detecting and extinguishing any fire which may develop in any part' of their ships. They should he en couraged to make use of this equipment. Unfortunately, the whole problem of fire protection on ships--insofar as it is not made com pulsory by law--is in the vicious circle of that great popular game-- "passing the buck." The owner says he will install proper equipment if the marine underwriter will reduce his premium rate so that he can recover the cost of installation. On the other hand, the marine under writer says the owner should protect his ship as a matter of duty and if he does eventually his .insurance rate will be reduced in proportion as he reduces his claims on the underwriter. Furthermore, the under writer says he cannot afford to lower rates until the owner reduces his claims as the rates are already lower than they should be. They are both right and both wrong. What is the solution?
PROVISIONS OF FKOERAI. LAW
The federal government, through Act of Congress, passed years ago and amended by act approved March 3, 1905, Section 4470 et seq. requires certain apparatus to be installed on ships and passes on to the Board of Supervising Inspectors and the Secretary of Commerce, authority to legislate further in the interests of ship fire protection as follows: "All such other provisions shall be made on every steamer carrying
Marine Section
513
passengers or freight, to guard against and extinguish lire, as shall be
prescribed by the Board of Supervising Inspectors and approved by the
Secretary of Commerce." This board, by virtue of the authority thus
conferred by Congress, has promulgated the following rule applying
to these types of vessels, viz: ocean and coastwise, great lakes and Bays,
Sounds and lakes other than the great lakes and rivers.
"All passenger vessels of more than 150 feet in length, whose con
struction is contracted for after June 30, 1916, which are provided with
staterooms or other sleeping quarters for passengers, shall be equipped
with an efficient fire-alarm system or indicator which will automatically
indicate or register, at one or more points or stations where it can be
most quickly observed by the officers and crew of the vessel, the presence
or indication of fire in the staterooms and various other compartments
of the vessel which are not accessible to the observation of the officers
or crew: Provided, however, that cargo compartments need not be
provided with an automatic registering or indicating fire-alarm system,
if such cargo compartments are provided with other approved means
for the officers and crew to discover the presence or indication of fire."
So far as the writer is aware this rule has never been enforced as no
means for detecting fire have ever been required in the cargo compart
ments. Furthermore, it will be noted that no fire detection of any sort
whatsoever is required in non-passenger vessels.
The necessity is urgent. Is legislation the only way to secure adequate
fire protection for our ships or can our shipowners and marine under
writers be persuaded to co-operate and give the public wbat they are
entitled to receive--Safety First?
SHIP STEVEDORING HAZARDS
W. E. Welch, Safety Engineer, Tiie Travelers Ixsi.-rance
Company
Well versed authorities have often stated that during the past few years there has been a tremendous increase in the number of accidents to men working along shore discharging and loading ships, but very little, if anything, has been done to ascertain just why this increase has taken place.
Twenty-five or more years ago an accident to a longshoreman, while working at his trade, with its subsequent trouble and litigation for the employer, was a rare thing. Today, it is an exception to the rule If a steamer of modern type is discharged or loaded without one or more of these men claiming to have been injured during the operation.
In the olden days, which are often referred to as the "sailing ship days," a vessel was discharged or loaded by one gang composed of from eight to twelve men and the hoisting power was the now ancient draft horse. Practically ail the cargo was discharged or loaded, as the case might be, through one hatch opening. This hatch was situated In the center of the vessel and all the cargo was directed to or from this point to be hoisted out or lowered into the hold.,
54-4
Twelfth Safety Congress
With equipment of this kind It is not difficult to understand why there were few accidents. In almost every instance, the exception proving the rule, the eight or twelve men comprising a gang had worked together time and time again--in fact it was quite common to find gangs made up of relatives. This condition promoted what is termed "gang efficiency," which I will refer to later on.
Twenty-five or more years ago the employer did not keep records of accidents, as "compensation laws" were unheard of at that time and little, if anything, could be gained by an injured employee suing for damages as in those days jurors were inclined to give the employer the benefit on his plea of "assumption of risk."
WITH SPEED IV OPERATION CAME SlOItE ACCIDENTS
After the sailing vessel came the steamer, equipped with three or four hatch openings with the necessary cargo gear to work all hatches at the
same time. Sheds were built over the piers in order that the vessels might be discharged as rapidly as possible and the goods stored on the pier to
be delivered after the vessel sailed. Cargo was also assembled prior to the arrival of a vessel, which system greatly facilitated the speed of oper ation. Speed began to enter into the loading and unloading of steamers
and more gangs were employed for the work. At first, the same efficient
gangs did the work and undoubtedly very few accidents resulted from the slight increase in speed. This condition continued up to about ten or twelve years ago when the large modern steamer entered the field, and time spent in port was considered time lost.
So, therefore, in order to "turn about" a steamer as quickly as possible it required the hiring of a great number of gangs necessitating the em
ployment of unskilled labor. The new men were distributed among the
old in order that they might obtain proper experience which meant the breaking up' of efficiency gangs and the creation of inefficient gangs. Gradually, the first of the unskilled labor employed became skilled but
even more rapidly did the amount of tonnage increase, demanding greater speed. Steamers that formerly had been discharged by three or four
gangs were now worked to the limit, six or eight gangs being employed at one time. Night work was added with all its attending dangers, and the vessels were "turned about" in almost half their previous time. Steamers were rushed to sea and it would be several days before another docked, which compelled the men to seek employment at other piers or other trades. Gangs were broken up again, and when another steamer
did arrive a new organization had to be formed composed of men that were not accustomed to working together.
To refer again to "gang efficiency" let me say that contrary to the general belief among steamship men, efficient work cannot be accomplished* by longshore labor unless the men in the various gangs are accustomed
to working together.
.
Even idle most skilled longshoreman will not give.the best results unless
working in a gang with men he has been accustomed to working with. Gang efficiency, as I have stated before, is absolutely necessary In order
Marine 'Section
515
to obtain the best results from the men as well as to avoid accidents. Records show that there are fewer accidents to men engaged in loading case oil than any other class of cargo although the hazard attached to this class of longshore work would seem paramount.
The movements of the drafts of case oil are exceedingly rapid, as many as two hundred drafts of oil very often hoisted into a vessel's hold in a single hour with one cargo fall. The labor employed at loading case oil is all highly skilled, each man having his particular duty and carrying out same with the precision of clock work. The gangs are made up of men who have worked together for years. If it is possible to load case oil in the manner mentioned above, there is no reason why general cargo could not be as efficiently handled if the foremen were able to pick the same men each time for handling of certain classes of cargo.
WAE BBOCG1IT IN'CEEA 8ED CARELESSNESS
I do think that it is fair when comparing the number of accidents that occurred during the days of the sailing vessels or the small steamers with the modern steamers of today, to give more than passing considera tion to accidents that occurred during the World War, for during that
period a vessel's time was gold to the owner; in fact, time was the only
factor and the phrase "Work her around the clock," unknown before, became the slogan of the day. Prior to this time, special gangs were employed to handle every elass of cargo. These gangs had taken' pride in their work, but the war wrought a change. A. gang handled whatever
class of cargo came along. Thousands of extra men were needed to take
care of the increased tonnage and the miltitude drifted to the waterfront
to reap the benefit of what was considered "good pay." Costs were for gotten by the steamship companies. Men and gangs were worked day -and night and, naturally, efficiency dropped to a level unknown before. Cargo was thrown into the. vessels, good stowage was forgotten, care
lessness and inefficiency was everywhere apparent and it was about this time that the number of men injured while working along shore, greatly increased.
jS About the same time that the modern steamer was placed in service, ^the New York Workmen's Compensation Law was passed. This law made
it compulsory to report all accidents, however slight. Although 50 per
cent of the accidents that occur to longshoremen are not serious enough
to compel loss of time, they do require prompt medical attention as a pre caution against infection or other serious results. This means that the Compensation Law has been responsible for bringing to our Immediate attention a seeming increase in the number of accidents that occur due
to the loading and unloading operations;
A great many of the accidents caused to longshore labor could un
doubtedly be avoided by the exercise of greater care on the part of the
injured, for carelessness is undoubtedly the main offender. For instance, very often hatch covers are taken off and, together with the hatch bqams, are aimlessly thrown on the vessel's deck for men. to trip over, or often steps, placed against the vessel's rail for men to ascend or descend to. the
516 Twelfth Safety Congress
deck, are not fastened, causing falls resulting in the breaking of a leg or arm or serious internal injury. There have been cases where some men have been crippled for life by having a ladder placed from the pier to the ship's side, fall while they were going aboard- or coming ashore from a vessel. Men frequently make use of "fender" ropes or "save all" lanyards to slide down to the pier which is often the sure means of being injured.
PREVENTION OF ACCIDENTS OVERLOOKED
The effects of the Compensation Law began to be felt and employers rushed to insurance companies for protection. No thought was given to the prevention of accidents. Protection against damage or law suits was all the employer wanted.
AH of this was abnormal - from beginning to end. and cannot be con sidered as a true reflection of the normal stevedoring hazard. With the peace treaty.came the decreased earning power of all vessels and the cry from steamship companies for economy. All of us who are familiar with shipping conditions know 'that at the present time very few steamers either come into or go out of port with full cargoes, and it is. therefore, absolutely necessary for steamship operators to curtail expenses. In the long run it is the steamship company that pays the insurance premium, for a stevedore cannot afford to be without insurance protection--first, because certain of his men, in the event of being injured, are entitled only to recover from the employer as prescribed by the Compensation Act, which in the State of New York is known as a "compulsory law"-- and second, because of the liberality of the present day jury in spending other people's money when rendering verdicts In those cases where the compensation law does not apply and the injured man has brought suit to recover under the Common or Admiralty Law. Therefore, this in surance cost is made a part of the contract price, whether it be on a cost plus or tonnage basis and must be borne by the steamship company.
If the steamship operators would co-operate with the stevedore in trying to avoid unnecessary accidents, they would find that their insurance cost would drop considerably as the basic rates charged by the insurance car riers are modified by the application of the experience rating plan to the individual risk, this plan taking into consideration the losses paid in comparison to premium development. Very often a few dollars spent by a steamship company in repairing "strongbacks" or "hatch covers" that are short, due to wear and tear, and which would prevent them from dropping down into the hold, would greatly, if not entirely, prevent acci dents previously caused by reason of their condition. The "strongbacks" and "batch covers" are part of the ship's equipment and It Is not possible for the stevedore to insist upon or compel the captain to make necessary repairs. Then again, if the steamship operators are in dead earnest in seeking economy they ought to further co-operate with the stevedore by instructing their captains to listen attentively to and aid him when he" complains about the masts or booms furnished not being strong enough
Marine Section
517
to carry tile various drafts, or when it is stated that the booms are too
short to properly handle the draft. This will very often prevent serious
injury, thereby saving insurance cost.
.
ANALYSIS OF RECENT ACCIDENTS
In 300 accidents recently reported as occurring to longshoremen, of which the greater number were "lumber cases," there has been one fatal. 33 serious hospital cases, 135 serious enough to compel stoppage of work (not more than the waiting period under the compensation act) and 133 of minor importance where the injured workmen continued at his duties. This reads more like the casualty list after a battle than the record of a commercial enterprise, but once again bears out my statement that "gang efficiency" is absolutely necessary in stevedoring operations. Lumber from the West to the East coast of the country, in large quantities. Is being handled for the first time by a great many longshoremen and as this work is new the men have not as yet become accustomed to it. The 300 acci dent cases referred to occurred during the handling of 750,000 tons of general freight and lumber or about 2,500 tons to the accident during the past seven months, or one serous accident to every 23,000 ,tons of freight handled. When we stop to consider the above figures and the length of time that it took in the olden days to unload 23,000 tons of cargo, I wonder if it is not just possible that the ratio of accidents to the number of tons loaded or unloaded, were not as great as those of today. How ever, it is gratifying to know that the Marine Section of the National Safety Council is about to organize a campaign for the prevention of accidents to longshore labor and I am sure that their efforts will meet with great success, particularly if we keep ever before us the fact that . most accidents are avoidable.
Chairman Welch: present.
ROLL CALL
I would like to get the names of those gentlemen *
Mr. George A. Marr, Secretary-Treasurer, Lake Carriers' Association, Cleveland, Ohio.
Mr. F. P. Conway, Safety. Inspector, Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corporation, Quincy, Mass.
M. C- Goodspeed, Safety Engineer, General Electric Company, Erie, Pa.
Mr. >Y. G. II. Cam, Safety Engineer, Canada Cement Company. Mr. A. M. Love, Liberty Mutual Insurance Company. Boston.
Mass., District Chief Engineer.
Mr. Frederick S. Tltsworth, Attorney, Associate Member of the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers.
Mr. C. F. Kerrigan, Jr., American Steamship Owners' Mutual Protection Indemnity Association, Inc., 49 Wall Street. New York City.
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Twelfth Safety Congress
Mr. A. J. Smith, Surveyor, Marine Office of America, New York.
Mr. E. A'.. Farrior, Safety Engineer, Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corporation, Sparrows Point, Md.
Mr. Gray S. Chesiclt, Liberty Mutual Insurance Company, Richmond, Va.
' DISCUSSION
Mr. A. J. Smith (Marine Office of America) : I would like to express a very hearty approval of Mr. Titsworth's stand relative to the Con gressional action and for extending to cargo vessels the safety prac tices required on passenger vessels--detection particularly. I believe it is a very necessary thing, and the line drawn between passengers and crew should certainly be eliminated. I don't know whether that can be put over in the near future, but I believe it is something that is coming.
I must take exception, however.^to his charge of fogyism against the marine insurance companies, at least to the extent that is inferred in his address. The percentage of fire losses ranged from 12 to 15 of the total losses incurred. It is fair to assume this represents the propor tion of rate paid against the fire hazard. The rates on fleets, excepting odd tramp vessels that have no fleet ratings, range from 2t& to 5 per cent, and that would bring, even at the maximum, the fire proportion of that to about 75 cents. That is a rate that compares favorably with the shore rates on commercial buildings for fire only.
AMERICAN RATES MEET INTEB3S'ATIOX-AL COMPETITIOX
The rates of the American companies, generally speaking, meet inter
national competition. Our data is not as complete as the older European,
particularly the British underwriting concerns. But we are constantly
getting that data together and can quote an intelligent rate based on
records. When you appreciate the fact that regardless of any amount
of fire equipment that might be put on, an arbitrary amount must be
agreed upon on account of hazardous route, running over shoal waters,
into hurricane season, etc., which might run a loss ratio of two or
three hundred per cent, I believe that the demand for a system of accounts
is not altogether unreasonable.
.
Mr. George A_ Marr (Secretary and Treasurer, Lake Carriers' Asso ciation) : The thought that comes into my mind whenever marine mat ters are discussed is that they are usually discussed from the stand point of the maritime interests on the ocean. My connection is solely with the Great Lakes, and as I hope to bring out more clearly tomor row, it Is a segregated industry, highly specialized and as different from the ocean navigation as river navigation or canal navigation.
When Congress legislates in a marine matter its vision is confined the Great Lakes, the small lakes and the rivers. The result is that laws that are inapplicable to the conditions of the Great Lakes are enacted.
Marme Sectio?i
519
The Steamboat Inspection Service is cognizant of these conditions ani their regulations are, to a growing extent, being applied to conditions as they exist on -the various bodies of water.
Vessel owners on the Great 'Lakes have formed the Great Lakes Pro tective Association for the purpose of co-operating with the hull insurance companies in the reduction of accidents and consequent reduction of premiums, which had been growing to an almost prohibitive rate. These rates had grown .within a few years from three percent to six percent and seven percent was threatened when this organization was formed.
The plan of operation is for the boat owners to reserve from con ventional insurance a small proportion of the hull risk. ..They-started with a 5 per cent, proportion and established rules for navigation and for handling the vessels; and required the reporting of accidents.
The result is the rate is kept down to a minimum by the reduction of losses. The association, by its operations, knew just what it was costing the insurance companies to carry the hull risk on the vessels in this association. They charged the same rate as the insurance companies, and at the end of several years there was an excess contribution which was held in trust and applied to future contributions on the proportion of the risk carried by the association.
This co-operation- between the underwriters and the vessel men has brought the insurance rate for hulls down again to 3% per cent., not withstanding the pressure of operation during the war years when every vessel that could turn a wheel was put in commission and kept In com mission steadily. There have been one or two years when disasters have been extremely heavy as, for instance, during the year 1913, when a storm In November wrecked a number of the most modern and largest steel vessels on the Great Lakes, when the rate did not cover the losses.
Mr. P. P. Conway (Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corporation, Quincy, Mass.) : When a ship is being built, it requires Are protection as well as when it is put. in commission. The fires existing on a ship beng built will nat urally start from the accumulation of rubbish either in the hull of a ship or elsewhere.
On or near all ships under construction there -should be foamite extinguishers in addition to the soda-acid extinguishers, for use in case of an oil fire. The soda-acid can be used wherever there is a fire of rubbish which is not covered with oil. Water barrels should be placed around the ship under the hull with water there so that small fires of that nature might be extinguished immediately upon discovering.
STEVEDORIN'G HAZARDS DISCUSSED
Mr. Guy S. Chesick (Liberty Mutual Insurance Co., Richmond, Va.): One thing that has come to my attention in connection with stevedoring is that there is a high labor turn-over which prevents any kind of organ-
520 Tivelfth Safety Congress
izing in safety work. When such a condition exists whm 4o jro recom
mend as a substitute or as a method for getting around
tabor turn
over, still using the safety organization method?
Mr. .Welch: We keep a record every week, and an Jwpfctef will go to the superintendent of the pier, or if necessary, to tb tamTod Mbnmdt. the contracting stevedore, and lay before him the names at tJ*e foreman and the type of accident and tell him we think they acre too anrtaw or to get busy with that foreman; we think he is baring too many
accidents. If it is a poor equipment accident, we immediately go right to the contractor himself and take the matter up. If he rtacmt want to co-operate, we don't want him.
Mr. W. G. H. Cam, (Safety Engineer, Canada Cement Company : Would there be any possibility in a large port like New York of organ izing stevedoring into sub-sections, each to handle a certain class of work? I think that is the ideal to work toward.
Mr. Welch: Before the war the contractor was In a position to pick a certain type of labor to handle a certain type of cargo. But we are not in that position now. One gang will handle anything that is put up to the hatch for them and we can't prevent it.
WEDNESDAY MORNING SESSION
Chairman Welch: I would like the report of the Nominating Com mittee. Mr. Titsworth, chairman.
Mr. Titsworth: Your committee feels, on account of the newness of the Marine Section, it would be well to continue with tile present officers, and I desire to place in nomination the following :
Chairman, W. E. Welch.
.
Vice-Chairman, Captain Irving L. Evans. Secretary, A. A. Close.
For members of tbe Executive Committee, in addition to the officers:
Mr. Charles H. Potter, President of the Potters Transporta
tion Company.
Captain T. B. Blanchard. .
Ellis Knowles, of C. H. Mallory & Company.I
I move the election of these officers. Chairman Welch: I would like to have Mr. Marr act as Chairman pro tem. Mr. Marr assumes the chair pro tem. The motion to elect these officers was carried unanimously.
Mr. Titsworth: In view of the fact that there may be some changes during the year on account of death or resignation. I move that the
Marine Section
521
chairman be authorized to fill such vacancies as may occur, subject to
the approval of the executive committee and the managing director of
the National Safety Council.
The motion is carried.
'
Mr. Welch at this point re-assumed the chair.
USES OP THE ALL-PURPOSE CANISTER GAS MASKS ABOARD SHIPS
Capt; S. M. McBride. Assistant Chief of Technical Division, Chemical Warfabe Service, War Department, Washington, D. C.
In considering the use of gas masks on board ships to protect against such gases as may be encountered in ordinary service, it is first necessary
to determine the nature and occurrence of such gases and second to ascer
tain what protection is necessary and available. With reference to the nature of gases that may occur, it may be con
sidered that conditions on board ships are very similar to those of a city,
inasmuch as a ship must have practically all of the utilities and con
veniences required for normal living conditions. That is, a ship has her
stores of food, fuel arid other commodities; facilities for cooking, heating,
lighting, refrigeration and ventilation; and due to its hazardously isolated position at sea, whereby the ship must rely upon her own resources. It is
essential that she be equipped with every necessary safety device to main
tain the security of its passengers and crew against all contingencies.
Among the foremost of the safety measures is her fire fighting equipment,
and the personnel that -is charged with the operation of same should be
even more amply protected than the firemen of a city fire department and
inasmuch as practically all of the. gases met in fighting fires on land may
be encountered in fires on board ship at sea, it is essential that the sea
man be fully equipped with the most improved means of gas protection.
It should be observed, however, that gases may be encountered on board
ship at other times than during fires. The nature of the service requires operations which give rise to the generation of certain gases and smokes
of a dangerous nature. Cargoes may consist of every known commodity
of export and import which, in the event of accident, as well as fire, are
sources of danger from this standpoint. Such gases and smokes may
originate from accidents to machinery, burning out of electrical insula
tion, improper combustion of oil in engines and boilers, and many other
similar sources.
.
Acetone, alcohols, aniline, benzene, carbon disulphide, ether, turpentine,
naphtha, toluene, etc., enter into the manufacture of rubber, dyes, paints,
varnishes, lacquers, shellac, insulation, celluloid, chemicals, and other
materials which may be on board as cargo or as part of the ship's equip
ment, and gases from some or all of the above may be given off in case of fire or accident, while listed below are the more common gases which
may be encountered on ship board and against which protection of the
ship's personnel should be provided.
-
522 Twelfth Safety Congress
Common Gases Which May Be Encountered on Board Ships, or Which May Occur in Case of Fire or Accident.
Kind Acid fumes Ammonia Carbon bisulphide Carbon dioxide
Carbon monoxide
Carbon tetra chloride
Carbonyl chloride (Phosgene)
Chlorine
Chloroform Chloropicrin Cyanogen chloride
Source
Storage batteries; acid in car goes.
Refrigeration apparatus.
Carbon tetrachloride fire ex tinguisher.
Product of complete combus tion of carbonaceous ma terials; from chemical fire extinguishers; from fer mentation of fruits and other organic substances in cargoes. (Ordinarily not considered dangerous, how ever, 6 per cent in air pro duces drowsiness and 20 per cent may produce death.)
From fires; a product of in complete combustion; from boiler room furnaces; from spontaneous combustion; fires in coal bunkers and cargoes.
From fire extinguishers.
From carbon tetrachloride un der special conditions.
From electrolysis of sea water by flooding of batteries or other electrical connections. From carbon tetrachloride
' under special conditions.
Carbon tetrachloride fire ex tinguishers.
After fumigation (used by some foreign countries as a ship fumigant).
After fumigation.
Lighter or Heavier than
Air Usually heavier Lighter (0.598) Heavier (1.29) Heavier (1.53)
Lighter (.967)
Heavier (1.58) Heavier (1.4) Heavier (2.49)
Heavier (1.5) Heavier (1.69) Heavier (2.1)
Marine Section
523
Kind
Formaldehyde Gasoline fumes and
other products of petroleum Hydrogen chloride Hydrogen cyanide Nitrogen peroxide (Nitrogen diox ide)
Sulphur dioxide
Source
After fumigation. OH burners; tankers.
Lighter or Heavier than
Air
Heavier (1.04)
Lighter (0.66)
From carbon tetrachloride.
After fumigation.
From nitric acid in cargoes or other source acting upon organic matter such as wood. (Several men killed at New York dock unload ing nitric acid carboys from the fumes produced from the contents of a broken carboy flowing over the wooden floor.)
From sulphur burning in air. (Two men overcome wear ing ordinary gas masks at New York pier fire where sulphur was burning.) From fire extinguisher sys tems designed to generate SOa, to blanket and extin guish a fire in hold, coal bunkers, etc. Reported to be installed on vessels of 2,000,000 gross tonnage in 1914. Ordinary gas mask gives incomplete protection. Protection afforded by all purpose mask.
Heavier (1.269) Lighter (0.718) Heavier (1.58)
Heavier (2.26)
In protecting against gases on ship board, consideration should, be given to the fact that many of the poisonous gases are heavier than air, as shown in the accompanying table, and therefore tend to settle in the hold which forms a convenient receptacle for retaining heavy gases which must be removed by artificial means. In city fire fighting, most of the casualties from gas occur in basements due to the same cause; how ever, the percentage of space in the hold of a ship Is immensely greater than the percentage of volume in the basement of the average city build-
524 - Twelfth Safety Congress
ing. hence It is readily seen that the work of extinguishing: a fire on board ship Is much more hazardous regarding gas than that of the cityfire fighter.
CARBON MONOXIDE ABSORBENTS
Among these gases are a very few that the standard army gas mask will not protect against. Chief among them and the most common as well as the most insidious is carbon monoxide,' which is responsible for moredeaths in civil life than all other gases combined.
It has no odor, taste, nor color, and it gives no warning of its presence by irritation of the eyes or throat.
It is a product of fires due to incomplete combustion of carbonaceous materials, from furnaces, and other similar sources, and is most liable to occur in dangerous quantities on ship board from smoldering fixes i cargoes in holds, coal bunkers, etc.
The "All-Purpose" Gas Mask De veloped by the Chemical Was'Jair.e Service of the United States Army During the Wo-rld. War. This Mask Is Designed to Protect the Wearer
Against Acid Gases. Organic Vapors, Ammojiia and Carbon Monoxide. It Also Protects Against Smoke, Coal and Other Dusts.
Carbon monoxide was not used as a war gas, due to certain physical
and chemical characteristics. No provision was made during the war to
develop a gas mask absorbent to protect against it as a war gas. There
was, however, a demand for such an absorbent for use by the U. S. Navy
in submarine and in the gun turrets of battleships, and this demand was
filled by the development of carbon monoxide mask at the American Uni
versity Experiment Station of the Chemical Warfare Service during 1917
and 191S.
.
.
This absorbent, known as' Hopcalite, acts catalytically on carbon
monoxide (CO), causing combination with the oxygen of the air to form
Marine Section
525
carbon dioxide (COs), which may be breathed to the extent of two or three -per cent without harmful results, whereas about one-half of one per cent of carbon monoxide would be fatal.
AaTMXUSTA ABSORBENTS
Ammonia is another common gas against which no special protection
was provided in the standard army gas mask. This gas is met with only-
in industrial work, principally around refrigeration plants. There was a commercial demand, however, for a gas mask that would
give adequate protection against ammonia fumes, and an early means of
protection was by the use of pumice stone Impregnated with sulphuric acid. This had many disadvantages and was superseded by the develop
ment of pumice impregnated with copper sulfate and known as Kupra-
mite.
Silica gel, which has been known for some years, has been developed
to a state where it gives adequate protection against ammonia as a gas
mask absorbent.
.
With these developments available, the Bureau of Mines designed a gas
mask to give protection against all noxious gases met with in ordinary industrial, chemical and metallurgical practice and for use by firemen of
city fire departments. This mask is known as the "Universal" gas mask.
A short time later the Chemical Warfare Service was called upon to fur nish such a mask for use by various government departments and this
mask also uses Hopcalite to give protection againt carbon monoxide, but uses pumice impregnated witb cobaltous chloride, another Chemical War fare Service development, insteqd of silica gel, as an ammonia absorbent.
This mask is known as the All-Purpose Mask.
There is also a commercial mask manufactured which embodies the
above principles and is known as the All-Service mask.
-
The construction and operation of all of the foregoing masks are similar
and reference herein to the All-Purpose mask applies to the three types,
unless otherwise specifically mentioned.
GASES FROISt FUMIOATIOX
'
Another common source of danger from gases aboard ship is from those remaining after fumigation.
The fallowing is from the July 6, 1923, Report of the U. S. Public Health Service on Ventilation of Ships after Fumigation with Poisonous Gases:
"It has been noted that shut-in spaces, with little or even almost no provision for ventilation, exist on most ships. Often such spaces are difficult of access. It has occurred that from known and, at times, unknown causes, gas remained or accumulated in certain spaces be low. It may be that the gas was not properly eliminated because of lack of ventilating facilities, or that it condensed in contact with cool
objects and diffused after the time when the hold was believed to be clear; and there may have been instances when the gas was absorbed by the cargo, or by the bilge water, and subsequently liberated."
526 Twelfth Safety Congress
The U. S. Public Health Service recently has-adopted * new method of ship fumigation, consisting of the generation in place of a. mixture of cyanogen chloride and hydrogen cyanide. Bilge water will absorb about 100 milligrams of cyanogen chloride per liter for an exposed surface of 27 square inches.
Cyanogen chloride will condense on brass at the rate of 42 milligrams per 1,000 square inches of surface, and on steel at the rate of 125 milli grams per T.OOO square inches, at an average temperature of 54^4' F.
These figures are given only for the purpose of showing that the gas may be present In bilge water, and will condense into a liquid on cold metal, hence it is quite liable to be present after fumigation. The time the gas may remain and the amount present will depend upon several factors, such as the total quantity absorbed by the bilge water and the total amount condensed; temperature at time of fumigation and tempera ture subsequent to clearing of gas; extent of and time at which bilge water may be agitated by any means whereby the absorbed gas will be released.
The foregoing is cited to show the necessity of caution in entering any closed space or compartment for some time .after fumigation, especially where the ventilation may be poor, without the protection of a gas raaslc.
Section Vieio of the Canister Used, in the "All-Purpose" Gas Mask, Showing the Various Sections of Pumice, Hopcalite and. Charcoal Through Which the Gas Filled Air Is SucJced by the Wearer of the
Mash.
1 CC
r FiR P/foor ''Sa/fasu acjeajc/C
Y\ C&0j9CTCtt/S CA't.&C'J'C(( dTVf /yMT^TAS
\ ( /
1 2oo c.<r.rt>f'c*rosT
// JiW&Sf r 3a frsaa
\ /
11 Z~o f) &-/G
( jfaa r. c. )) C#V*TrC PMYSC&-
&-so- //esrjr
, so 11 Co rrasr- f/rj3
\ / )
J
s
[ )
, 2o rrestf s-cfieofC \
f
~TTD1 ifs+r.
fe M. ~X-------------- 7=?-------- f
,:,i=r-:r2z3i
1
Marine Section
527
GASOLINE aXD PETROLEG'AC
Gasoline and other petroleum vapors are more dangerous than com monly supposed, aside from their inflammable and explosive nature. Due to their low boiling points these liquids evaporate rapidly upon exposure to air, the rate of evaporation increasing with the temperature.
An empty gasoline or oil tank will give off dangerous fumes and there is usually a small quantity of the liquid left in the bottom of the tanks even after steaming or other means of cleaning has been resorted to, and the remaining sludge when stirred up in cleaning or making inspection or repairs on a tank will give off dangerous quantities of gas. The Inhala tion of benzene, gasoline and other petroleum vapors causes headache, dizziness and frequently an intoxication in which the person becomes ex cited and hysterial. Higher concentrations quickly overcome the victim and cause complete insensibility and occasionally death.
All such tanks should be entered with extreme caution, and seldom. If ever, without some means of protection.
The All-Purpose Gas Mask will give protection against these vapors for a short time only, the time depending upon the concentration of the gas
present, but to be safe one should not remain in such a tank with a gas
mask over five or ten minutes at a time. If a longer period is required to
perform the work, the workman should go out and change masks. It has been found that thin rubber and rubberized cloth are permeable to gaso line and similar vapors, hence the used mask should be thoroughly aired to permit the occluded gas to dissipate before the mask is again used.
The safest protection to use in entering such tanks is either the oxygen breathing apparatus of the type approved for protection against penetra tion by gasoline vapors, or the hose mask, which consists of a gas mask face-piece of the Tissot type with a hose attached which leads to fresh air. Both of the above mentioned types of equipment are now available com mercially.
In any event a tank should never be entered without having a stout
rope attached to the person so that he can be removed if' overcome. A
number of deaths have occurred due to a neglect of this precautionary
measure.
:
The sub-committee of tbe Marine Hazards Committee of the National Fire Protection Association formulated "Tentative Rules for Freeing Oil Tanks of Vapors Before Entering," as published in the National Petroleum News of November 16, 1921, (pp. 57-58), in which it recommends the use of the hose mask, or the use of oxygen breathing apparatus for a period of not more than* 20 minutes, after which it shall be aired in fresh air for not less than six hours before further use. They stipulate that gas masks of the Army type shall not be used.
In this connection, however, it may be stated that in an emergency any gas mask containing charcoal, and all gas masks contain some in .varying amounts, will give protection for a few minutes.
528 Twelfth Safety Congress
FIRE EXTIXGU1SIIEBS
Chemical fire extinguishers, especially those of the carbon tetrachloride type, should be used in close spaces and small compartments only -when protected by a gas mask, due to the considerable number of toxic gases evolved by action of the heat of the fire or heated surfaces on the con stituents of the extinguisher liquid. The basic gas is, of necessity, heavy In order to blanket the fire and cut off the supply of oxygen, hence is not easily dissipated and becomes a source of danger in confined spaces.
.
COAX. OASES
Gases and.dusts emanating from fires in cargo and bunker coal or as
an after-result of explosions, require a means of gas protection. Such
fires frequently originate from spontaneous combustion and the gases
occurring therefrom may' be of such a complex nature that it is desirable
for men to be equipped with gas masks before entering into that part of
the ship where such fires exist, in order that the risk of their being over
come may be reduced to a minimum.
As an example of this may be cited an explosion occurring on the
steamship "Adriatic" August 11, 1922, which was carrying about 500 tons
of coal in the hold adjacent to the coal bunkers. No evidence of gas was
detected previous to the explosion but upon opening the doors between
the bunker hold and the cargo hold the day after the explosion a "strange"
gas was noted, which had a peculiar odor, produced a choking effect. Gave
the workmen a great desire to drink water, and made them light headed.
This was probably carbon dioxide confined in the bunker after the
explosion and mixed with other coal gases which were given off as a result
of the explosion.
,,
Two analyses of the gas from samples of the coal, made by the Bureau
of Mines, showed two and three per cent carbon dioxide. It is interesting
to note that the analyses showed 12 per cent and 39 per cent methane
(marsh gas or fire damp) in addition to the various other gases.
There is no adequate absorbent for methane known for use in gas
masks. However, this gas Is harmless in itself but-may cause suffocation
when present in sufficient quantities to reduce the oxygen content of the
air below 13 per cent. A gas mask should never be worn in an atmosphere
deficient in oxygen;- hence, as the gas is otherwise harmless, it requires
no protection from this standpoint.
If such a case should exist on board ship- then an oxygen apparatus or
hose mask should be used.
SMOKE AND DUST
The choking and irritating effect of smoke, due to the finely divided par ticles of soot and tar, dust and certain smoke vapors, on the eyes, throat and lungs may easily disqualify a person from performing effective work if not protected with a mask, although the quantity of such substances present may not be sufficient to produce toxic effects. These originate from many causes besides fires but all are efficiently removed by suitable filters in the canister.
Marine Section
529
THE ALL-PIBPOSE C.VS MASK
The All-Purpose Gas Mask consists or three principal parts, the face piece, the canister and the carrier.
The face-piece is of the Tissot type, without nose clip or mouth-piece, is made of rubber stockinette, shaped to closely conform to the con figuration of the face and made in five sizes to accommodate varying facial characteristics. Adjustable bands form a head harness which holds the mask firmly and comfortably in place.
Purified air from the canister enters the face-piece through a corrugated flexible tube attached to a metal angle tube in the face-piece. Attached to the angle tube on the inside of the face-piece is a rubber deflector which distributes the incoming air over the lenses of the eye-pieces to prevent dimming due to condensation of moisture on the glass. Expired air is exhaled directly to the atmosphere through a rubber flutter valve attached to a separate opening through the angle tube.
Hose Mask Developed- by the United States Bureau of Mines for Use in Mine Rescue TVorle. This Mask Carries no Canister, the Wearer Being Supplied- With Fresh .1 ir Through a Hose Which Extends to an. Air Pump Outside the Gaseous .1 rea.
The canister Is a modification of the present army type. In the bottom are two inlet valves opening into a dome made o perforated metal to permit even distribution of the air to the absorbent material.
A heavy wire spring and screen in the top of the canister press against the chemical flWrig to hold it in place and to prevent the passage of air along the sides of the canister.
530 Twelfth Safety Congress
The canister filling consists of the following absorbents arranged in the container in the same order as shown; the caustic pumice on the bottom and the pumice impregnated with cobaltous chloride at the top, the incom ing air passing through the series of absorbents from the bottom upward:
Absorbents
Protect Against
250 cc. Pumice impregnated with cobaltous chloride
200 cc. Hopealite Filter:
250 cc. Activated Charcoal
400 cc. Caustic Pumice
Ammonia
Carbon monoxide
Smokes, coal and other dusts
Organic vapors,, such as : acetone, alcohols, aniline, benz ene,* carbon bisulphide, carbon tetrachloride, chloroform, ether, formaldehyde, gasoline,, petroleurn, distillates, toluene, and others.
Acid gases, such as: _ carbon dioxide, chlorine formic acid, hydrogen chloride, hydro gen cyanide, hydrogen sulphite, nitrogen peroxide, phosgene, sul phur dioxide, and other gases of like chemical properties. Caustic pumice also extracts water vapor from the air to prevent its contaminating and inhibiting tbe Hopealite.
A rubber or metal check valve is placed between the two lengths of corrugated tubing connecting the canister to the face-piece to prevent the moisture of-the exhaled air leaking back into the-canister and de teriorating the chemical filling, especially the Hopealite.
Canisters of the all-purpose mask are painted red, in accordance with the Bureau of Mines specifications to designate a universal service canister.
The carrier of the all-purpose mask is the new Army side carrier, carried in one position under the left arm, supported by shoulder and waist straps. The Universal and All-Service masks are carried on the chest, without a case, being held in position by neck and waist straps.
The breathing resistance of the canister is. about 50 mm." (2 inches) of water at a flow of So liters (about 5 cubic feet) of air per minute.
Marine Section
531
LIFE OF CANISTER
The Hie of the canister depends upon a number of- variable conditions,
such as the concentration of the gas in which the canister is used, the
rate of flow of air through the canister, which is proportional to the rate
or extent of exertion or work done by the wearer, the temperature and
humidity of the air, etc. Under ordinary conditions and concentrations,
the canister has a life of from four to six hours of continuous use.
All gases except carbon monoxide may be detected by odor when the
canister "breaks," that is, permits gases to pass through, however, the
canister * gives protection beyond this point and permits the wearer to
withdraw to a safe atmosphere and change, masks or canisters.
.
Carbon monoxide gives no warning when the canister "breaks"; hence,
the safe life of the type of canister used must be known beforehand and
the mask not worn longer than the prescribed period.
Moisture in the air causes deterioration of the Hopcalite; hence, its
life is limited by the amount of air breathed through the canister regard
less of whether carbon monoxide is present or not and the life of the
canister is limited by the time it is actually worn. This may be de
termined by keeping a record of hours worn, or by a mechanical device
which measures the quantity of air that has passed through the canister.
Such a device, known as a "timer" is furnished with the all-service mask
as manufactured for commercial use.
LIMITATIONS OF USE
.
It is to be noted that gas masks, in general, give protection by absorb ing, neutralizing and filtering out the harmful ingredients of an atmo
sphere and allowing the purified air to be breathed. The gas mask does
not supply any oxygen as in the oxygen breathing apparatus. The wearer
of a gas mask must depend solely upon an adequate supply of oxygen in the atmosphere in which the mask is worn. If the oxygen content of the air is below 13 per cent it will not support human life and a flame is
extinguished when the oxygen content falls to 16 or 17 per cent. This
is a safe guide to the use of a gas mask and an atmosphere that does not
maintain a safety lamp flame must never be entered with a gas mask.
EQUIPMENT REQUIRED, STORAGE, CARE AND USE
The number of all-purpose gas masks required for ship equipment will
vary with the size of the ship and the nature of the service in which the
ship is operating, however, it may be closely estimated by the extent of
the fire fighting equipment as there should be a sufficient number avail
able to equip all men required to go into any part of the ship in case of a
serious fire. Masks should be maintained with the fire equipment for immediate use
and a number held in reserve for replacement or for use by rescuers in
case of an accident to those in a dangerous atmosphere.
Masks should he so distributed that regardless of where a fire may
occur or an accident happen, masks and extra canisters will be available. There should he at least one gas mask with each chemical fire apparatus
or extinguisher of any type.
.
,
'.
532 Ticeifth Safety Congress
Extra masks should be maintained adjacent to ammonia refrigerating equipment: in boiler rooms or available for use in same; in such parts of the ship in which the personnel would become affected in the event of suspension of "ventilation, and a number sufficient to equip all personnel required to enter any closed compartment or confined space immediately after the ship has been fumigated.
Extra canisters should be maintained to the extent necessary to pro
vide against any emergency which might be encountered, consistent with
the nature of the service and consideration should be given in this con
nection to the duration of the voyage with a view to replacing worn-out
canisters upon return to home port.
.
Canister Composition of the "Univcrsal" Gas Mask Which Was De signed hy the United States Bureau of Mines far Protection Against All Noxious Gases Met With in Ordinary Industrial, Chemical and Metallurgi cal P^ractice.
Gas Masks should be kept where the canister will be dry but not in a
place where the rubber parts will deteriorate, such as adjacent to steam
pipes or other places of high temperature.
'
Extra canisters should be kept hermetically sealed as when received and in dry, cool storage. Unused canisters so maintained will last for several years.
The gas mask requires very little attention and is simple to use. In putting the mask on, the one principal operation is in the adjustment of the face-piece. This is accomplished by holding the face-piece in both hands in front of the face, with the thumbs up and inside of the bands
Marine Section
533
of the bead harness; thrust the chin up and out, with the head thrown back; pull the face-piece up under the chin and slip the head harness up over the head as the face-piece conies into place.
Run the fingers under the head harness and the edge of the face-piece to assure a smooth, tight, comfortable fit.
' SPECIAL EQUIPMENT
The All-Purpose mask has a wide field of usefulness on board ship; it
is simple, light, requires no special training to use, is comparatively in
expensive and gives a wide'range of protection with the exceptions noted
herein.
'
For those exceptional cases oxygen breathing apparatus, the hose mask,
or both should be maintained. The present gas mask is much lighter and more convenient and com
fortable than any other type of equipment of this nature now in use, yet
it is believed that within the near future this will be still further im
proved as the Chemical Warfare Service, the Bureau of Mines and com
mercial concerns are constantly working on improvements. The Chemical Warfare Service - has recently developed a communicating -type of mask in which the wearer may talk almost as freely .as without a mask, thereby
enabling .conversation between workers, the use of the telephone, voice tubes, etc. This feature is also incorporated in. a new type of mask with a self-contained canister and face-piece whereby the appended breathing
tube and canister are eliminated, facilitating the use of the gas mask in
places where these are now a hindrance. The canister of this mask is valveless and can be removed and replaced with a new canister in a few
seconds.
The Bureau of Mines, in co-operation with the Chemical Warfare Service,
is engaged in the development of a more highly activated and. retentive
charcoal for gas mask use which, if successful, will materially reduce the size of the canister.
It is hoped that in the interest of national safety and national defense
that further achievements will be forthcoming within the year.
THE NEED AND FUNCTIONS OF SHIP SAFETY COMMITTEES
A.George
Mark. Secretary- and Treasurer, Lake Carriers' Association.
, Cleveland, Ohio
To adequately portray "The Need and Function of Ship Safety Com mittees" as established on lake ships one must historically sketch a com merce that Is without counterpart.
Many people not identified with the industry of the Great Lakes, and particularly those not residing in the region contiguous to these waters, have slight conception of the magnitude of this commerce, of the celerity with which it is handled, or of the equipment, that has been evolved for meeting a coarse freight movement that has- grown from one of perhaps 10 million tons since the advent of the steel bulk freight steamers to a
534
Twelfth Safety Congress
present time movement of more than 100,000,000 tons. Some idea of the
magnitude of this trade may be gleaned when I tell you that the' freight
movement through th^ St. Marys Falls Canals, which handle about three-
fourths of the through traffic of the Great Lakes, in the month of July
alone amounted to 14,38S,90S net tons. This compares with a total of
19,567,875 . tons of cargo that passed through the Panama Canal during
the twelve months ending June 30, 1923, which was a record breaking
year. In August of this year our fleet moved 14,353,044 tons through the
locks at Sault, and the June movement was 13,749,923 tons, thus making
a total of 47,706,706 tons moved through this single waterway in the
trade to and from Lake Superior in the three months' period, and leaving
out of the calculation the large movement between Lake Michigan and
the lower lakes. When you know that the combined traffic of the Panama
and Suez canals for the 365 days of the past fiscal year amounted to
40,92-7,875 net tons, the vastness of our lake trade and the speed at which
it is negotiated can well be Visualized. As I said before, the commerce
of-the Great Lakes in coarse freight-alone, i.e., iron ore, coal, grain and
stone,' will exceed one hundred million ton's, and as the lakes are locked
in the grasp of winter from December to April, this 'traffic has to be transported in a season of approximately eight months. If I have' gone
into rather complete detail, it has been to set forth the amount of freight
that has to be carried in a short period with resultant pressure and strain upon vessel operations and personnel, and to emphasize the small number of personal injuries actually occurring in a field which might be very
fertile.
.
~-
A SPECIALIZED FIELD
I should also like to dwell for a moment upon the unparalleled specializa tion of the conditions that surround our lake trade and that have grown up since the great ore fields in the Lake Superior district came under de velopment. To handle the Increasingly large ore tonnage which, since the advent of the steel steamer in 2S86. has grown from 3,559.230 gross tons to a movement of 64.734.195 cross tana in 1916: to provide for a reverse movement of 25 to 30 million tons of coal, to move something like 7 million tons of stone and to bring to point* near to the seaboard tbe grain crops of the West and Xonhvxt which is the year 1922 exceeded a halt billion bushels, required vessels of great capacity and so constructed as to permit a rapid loading and unloading It was to meet these requirements that a distinctive type of steamboat has been evolved--the bulk freighter. Openly constructed to permit free wetioa of loading and unloading rigs, with the machinery aft to permit almost uniatd i opted cargo space, the new and
larger vessels of this type are 6*** feet overall length, 60 feet breadth of beam, and 32 feet molded d^pch. Their cargo space is over 400 feet in length. Thirty-five hatches 9 by 42 feet, spaced 12 foot centers, open into the hold, virtually converting the vessel into an open trench during the process of loading or unload trig, leaving working space on deck restricted to three foot strips atbwartsbip between the hatches and a nine foot
Marine Section
535
atrip along the sides of the vessel, more or less encumbered with fittings. The bulk freighter of this type frequently carries 13,000 gross tons of ore, 14,000 net tons of coal or 450,000 bushels of wheat.
With the introduction and growth of the bulk freight type pt vessel, loading and unloading equipment to meet the demands of the trade have undergone a corresponding development and have so accurately kept pace that with perfect conditions we have seen a cargo of 12,500 gross tons of ore loaded into a- vessel in 16% minutes, and the same cargo unloaded in three hours and five minutes, or at the rate of 4,056% tons an hour. Of course the average rate of loading is not nearly so fast, but we have seen in the regular course of the trade 14,245 tons of bituminous coal loaded in 4% hours and 10,073 tons of coal unloaded from a lake steamer in 7 hours and 55 minutes.
DISTINCT PROBLEMS OF LAKE TRANSPORTATIONS*
As a forerunner to the vexatious problems that were to be encountered in establishing a workable system of Safety aboard lake steamships, I have mentioned these facts to illustrate the achievements attained in point of volume of traffic moved and rapidity and efficiency of handling, the like of which does not exist elsewhere in the world. It is natural that a trade so unique would call for measures equally original in plan and process of operation, and this is precisely what has occurred In establishing a cohesive system of Safety work easily understandable by those seamen upon whom the burden of the work devolved and which could function l>raetically and sensibly aboard ship.
The vessel membership of the Lake Carriers' Association has ranged from 350 to 410 steamers and 23 steel barges of average steamer size. The personnel of this fleet will number at any one time 12,500 officers and men, without allowance for turnover. The available man power In the course of the season will total approximately 25,000 different individuals. To a large extent, the great body of lake seamen is made up of steady working, reliable young men who "follow" the lakes year after year and are representative types of fine young Americans. Nevertheless, there is naturally a large element of inexperienced men constantly employed upon these vessels. From its inception, the Lake Carriers' Association has sought to do the best that it could for the men employed aboard the ships enrolled in its membership. The lake trade, segregated and complete within itself, has nothing in common with industry in general, nor much indeed, with even the maritime Industry of the rivers and oceans, where in either case the conditions of operation "and the character of trade and vessels vary, so distinctly from those of the lakes, that we are cut off from active participation with other interests in practically every movement. The lake business exceeds In a navigation season of about eight months one hundred million tons. On an average haul taken at 800 miles, the ton mileage service exceeds one-fourth that of all the railroads in this country. What our Association has done toward the welfare of the men has been accomplished through the Welfare Committee consisting of nine vessel operators, to sub-committees of whom are assigned the several features
536 Twelfth, Safety Congress
of the welfare work- such as health, education, thrift, and safety of the
men who man the ships. It has therefore devolved upon our membership
to depend upon their own ingenuity for the solution of the problem and
the mastery of the -tasks that are so peculiarly thelir own.
.
From what I have related of the lake trade, the fleet, the method of quick operations and the army of men employed, it is at once apparent 'that a method of Safety effort such as employed on railroads, in factories, mills or elsewhere ashore would he utterly impossible to effectively employ on shipboard. Lake ships load and unload at twelve ports on Lake Erie and at eleven ports on the upper lakes. With the facilities at hand, for the quick taking of or discharging of cargo, the average stay in port is a matter of a few hours at the most. This situation precluded any possibil
ity of establishing Safety work on board our boats under the conduct of men skilled in promoting or supervising such work. Moreover it pre cluded the possibility of establishing a plan which could come under even casual observation, the chaff separated, and the good commended and spurred on to greater effort. The need of a work of this kind had long been recognized but for many years each vessel owner had pursued it in
liis own way, some with more or less success. But without coordination in the face of the constant shifting of men from fleet to fleet and boat to boat, the measures taken to instill a spirit of self-protection and protection to-shipmates among upwards of 20,000 men was never characterized by more than half-hearted effort by the crews.
SIIIP SAFETY COKiUTTEES EST-YULIS H.ED
In 1917 a plan of a Ship Safety Committee was conceived that possessed
a marked ingenuity and originality. The plan provided for the appoint
ment on each vessel of a Ship Safety Committee to consist of six mem
bers of the crew, three from the forward or navigating end of the vessel,
and three from the .after end or engineer's department, the selection of
men to consist of the lowest licensed officer on each end of the ship, two
unlicensed men from the deck crew and two from the engineer's depart
ment, but not more than one of any rating or grade. The master appoints
one licensed officer to act as chairman, the other as secretary. Thus the personnel of the Ship Safety Committee on the largest steamships would
be as follows: Second mate; second assistant engineer, one as chairman
the other as secretary; boatswain, deckhand, handyman, fireman or oiler.
On smaller steamers the personnel would be second mate, wheelsman,
deckhand, assistant engineer, oiler, and fireman or coalpasser. It will be
noted that the chief officers of the ships are not designated to serve on
the committee, the purpose being to place upon the men who actually
do the work the duty of studying and correcting the hazards and to enlist
the interest of the rank and file of the unlicensed men. The psychology
of this is obvious. I would be remiss if I failed to acknowledge the
valuable assistance of the masters and chief engineers of the lake fleet
in establishing Ship Safety Committees. While not members of the com
mittees, they generally attend the committee meetings, lending advice and
encouragement.
-
Marine Section
537
The Ship Safety Committee being required to hold a meeting once each month, compensation for each member was fixed at ?2 for each meeting attended, with a bonus of $10 additional to be paid at the end of the season provided the member attended all meetings, but not less than six meetings held during the navigating season, and further provided that no personal injury occurred on the ship or to a member of the ship's company in connection with his duties, sufficient to cause him to leave the ship. Pads of printed forms for recording the minutes of the meetings are supplied to the ships, one copy of which is sent to the vessel manager and another to the Lake Carriers' Association.
Seamen the world over are skeptical of new ideas, but once convinced that a thing has been provided for their benefit, their appreciation is deep and lasting--and they work faithfully for the cause. Their skepticism proved a small stumbling block in the establishing of the Ship Safety Committee aboard the ship. I am not unmindful of the fact, however, that operating conditions rendered it impossible for us to go aboard the ships and explain in detail to each set of six men the object of the committee and method of procedure and the province of their work. On the other hand, they bad to organize and act on their own initiative, and being sailor men and not Safety experts, it was not their fault if they failed to grasp the subject matter at the outset and if in consequence the results were un satisfactory at the beginning.
After trying out the Ship Safety Committee on some of the snips in'the fall of 1917, the plan was actively started at the opening of naviga tion in 1918 when the owners of 137 steamers in the membership of the Association authorized their masters to organize committees. Briefly, the
duties of the Ship Safety Committee were: Give special thought and attention to the details of operation in each member's department as shall further the general safety of the crew and others on shipboard; familiarize themselves witb tbe recommendations made by the Industrial Committee; to bold a meeting once every month and carry out such steps as they might find advisable or have authority to carry out. With Ship Safety Committees functioning on 137 steamers and with six'members'to a com mittee this made at least 822 men constantly and seriously advocating the principles of Safety on shipboard. Although the work was new and the men bad to work out their own methods, tbe committees were not long in finding themselves and good results obtained before the season was half over. As the season advanced and tbe reports covering personal injuries came in in diminished numbers in comparison with preceding years, it became clear to the Welfare Committee that at last the right chord had been struck.
ACCIDENT REPORTS IMPORTANT
It has been tbe custom for all masters to report in detail to tbe Lake Carriers' Association personal injuries sustained by members of the crew. As a result we receive and are cognizant of scores of injuries of such minor importance that in other industries are considered too trivial to record. The Lake Carriers' Association publishes during the navigation season a
538
Twelfth Safety Congress
monthly magazine of -24 pages known as The Bulletin and which is dis tributed freely through the several departments of every ship in the membership. Particular care is exercised to monthly publish a list of current personal injuries which receive earnest deliberation in Ship Safety Committee meetings with means taken to prevent recurrences. On ships where committees do not preva'il these reports of personal in juries are read over by members of the crew and thus they serve a useful purpose throughout the entire fleet. In The Bulletin we publish a digest of noteworthy suggestions that develop in committee ^meetings for the general benefit.
For many years the Lake Carriers' Association has maintained an In
dustrial Committee composed of masters and chief engineers who in winter
sessions make recommendations for the prevention of personal injuries.
Inasmuch as the members of this Committee are men of extensive and
intimate experience with the operation of vessels, their recommendations
served as the basis of our accident prevention effort for a number of years.
These recommendations, together with the proposed plan of the Ship
Safety Committee were incorporated in a pamphlet which proved invalu
able as a compendium for the Ship Safety Committee fn its meetings and
daily work.
'
Previous to the advent of the Ship Safety Committees, the field of the' Industrial Committee was limited to the personal observations .of the members of the Committee or to the suggestions or complaints of other masters, chief engineers or persons identified with lake commerce, and the examination of the personal injury reports that had been received during the year. The meeting reports of the Ship Safety Committees have given the Industrial Committee an additional source of information and they have found many suggestions worthy of endorsement by them to the Executive Committee of the.Lake Carriers' Association whose adoption translated them into mandatory rules.
TKAIXIXG THEM TO THINK SAFETY
Naturally many of the suggestions originating with the Ship Safety Committee are of purely local application to conditions that exist upon the vessels where the suggestions originate. It i? also true that the vast majority of the suggestions are impracticable. Yet who can gainsay
the moral and practical value of having so large a number of men, com prising the actual working element aboard ship, constantly thinking in terms of safety, observing their own .faults, criticising the improper
methods of others and noting the conditions of fittings and equipment that may be conducive to accident? These men are unconsciously forming habits of thought and observation along these lines and are as uncon
sciously communicating the habit to their shipmates.
Some committees have furnished well executed sketches of appliances
invented aboard ship for the prevention of personal injuries, the most
meritorious of which included snubbing posts for ooortxtg the lines of
the mail boats in the Detroit River: a device for
the men
at work on the hatch covers and a device for ttw in the firvfaotd for the
Marine Section
539.
prevention of burns. Three different styles of landing pole have been Invented by the men on shipboard and this device is now in rather general use. The landing pole is a boom so constructed that it can be swung outboard ten or twelve feet and a man lowered to the dock in a "bos'n's chair" to handle lines when making a landing. Men going down from ship to dock on a line or on a Jacob's ladder do so with peril.
In 1919 Ship Safety Committees were in operation on 258 steamers, which meant an increase to 1548 men aboard ship pledged to the respon
sibility of constantly advocating the principles of Safety First. In 1920 meeting reports were received from only 183 steamers, whereas commit tees should, have been employed on 261 ships. However, the number of reports received rose to a total of 880 and in addition to this increased regularity in the holding of meetings it is of interest to point out that statements of the deliberations were more comprehensive, reflecting a clearer conception of their duties.
In 1921, the year of the general depression, only half of our fleet operated, and much of that on part time, so I will pass that season without comment beyond stating that on the steamers which sailed the work was continued as unremittingly as possible under the circumstances. It is probable that this break in-vessel operation had its effect in the decreased number of 173 steamers that employed committees in 1922, but the total number of meetings held was increased to 899 as compared with 654' reports received from the peak number of 258 steamers in 1919.
This year 1 have had reports from 194 .steamers. I should add here I do not believe we have had in any season a complete record of the number of ships being served with Ship Safety Committees or complete reports of all meetings held. As a matter of fact, committees are authorized on 231 steamers this season though ^reports have been received from only 194, but there is still some educational work to be done to bring about Complete and uniform cooperation.
SOME HAZARDS OF iVAVIJIATIOX
Tbe hazard of personal injury aboard a bulk freighter fs not nearly as
great as on railroads or in mills. All dangerous places on deck, in cargo
hold, dark bold, and around machinery are amply protected by guards
and metal warning signs are freely posted* in all necessary places. The
percentage of unavoidable accidents aboard ship Is small, indeed. I know
of only one of serious nature likely to happen and that is when a cable
may part and someone happen to be directly in its path, but cables seldom
part. In the engine room, serious unavoidable injury can be sustained
only when a part of the machinery lets go, and that seldom occurs. In
the boiler room steam pipes may break, tabes, stayboits or other parts
of the boiler may let go, and there may be bade drive From the furnace,
to cause serious injuries, bat aside Free* these, personal injuries sustained
aboard ship are usually avoidable. and- I .WKtfg to say that 98- per cent
are due to pure carelewes,
or lapses
of memory. Until recent ysara tSSer gr.i'WPest goSH?P'w. l&t&tl or serious in-
540 Twelfth Safety Congress
juries on deck, falling through an open hatch into the cargo hold, entangle ment of leg or arm in the bight of a cable, and in the engine department by having hands caught while feeling or oiling machinery.
It is certain that the number of serious personal injuries has been greatly diminished. Of material significance is the fact that fatal injuries or total disablements sustained on deck have been largely curtailed. I
desire to call particular attention to these for the reason that fatal injur ies of this character are avoidable. Falling into an empty cargo hold is the most dreaded and for a long time was the most common of all our fatal injuries. I cannot recall a single case of falling into the hold that was unavoidable. On the contrary, some have been due to carelessness as the result of tripping, but more frequently to a lapse of memory when men stepped backward into the hold. Some have fallen into the bold by walking oh the hatch covers when they were partly open. Drownings as the result of tripping and falling overboard and fatal injuries sustained by tripping and falling from deck to dock once levied a heavy toll.
WltAT BUtTS OOXaiTTGES HAVE ACCOlimSH33>
To show the extent to which fatal injuries sustained on deck have been diminished I present the record for the past ten years, divided into two periods, as follows:
. FIVE YEAR PERIOD PRECEDING SHIP SAFETY COMMITTEES
Fell Kell Over Fell from Total
Total
into Carpo board or
Spars Disable Fatal
Hold fromDocks or I-addera meats Accidents
Death Benefits
1913 .. .
T 3 0 15 $1,400
1914 .. .........................6 0 0 0
6
1915 ..
o * 9 1 1 13
1.175 1.100
1916 ..
io
3.
1
17
1.900
1917 ..
T 0 1 13
1,150
Totals .....................21
33
4
3 64 $6,725
1918 .. 1919 .. 1920 .. 1921 .. 1922 ..
FIVE YEAR PERIOD OF SHIP SAFETY COMMITTEES
1 *> 2
90
0 .1
0 1 .0
'1 2
0 0 0
0 2
4$ 5 2,
3 8
375 700 175 250 775
Totals .....................12
. 4"
4
2
22
$2,375
A summary reveals 21 fatal injuries from falling into the cargo hold during the five years preceding the establishing of Ship Safety Committees as against 12 in the five year period of Ship Safety Committee meetings; 33 from falling overboard or from docks while handling cables, as against four; 7 from falling from spars' or ladders, as against 4; and three total disablements as against two, making a total of 64 as against 22. Death benefits paid to the beneficiaries of these unfortunates amounted to a total
Marine Section
541
of $6,725 as against $2,375. A further comparison of the number of acci dents between vessels having committees and those not entering into this plan, reveals that during the current year there have been on non-com mittee vessels 59 accidents and on committee boats bat 45. The classifica tion of these accidents is as follows:
Xo Committee Working on machinery ..........................................................12 Cleaning fires and firehold work....................................14 Slipping and falling on deck, in rooms, etc...........9 Miscellaneous accidents and work..................................t# Handling hatches......................................................................... 4 Falling from ladders, staging, etc............................... 4 Falling ore. coal, etc................................................................. Handling lines .:..................................................... Falling into hold ........................................................................... 0
Committee 6 C 6
tt &
4
C5
59 45
Only three fatal injuries have been reported so far this season. Xn one. the seaman who, acting contrary to instructions by failing to wait for a ladder to be lowered, fell from the side of a boat; in the second, the seaman fell off the dock and was drowned, and in the third, a fall
down a stairway. No deaths have occurred so far this year from falling into cargo hold or overboard, or from spars or ladders.
Many steamers now pass through a season of navigation without having sustained a single personal injury and in the fleet as a whole the number Of serious injuries has been greatly diminished. Highly significant in this connection is the fact that in addition to the decreased number of personal injuries entailing expense to the vessel owners, the Protection and Indemnity insurance rate has remained stationary through a number of years. A further important factor which should not be overlooked is to be found in the consistency with which the seamen stick to their boats in order to serve out the season on the Ship Safety Committee. All vessel operators recognize the value of a steady-working seaman. We now have Ship Safety Committees that go through the full season of navigation without change of personnel. We feel that the Ship Safety Committees keenly sense their responsibilities and faithfully and conscientiously dis charge their duties as they see them, both in committee or when per forming their daily ship's work. At the start, they reluctantly served on
the committees, now, they are eager to be members, many of them with
out regard .for compensation.
INFLUENCE OF COMMITTEES
Moreover, they inspire others in the crew to be watchful of shipmates. Only a few days ago I learned of an oiler, not a member, who, off duty, saw a green man come aboard and he forthwith took this man over the deck pointing out places of danger. X have also been impressed with another recent development, having noticed in several reports where Ship
542 Twelfth Safety Congress
Safety Committees recommend the discharge, of the habitually, careless
men and the ones who stubbornly refuse to do things in a safe way after
having been shown.
*
Experience has taught the members instead of centering their thoughts, as in the beginning, on altered ship construction or equipment as a means of preventing injuries, to work along constructive lines. By taking pre cautionary measures well in advance they anticipate the dangers to be
encountered during the dangerous periods, such as drowning while swim ming during the hot period, and injuries as a result of stress of weather during the late fall.
I believe the outstanding feature that has come out of 'the Ship Safety
Committee is the increasingly large demand for lights--cluster lights for
ward and aft on deck to facilitate the safe taking off or putting on of
hatches, lights to prevent falling into the cargo 'hold, lights to handle
mooring cables on the dock, and lights to facilitate the landing of men
from ship to dock. Also more lights in dark places below deck and par
ticularly electric lights in the paint and lamp rooms instead of lanterns. A few years ago there was no such demand for additional illumination.
The men took their chances In black nights and in dark places. It is
noticeable, too, that the Ship Safety Committees are no longer backward
in setting forth conditions that are wrong on the boat, things that are in
need of repair to. insure safety.
Given to understand what the purpose of the Ship Safety Committee is,
mapping out the course they are to sail, with due cooperation from the
office and officers and sustaining them in their recommendations for
changes that will further insure safety whenever those changes are
feasible, seamen will successfully conduct Ship Safety Committees on all
waters.
.
We have now had practically six seasons of the Ship Safety Committee
and progress is still being made. The Welfare Committee is more than satisfied with what has been achieved, and laying aside the humanitarian aspect and looking from the viewpoint of dollars and cents, I believe the vessel owners have been well compensated for their annual outlay in the
maintenance of these committees. '
CARBON DIOXIDE IN MARINE FIRES
Charles L. Jones,
Esq.,
Mellon Institute Pittsburgh, Pa.
or
Industrial
Research,
The trite and time-worn adage to the effect that "necessity is the
mother of invention" has perhaps no better example than in the field of
fire extinction, where special hazards have resulted in the development
of many new methods of dealing with them. In the marine field, more
than usual fear has always been attached to the thought of fire, regard*
less of the actual hazard involved, because of the fact that huixtan beings
involved cannot escape their problem by simply leaving the fire, as is so
often, the case on land.
,
Marine Section
543
It Is therefore not surprising that the first proposal to use carbon dioxide as a practicable means of fire extinction had reference to marine fires. Lieutenant F. M. Barber, of the United States Navy, was the
originator of the scheme, and it was in 1875 that he described the then newly developed means of liquefying carbon, dioxide commercially and confining it in steel cylinders, and. suggested that bottles of carbon dioxide kept on the deck of a vessel could be. emptied .into the holds in order to extinguish fires.
However, Barbar's suggestion was treated only as a theoretical pos sibility for a quarter of a century, until the development of carbon1 dioxide systems for marine fire extinction began in Europe, and espe cially In the Scandanavian countries.' The Lux system, in Sweden, has attained a high state of development, and reductions in insurance pre, miums are offered by the Swedish underwriters to vessels equipped with this system. The application of liquefied carbon dioxide to the extinction of marine fires in the United States has been relatively recent.
advantage of liquified carbon dioxide
Stated briefly, the advantages which recommend liquefied carbon dioxide fire extinction to the attention of shipowners are as follows:
(1) The gas permeates inaccessible places and is effective around corners.
(2) On account of its low-boiling point, it does not condense and lessen its own effectiveness, as is the case with steam.
(3) It is the only means of extinguishing fires by smothering which at the same time has a definite cooling effect'. The temperature- of the gas released into the holds is about 100 degrees below Fahrenheit.
(4) ' On account of its high specific gravity it seeks the bottom of the cargo spaces, and is admirably adapted to be confined with small loss
in the hold of a vessel.
'
(5) On account of this ability to hoId: the carbon dioxide atmosphere
In contact with the fire, it makes possible the bringing of vessels into
port when the fire in question is not of a character to be altogether
extinguished by any available agent. "
-
(6.1 The gas is colorless, odorless, tasteless; and non-poisonous. Like
water, it will not support combustion, hence life will drown In. either
one when the oxygen supply is cut off; but it should be emphasized that it is not a poison any more than is water.
(7) On account of the colorless nature and low temperature of the
gas, it is possible for men equipped with oxygen helmets safely to make
explorations and even to perform labor in carbon dioxide atmosphere's.
This cannot he done during the application of live steam in a confined space.
(8) Carbon dioxide is neutral towards almost all kinds of cargo, and
will not damage the finest silks' or the most delicate merchandise. It is
even used commercially as a preservation for foods, and in preventing
the deterioration of oils, flavoring materials, cocoanut, and other prod
ucts. This quality of not damaging goods not actually on fire-is. pos
sessed by no other fire-extinguishing agent.
r>44-
Twclfth Safety Congress
(9) It can be used on motor ships where steam is not available. (10) Carbon dioxide systems can be installed at comparatively small
expense because it is possible to distribute the gas through steam piping,
the intallation of which is required by law. (11) The presence of carbon dioxide even in percentages lower than
are required to extinguish fire, greatly reduces hazard of fire and explo sion. Spontaneous combustion proceeds more slowly where the oxygen content of the air is reduced and combustion of any kind takes place less violently. The explosive limits of .mixtures of combustible gases and vapors with air are narrowed and the velocity of proposition of flame in such mixtures is reduced. All these effects tend to reduce fire
and explosion hazard. (12) The supply of carbon dioxide is Independent of boilers and all
other mechanical equipment on the vessel and is available at any time on simply opening the valves of the containers.
DISAnVANTACKU
The chief influences which have hindered the more rapid introduction
of carbon dioxide systems on American shipping are the following:
(1) Steam is usually available, and the familiarity of the crew with
steam is an argument in its favor.
(2) Carbon dioxide is regarded with suspicion by many whose limited
knowledge of chemistry causes them to class all kinds of "gas" as
poison.
(3) The non-technical man wants a fire extinction medium that be
can see and feel, and carbon dioxide does not meet these requirements.
Faith in agencies which cannot be handled is a little higher in the scale
of intelligence.
(4) The amount of gas which can be carried economically is usually
much less than the amount required to "gas" the entire cargo space of
the vessel. While this may be regarded as a limitation on carbon
dioxide systems, there is no excuse for any fire on a carbon dioxide-
equipped vessel reaching the proportions of a general conflagration.
(5) For the most effective use of any fire-extinguishing agent, it
should be applied under the supervision of some one who understands
the fundamentals of the -chemistry of combustion. Unfortunately, this
is a large order which can seldom be filled. There has been a feeling
that carbon dioxide requires more specialized knowledge and experience
to apply than other fire-extinguishing agents, but' at least as regards
marine fires this is not the case.
EXTISCUISIIISr, FIRE AXD PREVENTING SPREAD OF FIRE
The distinction between the requirements for preventing the spread of fire and the requirements for actually extinguishing it are not generally understood. Fire may be spread in two ways, namely, by actual com munication of heat through solid material and by gaseous combustion. In most materials the spread of fire in the combustion of Incandescent solids is so slow that It can be ignored in comparison with the spread
Marine Section
545
of fire through gaseous combustion or flame. Hence, where sufficient percentages of carbon dioxide or steam are employed to prevent gaseous combustion, all flame will be extinguished. In the case of flash fires, or of fires in liquid hydrocarbons or of gases, this is tantamount to extinguishing the fire altogether. With most types of cargo, however, flame is the result of the combustion of such materials as wool, coal, fibers, etc., which leave behind incandescent residues. Extinguishing flame is not .equivalent to extinguishing incandescent material, and the incandescent material will continue to glow and absorb oxygen from the atmosphere until it is cooled below its ignition point or until the residual oxygen in. the atmosphere reaches a very low figure.
The successive steps in extinguishing a fire by means of either steam
or carbon dioxide are therefore as follows:
.
(1) To build up a concentration of the smothering fiuid such as to
reduce the oxygen of the air to below 17 per cent, where all flame will
be extinguished, with certain exceptions not commonly encountered in
marine fires.
"
(2) To maintain this concentration until the burning incandescent
material, if any, is below its ignition point.
.
The first function is rather easily performed by either steam or carbon dioxide. However, there will always he marine fires which cannot be absolutely extinguished by any fire extinction system short of sinking the ship, and perhaps the ability to check quickly the spread of fire is as important as the ability actually to extinguish it. Be that as it may, there is an important difference between steam and carbon dioxide in this connection. Where fire is not -actually extinguished, but only checked, by the smothering medium, a vessel using the carbon dioxide system could be brought into port with little or no additional gas appli
cation after fire is once checked, while it would be necessary continually to apply additional steam to compensate for condensation.
As regards cooling the incandescent material below its ignition point, it Is impossible to generalize, because both the character of the com
bustible and the particular conditions surrounding each fire determine the normal rate of cooling of such material after combustion has been stopped. In the case of cotton, fires which are once started, are pro pagated in part by an exothermic reaction in the fiber, and it is very difficult to stop this reaction after it has been started. It is perhaps safe to say that the 'most to be expected from any fire extinction system with cotton cargoes is the checking of fire by preventing actual flame, and thus permitting the segregation of the burning material on arrival at port. It is almost unnecessary to state that the absence of damage to material not actually burned should be a consideration.
In other cases there is no incandescent material to consider, and, when flame Is extinguished, fire has been conquered. In still other cases, the incandescent material may be more or less difficult to cool. In any event, it may be said that no smothering agent can compare with large volumes of water for cooling and quenching effect.
546 Twelfth Safety Congress
However, certain comparisons may be made between steam and carbon dioxide in. this respect. Steam is introduced into holds at temperatures over 212 F,, while carbon dioxide is introduced at 100 below zero Fahrenheit.- The indication is obvious. Moreover, the latent heat of steam operates to heat rapidly the contents of the hold to 212F., while a part of the carbon dioxide is introduced in the form of carbon dioxide snow. The latent heat of vaporization of this solid carbon dioxide operates in the opposite manner to assist in cooling the cargo.
TUB DAJVGEB OF CERT.-UK HEATS
Heating certain combustible materials to 212F. by steaming is not a very serious matter, tut, with other materials, is distinctly not to be desired. In the case of volatile flammable liquids stowed in drums, steaming is an excellent aid to vaporization. In the case of substances liat le to spontaneous combusion, warming to this temperature gives great impetus to the accumulation of heat for fresh outbreaks of fire. For example, 150F. has teen regarded as a dangerous temperature for coal in storage, and temperatures in excess of this have t een regarded as an indicating danger of Are from spontaneous combusion, yet coal storage fires have been deliterately treated with steam at temperatures above 212 F. Lewes years ago pointed out' that liquefied carton dioxide is the only smothering agent which also cools the coal below the danger point.
The list of hazardous commodities issued ty the Marine Committee of the National Fire Protection Association includes at out 300 different commodities, and about 130 of these are of such a character that they should not t e steamed. This means ' that they are volatile flammable liquids which are more hazardous when warm than when cold, and solids which must te kept dry to avoid danger of spontaneous comtustion or actual fire or explosion, as in the case of calcium cart ide, potas sium metal, and sodium metal. Compressed and liquefied gases which should te kept cool are also included.
The behavior of every fire is dependent upon the relation existing between two heat quantities. Where the amount of heat generated by comt ustion is in excess of the heat which can be dissipated, the fire increases in size. Where the amount of heat generated Is exactly equal to the amount dissipated, there can. be no temperature change, and it is said that the fire smolders. Where the amount of heat generated is less than that dissipated, the combustible cools, and the fire dies down or goes out.
This statement is equivalent to saying that there are all possible degrees of success in.extinguishing a fire. Fires which are beyond con trol before any fire extinction means is applied need not be discussed. However, the principal otject of marine fire apparatus is to get the vessel into port, with the fire extinguished, if possit le, under control if not extinguished, but at any rate to get the vessel into port. Any treat ment which accomplishes this result may be considered successful in a degree.
Marine Section
547
Smothering media decrease the heat generated by the-fire in propor tion as the decrease the oxygen present. When the heat generated is reduced until it.becomes smaller than the quantity of heat dissipated, then the burning material necessarily cools. As has already been pointed out, it is easier to maintain an atmosphere of a given low oxygen con tent while this cooling takes place with carbon dioxide than it is with steam. It 'has also been -indicated that the cooling effect of the carbon dioxide, pound for pound, is much greater than the cooling effect of the steam, and cools to a much lower temperature.
EXPLORATION OF CARGO SPACES
The carbon dioxide system makes possible a great advance in the treatment of marine fires which has not been practiced heretofore to the writer's knowledge.
In coal mine work men often are sent into sealed-off areas containing irrespirable gases. These men are equipped with oxygen helmets, and may explore and report on the conditions they find, or may even per form labor. In a recent large mine fire between 50 and 60 men wearing oxygen helmets were constantly employed for over six months. These men loaded 5,500 60-cubic-foot cars of coal and debris during this time.
Why could not some marine fires be treated In similar fashion? Cargo spaces properly sealed and treated with carbon dioxide can be left alone, or, if necessary, small additional amounts of gas can be added to com pensate for leakage, until the vessel reaches port. Conditions can then be investigated as far as possible by men wearing oxygen helmets, with out ventilating the hold and. thus without taking any risk of rekindling dormant fire.
In many cases, of course, the cargo is so placed that this kind of exploration would not be practical, tut, where conditions warrant, part of the cargo could be unloaded by helmet men without ventilating the hold any more than absolutely necessary. In this way much valuable material might be salvaged, undamaged by water or steam.
' It need hardly be pointed out that men could not enter holds in this manner while the holds were under treatment with steam.
Water Damage--Enough has been said to indicate that considerable saving would be effected by the substitution of carbon dioxide for steam if water damage alone were eliminated. Many materials nob easily com bustible in themselves suffer great damage from being wet. Wool is perhaps a good example; Wool, as such,`is not considered highly comtustile, tut fire in a wool cargo, followed by treatment with water or steam, means as a rule that the cargo becomes valueless.
Development of Carbon Dioxide System--The carbon dioxide system aow on the market in the United States has reached a satisfactory state of development, and many of the defects which quality the success of every new mechanical appliance have been eliminated. It Is safe to state that this apparatus is as dependable as any fire-fighting equipment that can be obtained.
548
Twelfth Safety Congress
In conclusion, the writer wishes to make clear his position with regard to the use of steam. Steam is generally recognized as a satisfactory
means of' fighting fires' in the cargo spaces of a vessel in the present stage of development of extinguishing apparatus and its use is not to be discouraged. It hence appeared to the writer that no better way of setting forth the merits of carbon dioxide could be found than to com pare it with steam.
It is indeed unfortunate that practically all of the great annual loss by marine fires takes place under conditions which' do not permit the careful scientific study of individual fires, and the exact determination of gas compositions in the holds, etc. Had it been possible to accumulate
much data of this kind, "the present stage of development of. extinguish ing apparatus" would undoubtedly be further advanced.
The writer admits his prejudice, hut believes .that the day will come,
sooner or later, when carbon dioxide, which is now applied principally
to vessels lacking an adequate steam supply, will be universally applied
on both steam and motor vessels carrying cargo the value of which is
a consideration.
_
Chairman Welch: In addition to those present yesterday, those here
today are:
..
Mr- M. D. McIntyre, representing Mather & Company, steam ship operators.
Mr- Frank A. Epps, Manager, Fire Prevention Department. Tidewater Oil Co., New York City.
Mr. IV. G- Duncan, Pennsylvania State College, School of Mines.
Mr. Titsworth: Here is one case of actual use of carbon dioxide by
the American Hawaiian Company. This was some years ago, before the
development of the permanent apparatus. The ship was afire when she arrived in port. They brought the ordinary commercial cylinders of gas and injected the gas in liquid form into the holds and smothered the fire and proceeded to unload the cargo until the oxygen which was admitted permitted the fire to blaze up again; then they put on the hatches and put in more gas, and by repeating that they succeeded in unloading the entire cargo without damaging the ship.
Another instance is the San Francisco a year ago, which entered the port of New York with a fire in the bunkers, which had burned through the bulkhead to a cargo of hides. There the gas was used, but the faith of the ship captain and fire department wasn't sufficient to rely on the gas, and they insisted upon using steam with it, and consequently it didn't have its full effect. But, anyway, the gas succeeded unques tionably in extinguishing the fire between decks, although the fire wasn't entirely extinguished in other portions of the ship and it had to be flooded.
But the work has gone far enough for me to feel confident that It is practical.
Marine Section
549
THURSDAY MORNING SESSION
Chairman Welch: The first speaker will be our worthy Vice-Chair man, Captain Irving L. Evans, vice-president. United States P. & I. Agency, agents for U. S. Shipping Board, New York City.
SHIP PERSONNEL HAZARDS
L. P & ICapt. Irving
Evaits, Vice-President, United States
Agency,
Agents Fob United States Shipping Board, New York City
Without seamen and without the wonderful record of achievement, the heroic heritage with which they have endowed the world, men today would live in hopeless isolation.
In the old days, the mariners were skilled in the art of handling great ships under sail, making them respond to their will and wishes,
aided only by the wind. Today, with every device of recent invention that may be lavished upon a ship, human control and direction is still essential. The duties and responsibilities of the men have increased in proportion to the size of the ships, their engines and their numerous complicated machinery and equipment.
The seaman's relation to the shipowner is one of contract. The con
tracts of seamen have always been considered among the most important
in Admiralty, for the reason that a good crew Is essential to a success
ful voyage.
For this- reason, the utmost encouragement and the fullest protection
have always been accorded to seamen, and such is now the established
policy of the Admiralty Law.
Justice Story, in a very interesting opinion, written in 1832, about the
rights of seamen to maintenance and cure, said:
-
"They are a clasts of persons remarkable for their rashness,
thoughtlessness and improvidence. They are generally neces sitous, ignorant of the nature and extent of their own rights and privileges, and for the most part incapable of duly appreciating their values. They combine in a singular manner, the apparent anomalies of gallantry, extravagance, profusion in expenditure, . indifference to the future, credulity which is easily won, and con fidence which is readily surprised. Hence it is, that bargains between them and shipowners, the latter being persons of great intelligence and shrewdness in business, are deemed open to much observance and scrutiny; for they involve great inequality of knowledge, of forecast, of power and of condition. Courts of A.dmiralty, on this account, are accustomed to consider seamen as peculiarly entitled to their protection; so that they have been, by a somewhat bold figure, often said to be favorites of Courts of A.dmiralty. In a just sense, they are so, so far as the maintenance of their rights, and the protection of their interests against the effects of the superior skill and shrewdness of masters and owners of ships are concerned." (Brown vs. Lull, 2 Sumner 449.)
550 Twelfth, Safety Congress
There were no legal requirements as to hours of labor at sea before 19X5, although long established custom had divided the deck crew into two watches and the engine room crew into three watches. There were, of course, certain variations and modifications in this plan in special trades and at certain times for special reasons. The established custom has now been enacted into law.
REQUIREMENTS OF LAW
It has been carefully worked out and is now fixed by law just how
much and what kind of space shall be provided for the crew's quarters.
Proper washing and bathing facilities are also required. .
Since 1790 the Statutes of the United States have specified a scale .
of' provisions to be carried upon ships. Seamen have an option, under
law, of accepting the provisions offered or of demanding the legal scale.
American merchant, vessels which ordinarily make voyages of more
than ten days* duration and carry a crew of twelve or more seamen are
required to have, in addition to- the regular crew space, a separate com
partment for hospital purposes, with at least one bunk for every twelve
seamen, provided, however, that not more than six bunks may be re
quired.
All American ships engaged in the foreign trade or in the trade from
the Atlantic to the Pacific, or vice versa, if of more than seventy-five too*,
are required to have on board a properly supplied and equipped medicfiM-
chest. Practically all ships now carry such equipment, and many carry
much more than is required.
~
Since the early part of 1922, applicants for a deck officer's license
have been required to pass an examination, in addition to the usual
requh , raents, showing that they are qualified to render first aid at sea.
It is the duty of the United States Local Inspectors of steam vessels
to inspect ships once each year. Ships cannot continue to sail without
passing such annual inspection. Among other things, the inspectors
require that exposed machinery or places of danger which they observe
and which can be guarded, have the protection placed and reported to
them, with the other things required, before the ship gets her new
inspection certificate.
Seamen becoming ill or being injured while in the service of a ship,
except by reason of their own vices or willful misconduct, are entitled
to maintenance and care or cure at the expense of the ship, irrespective
of the negligence of any other member of the ship's crew, and irrespective
of whether the seaman was guilty of contributory negligence.
The United States Circuit 'Court of Appeals, for the Second Circuit, in
the case of The Bonker No. 2, said:
"By the custom of the sea the hiring of sailors has for centuries included, food and lodging at the expense of the ship. This is their maintenance, and the origin of the zcord indicates the Jcind and to a certain extent the quantum, of assistance due the sailor from his ship. We agree with the remark in The Mars, supra, that:
Marine Section
551
" `The word, `care' is used, in its original meaning of care, and means proper care of the injured seaman, and 'not a positive cure, which map he impossible.' "
COMPENSATION NOT NEW TO MARITIME INDUSTRY
It must therefore be apparent that the employment of seamen, their
rights, duties and obligations, places them in a class which is comparable
to no other class of employees in the world,
'
For centuries, the maritime industry has had and carried the responsi bility and expense for injuries received and illness incurred by its em ployees in the line of their duty.
The steps taken during recent years by most of the states toward the passage of compensation laws, placing upon each industry the duty of providing compensation for those injured and the dependents of those killed in that industry, is only applying some of the general principles which have been followed for centuries in the maritime industry.
Repeated efforts have been made in very recent years to change, by legislation, the long established rule which prevented seamen from recov ering damages on account of injuries sustained in line of dut-y. The Supreme Court has held, in substance, several times that the Constitution of the United States seeks to preserve the uniformity of the principles of the Maritime Law, and that to the extent that such laws are in conflict therewith they are unconstitutional.
The trend of recent legislation referring to seamen has been generally favorable to their interests.
The whole tendency during recent years has been toward the advance ment of safety at sea. Many of these improvements have been required by law. while others have been voluntarily by the owners of vessels, because there has been a somewhat broader interest taken by the ship owner* fa the welfare of the men who go to sea.
Unfortunately, there Is no department, bureau or other agency which keeps a record of all marine accidents--that is, personal injuries and deaths. The United States Steamboat Inspection Service does keep a record of the number of deaths occurring on and In connection with American vessels. They show, for example, that for the fiscal year ending June 30th, 1922, which are the latest figures available, the total number of lives lost from all .causes was 266, a decrease of 64 from the previous year. These were divided--95 passengers and 171 crew. Of the lives lost, 178 were due to suicides, accidental drownlngs and other causes said to be beyond the power of the Steamboat Inspection Service to prevent. The remaining 88 deaths are officially reported to have been due to collisions, founderings, 'accidents, etc.
During the same period, 235,802,603 passengers were transported on vessels required to report the number of passengers carried. The figures ..show that the life of only one passenger was lost of every 2,482,132 carried. It is therefore apparent that ships furnish a pretty safe means
of travel. The small number of accidental deaths among the crews, which
552 Twelfth Safety Congress
might have been prevented, shows, when compared with the average num ber of men employed, kthat ships are also as safe places to work as will be found in any other industry. This does not mean that all has been done that can or should be done.
CLASSIFICATION OF SHIPS
Coming how to the consideration of the more direct problem of "Ship
Personnel Hazards," we must first consider very generally the class of
vessels or the trades in which they are engaged. We may refer to these
as being of three general classes--first, those in the ocean, coastwise and
intercoastal trades; second, those upon the Great Lakes, and third, those
on all other lakes, bays, sounds and rivers.
`
It is assumed that it is only the first two classes of vessels -in which
the Marine Section of the National Safety Council is interested at this
time, because the third class is too widely separated and is operated under too widely varying conditions to be easily reached or dealt with.
Practically all the vessels engaged in the ocean, coastwise and inter coastal trades are represented by membership in one of the following asso ciations: The American Steamship Owners' Association; The United
States Ship Operators' Association; The Pacific American Steamship Association, and The Ship Owners' Association of the Pacific Coast.
The United States, as the owner of a substantial part of the American
tonnage, is not a member of any of the associations named. However, the United States Steamship Operators' Association is composed largely, if not wholly, of Managing Agents for Government ships.
About SO per cent of the tonnage upon the Great Lakes is represented by the Lake Carriers' Association, and a substantial portion of the remain
ing 20 per cent is represented by the Lumber Carriers' Association. We will refer to the vessels on the Great Lakes and the employees thereon only incidentally, and for the purpose, of illustration because their prob lems and progress in safety work have been explained by another speaker.
In this connection, we wish to refer just* for a moment to the results
obtained on the American vessels upon the Great Lakes.' The efforts of the Lake Carriers' Association, its members and the men on their ships, have made ma-'-^d and commendable progress in the prevention of acci
dents on board ship. This progress has been caused by two prime con siderations--first, the awakening of an intelligent interest in the ship
owners and in the men themselves for the safety and welfare of those employed on the ships; second, some of the leading steamship companies on the Great Lakes carry no insurance against claims for personal injuries and deaths occurring on their ships, but take care of such accidents and claims out of special reserve or insurance funds set up in their own
accounts for that purpose.
'
It is, therefore, to the direct financial interest of the shipowners to
keep accidents at a minimum. Several of the- large steamship companies
on the Great Lakes save many thousands of dollars each year by follow
ing careful and systematic plans for accident prevention, then paying
their losses instead of paying insurance premiums.
Marine Section
553
This policy of accident prevention also works to the advantage of the shipowners on the Great Lakes who do carry insurance, because they, too, are working to the same common end, with the result that their insur-. ance premiums for protection against this class of claims have ` been
reduced in proportion to the success of their efforts.
On the other hand, those engaged in the operation of ships in the ocean and coastwise trade, with certain comparatively unimportant exceptions, carry insurance in either the American or other F. and I. clubs or com panies protecting themselves and their ships against personnel hazards. There are Individual shipowners and agents engaged in the ocean and coastwise trades who are just as deeply interested as the shipowners on the Great Lakes, and for precisely the same reasons, but there is no organized plan, either in existence or in prospect, for uniform and com* bined efforts toward accident prevention on their ships.
MOST FREQUENT CAUSES OF ACCIDENTS
Speaking generally and briefly at first, it may be said tbat the following are among the most prominent and frequent proximate causes of injury on board ship:
(1) The lack of proper leadership. (2) The lack of prudence on the part of the men themselves. (3) The use of intoxicating liquors, and narcotics. (4) The failure of those on board to keep the ship's equipment
and appliances in order, and to properly use the same. C5) The large turnover in the personnel on each ship after each voyage.
.
As already indicated, the foregoing are broad grounds to which a very large percentage of all accidents on board ship may be traced in one way or another. Further reference will now be made to these several sub divisions, In order that a clearer understanding may be had thereof.
the tack: of pkopeb leadership
The art of leading or commanding men is absolutely essential to the
successful handling of a ship. A good crew is vitally important to a suc
cessful voyage. There is no other industry in which leadership of the
highest type is so essential. This is demonstrated daily. One ship will
come In from a long and successful voyage with everybody well satisfied,
and no reports of crew trouble, accidents or injuries of importance. On
the other hand, another ship of the same type, in the same trade, will
return from a similar voyage, having had crew trouble throughout her
aOsence, with everybody ready and anxious to leave when the voyage is
ended. There will be numerous reports of major and minor accidents,
with possibly one or two or even more men left in hospitals in foreign
ports on account of injuries.
,
It Is the man who lacks knowledge, experience, foresight, judgment and the other necessary qualifications for leadership who will leave hatchways open and without having lights or guards placed about them.
554 Twelfth Safety Congress
or other measures taken to prevent accidents, while cargo is not being loaded or discharged. It is the same type of man who orders a ladder put over the side for the crew to use in going ashore and returning to the ship, without seeing that it is secured to prevent its slipping or fall ing: he also fails to have a light placed at or near the point where the ladder is, or to see that the lashing holding the ladder is not broken when the tide falls and the ship goes down somewhat.
The larger and faster ships have in no way lessened the demand upon the ancient art of seamanship. The seamanship of today, while of a different character, is no less important because new and different gear is required-; because steel and fibre ropes of unprecedented size are now required, and because tackle of all kinds is heavier and stronger. An understanding of the art of seamanship in its broad sense Is of great importance to all who contribute toward the construction, equipmentmanagement and navigation of a vessel. A ship is safe only so long as she is seaworthy and ably handled. While she may sail smoothly and quietly in fair weather, the sea is no respector of ships or persons. It is always ready, at the first sign of failure or weakness, to rush in and destroy both life and property. One small mistake or error in judgmenta few seconds hesitation in giving the proper order, may make a comfort able and safe ship a horrible death trap. A great passenger liner, with hundreds, perhaps thousands of human beings on board, and millions of dollars worth of property, rushing through the sea at high speed and with tremendous momentum, may become a palace of death when she cuts down another vessel, rams an iceberg or a derelict, or runs upon a reef or rock. At such times and in such circumstances, it is only those who are really worthy of the name "seaman," those fundamentally worthy of the sea. who will meet the real tests. The weak, the hesitant and the incompetent may succeed on shore, but the sea will sooner or later uncover these shortcomings and disaster often and usually follows in its wake.
The basic qualities for leadership at sea grew out of constant contact and experience with danger, and place the art of seamanship upon the very highest plane of responsible human employment. It is these exacting ?`equtrements. halting their origin in the law of the sea. which cause the strong feeling among seafaring men, almost akin to religion--that dis aster is disgrace. This inward feeling of the real seafarer often expresses itself by the master going down with his ship. He feels'that his seaman ship has failed; that be has failed in an emergency; that he has lost his shield of honor, and he therefore pays the price of failure with his life.
INDIFFERENCE OF MEN TOWARD THEIR OWN SAFETY AND THE SAFETY OF ,
EACH OTHER
Seamen are generally daring and reckless. Many of them lack the power to measure the danger which confronts them. They lack that alertness and watchfulness which is so important to a man in a class of work which is so often surrounded by dangers. An example of tbis is furnished by the case of a man using an oil can, instead of a brush that
Marine Section
555
^ __ *
was available, to lubricate gears which were guarded. The spout of the
can got caught in the gears and the man put his hand behind the guard
in an effort to recover it. This effort resulted in the complete loss of all
the fingers on his hand.
.
Most places visited by American ships engaged in the foreign trade still sell liquor of some kind and quality. The result is that many of the seamen return to their ships at times feeling pretty well satisfied with the life of a sailor. They usually have not imbibed to the point where they have to be helped, for then they are usually looked after by the shipmates. It is the fellow who is just happy, indifferent, reckless and thoughtless who comes on board and either falls off the ladder, into a hatchway, or down a companionway or elsewhere without even seeing or knowing the danger until he is in a hospital.
Eleven out of twelve masters and chief engineers whom I have asked the question recently as to the most frequent single cause of accidents to seamen, have replied with the single word, or its equivalent--"Drink ing." Accidents which may be traced, either directly or indirectly, to the use of narcotics are, unfortunately, increasing.
FAILURE TO KEEP THE SHIP'S EQUIPMENT AND APPLIANCES IX ORDER, AXD TO PROPERLY USE THE SA3XE
The failure of those on the vessels to use properly the equipment and appliances furnished and to keep the same in a safe condition, /iot with
standing the fact that the shipowner has furnished the material with which this may be done, is a frequent cause of acidents. The officers and men alike will frequently use an old, worn out fall, pennant or other equipment until it breaks and possibly injures someone, instead of replac ing it from stocks on the ship. Every well managed Company has on
board its ships a supply of new rope, blocks, tackle and gear of all kinds,
together with many spare parts to replace any equipment or appliances
that may be worn out or broken during the course of the voyage. There
is, therefore, usually no excuse for the failure of those on the ship to
replace old and wornout gear.
-
The improper care of equipment often results in accidents because the men attempt to do something without getting the proper equipment
or gear for that particular job, or by using the equipment at hand for the
particular job in a careless, negligent or indifferent manner,--in other
words, in a way in which it is not made or intended to be used. An
example of the improper use of the appliances furnished is the case of
a man who was operating a cargo winch. The running part of the fall
got jammed between the turns around the drum. Instead of the operator
clearing the fall, which he saw and knew about, he proceeded to go ahead
according to signals. The result was that the fall'* wound in the reverse
direction on the drum of the wirfbh. While lifting into place one of the
strongbacks for the hatches, the weight pulled the fall out of the jam
on the drum, causing the draft to drop suddenly and thus throw another
member of the crew into the hold, causing his death.
.
556 Twelfth Safety Congress
LARGE TURNOVER IN PERSONNEL AFTER EACH; VOYAGE
The reason that many accidents are caused by the change in personnel
at the end of each voyage must be perfectly apparent. It is, of course,
due to the fact that the men come aboard the ship, unacquainted with its
construction and general lay-out, frequently only a short time before the
vessel is ready to sail. While they are performing their regular duties
and at the same time getting acquainted with the ship, they frequently
get into difficulties, resulting in more or less serious injuries.
It may be of interest to refer more specifically and concretely to the
causes of injury than we have thus far, but it is impossible to cover the
entire field of causes of accidents. They range all the way from men
falling from the smokestack or masts to their falling upon the deck while
passing along where a little spray has blown up over the side and fallen
upon the deck.
.
In order to give a fairly concrete picture of the situation, we have
selected, at random, 100 cases handled by our agency--that is, which have
been settled. They show the following results:
(1) Falls (including slippings on deck from water, ice, oil. etc.) ................................................................................................................. 48
(2) Heavy weather--men struck byseaS, etc.................................................. 5
(3) Handling heavy weights.......................................................................... 9
(4) Working around machinery................................................................... "6
(5) Burns and scalds........................................................................................... 5 (6) Handling lines and runninggear(rigging)................................. 8
(7) Handling dunnage ......................................................................
(S) Fumigating gas ...................................................................
5
2
(9) Miscellaneous................................................................................................................................. 12
Total.......................................................................................................100
The marine industry is seriously-handicapped in that there is no source of information, reliable or otherwise, showing even the approximate num ber of major personal injuries, to say nothing of those of a minor nature, occurring on board ships. The first and one of the most important steps in accident prevention is to know the number and principal causes of accidents, in order that those engaged in the work may get at the root of the difficulties and correct them. It is therefore of interest to the Shipowners, either through their respective associations or otherwise, to collect, compile, classify and distribute such information.
It is apparent from what has already been said tbat there must be some sound business reason advanced, in addition to the human interest, before the shipowner is going to think seriously about or take a great interest in accident prevention on board ship. We are .not advocating the self-insuring idea to the ocean and coastwise shipowners or anyone else, because it is only strong and very wJlI managed Companies which 'can afford to undertake such an enterprise. We do believe, however, that it will be proportionately as profitable to have a crew which is 100 per cent sound as to have ships using oil instead of coal as fuel, or Diesel or
Marine Section
557
turbine engines rather than the reciprocating type. The shipowner adopts those things, not because they are new, but because they offer prospects of profit or gain which the old method or system did not offer. A healthy, sound crew, protected against injuries and illness just as far as possible, will make the operation .of the modern ship, with her modem machinery and equipment, proportionately profitable.
Efforts at accident prevention by a few American shipowners acting alone, while they are in the same general class with all other shipowners, both American and foreign, will avail nothing more than the very great personal satisfaction to the individual companies of knowing that they have had less than the average number of injuries, or deaths in their lines. If, however^ all or a substantial part of the American shipowners work together, through their respective associations or otherwise, -upon a cam paign of education for accident prevention on board ship first, among their shore staffs; second, among their ship's officers, and third, among the unlicensed personnel, they can and will soon be able to demand and receive a reduction in their P. & I. insurance premiums. This, however, is the smallest part of the prospective benefit, because the ships frequently pay and feed men for days and even weeks, and receive neither work from them nor reimbursement for the expense from the underwriters. In addition, the general morale and the consequent good results from the crew will add to the efficiency of the ship and the success of the voyage-
What is needed now to reduce the number of accidents on board ships is not more and better laws, but greater interest on the part of ship owners- officers and men themselves, in accident prevention. The creation of an interest in accident prevention will cause those who think upon the subject and who are working to that end, to develop prudence,--the power to measure danger; they will acquire a certain alertness, watch fulness and aptitude for observing and correcting defects or. dangers which may result in accidents.
Connected with the development of these qualities, and as a direct, natural and logical outgrowth of them, there will be more efficient and profitable operation of the ships. The result will be .beneficial to botb the seaman and the shipowner.
THE WORK OF THE U. S. COAST GUARD IN RESCUING LIVES IN PERIL AT SEA
F. C-Commasbee
Billiard, United States Coast Guard,
Washington, D. C.
'
The Federal Government is contributing toward the safety and preser vation of human life in various ways; mostly by insisting upon certain
requirements, by making certain inspections, by testing apparatus and
by suggesting various processes.
There is, however, one branch of the Federal Government--and as
far as I am aware, only one--charged with the actual physical rescue
of persons in peril at sea. That' is the U. S. Coast Guard. .
558 Twelfth Safety Congress
In the fiscal year just ended July 1, 1923, the number of lives saved or persons rescued from peril by the Coast Guard was 2,792. That that number is not unusual is attested by the fact that In the preceding fiscal year the number of lives saved or"persons rescued in peril was 2.954. In the last fiscal year the number of persons on board, vessels assisted by the Coast Guard was 16,253. The number of persons in distress actually cared for was 648. The instances of lives saved and vessels assisted was 2,236. And during the preceding fiscal year, for I have not the figures for the one just concluded, the total value of vessels assisted, including cargoes, was $35,346,765.00.
* HISTORY OF COAST GUARD
The Coast Guard operates in time of peace under the Secretary of the Treasury and in time of war or when the President does so direct, as a part of the Navy of the United States. And in time of peace the Coast Guard is charged with a variety of important duties, nearly all of which are essentially humanitarian in their character.
ASSISTING VESSELS IN DISTRESS
In the front rank of the peace-time duties of the Coast Guard is the assistance of vessels in distress. Ships get into trouble at sea either by being stranded on the beach or as a result of fire, collision or foundering. The greatest danger to our shipping, at least on our ocean coasts is in the winter time. You may not know that there is an old statute authorizing the President to detail any public vessels he desires to cruise on the coasts in the winter months to render all possible assistance to mariners as their circumstances may require. The Act says "public vessels of the United States." But for many years that work has been done by the Coast Guard cutters and each year the President designates all of the sea-going cruisers on the Atlantic coast to perform that duty.
We have operating on our coasts some twenty-eight first-class sea going cutters. Immediately upon receipt of information--usually by radio--that a vessel is in distress, ashore or within the scope of our operations, a Coast Guard vessel proceeds immediately to her assist ance. You will, of course, know it is in the same tad weather, the same gale that - has brought disaster to the vessel at sea, that the cutter must proceed to her assistance. More impressive to the seaman's mind is the fact that when the merchant vessel is stranded on a rocky shore or on a sand shoal, it is into those dangerous waters that the cutter must proceed to render her assistance.
When the cutter comes up with the vessel at sea, unless it be neces sary immediately to remove her passengers and crew, it is almost always essential to put a hawser on board her and tow the disabled vessel tnzo port.
In the case of stranding of a vessel, the cutter will endeavor to work her way in, put a line on board and haul the vessel off if oppcrrtosity
Marine. Section
559
offers. At the same time, one or more of the cordon of Coast Guard statioifs around our coast--270 in number--will take immediate steps, if necessary, to bring ashore the passengers and crew from the strand.
In the case of stranding on our ocean coasts the beach patrol immedi
ately will call the station crew and they, if conditions favor, may launch
the surf boat to bring off the people in peril or make use of what is
called the breeches-buoy. In the latter case, a small line is shot across
the wreck. The people on board of the wreck have usually taken refuge
in the rigging and will haul in this whip line and haul aboard a hawser
carrying another whip line attached to which is a piece of board con
taining instructions in French and in English as to just .what to do.
With this whip line the breeches-buoy is hauled back and forth between
the ship and the shore and the people landed. And, of course, there
have been literally hundreds of instances of passengers and crew hauled
ashore by the use of this breeches-buoy.
r
METHOD OF RESUSCITATIOjST
The Coast Guard has become efficient also In the art of resuscitating the. apparently drowned. We practice what is known as the manual method and you may be interested to know that the personnel of the Coast Guard are forbidden to use pulmotors or any artificial appliance. Our men work on the supposedly drowned person solely by the manual method of moving the arms, rubbing the limbs, and the like. And some very remarkatle results have been obtained of people restored to life who have been known to he under water for twenty or twenty-five, and, as I recall it in some cases, thirty minutes.
In line with the protection of human life is the work of the Coast
Guard in locating and removing derelicts at sea. A floating derelict, a
watsr-Iogged wreck of a schooner, we will say, in the paths of commerce
is about as great a danger as our ships are liable to encounter. It is the
duty of the Coast Guard to locate these derelicts and then destroy them.
That involves as, you may readily understand often days and days of
arduous and disappointing search.
.
The various maritime powers of the world have united in a conven
tion to maintain during the dangerous season, a constant patrol on the
Grand Banks of Newfoundland to locate fields of ice and to warn passing
steamers in the trans-Atlantic lanes of the presence of those bargs. That
work is performed exclusively by the Coast Guard and I may say that the
work is being appreciated apparently more and more not only by our own
people in our merchant marine but by foreign governments. -
It was my privilege to be present in Washington a few days ago at the Annual meeting of this Ice Patrol Inter-Departmental Board and it was most impressive to hear from disinterested persons how efficient that patrol has become. I think I may say that every passenger on board a liner crossing those dangerous zones in the Spring of the year owes in part his safety to the faithful and extremely arrtoiw patrol
maintained by the Coast Guard.
560 Tzvelfth Safety Congress
The Coast Guard assists life in many ways in Alaskan waters, visiting Point Barrow in the Arctic every year and visiting many isolated places in the Aleutian Peninsula. It also aids fishermen. It does most important work in time of peace and I have only touched on some of the duties directly concerned with the conservation of human life.
NEED FOB AIRCRAFT
The Coast Guard of course needs more ships. Many of its ships are wearing out. It needs more men. I have tried to point out to you tha.t
this is in fact a "peace and war" service and I think I may say--although
it may seem inconsistent in the light of all that I have told you--that
it is more or less of a "silent" service. Its work is not as well known
or as highly appreciated through the country I think as it should be.
The result of all of that is that we do not have the resources, we do
not have the funds to do this important work as fully as we should be
able to do it. We need aviation in the Coast Guard. You have probably
noted that each of these duties I have described to you involves searching
and locating an object at sea. Obviously, there is no better way to do
that than by an airplane and an equipment of airplanes would be of the
greatest possible benefit to us.
,
We have a very respectable proportion of trained air pilots among our commissioned personnel. Some eight years ago Congress' authorized the establishment and maintenance of ten Coast Guard aviation stations along our coasts but it has never appropriated one cent to this day
to equip and maintain those stations. And so I should like to feel that you gentlemen with your influence in the affairs of this country will say a good word for the Coast Guard in an effort that we may increase our resources and increase our work. The century old motto of the Service is "`Semper paratus"--always ready. We try to be ready as far as human zeal can effect it to perform this work. We do want to be ready to the fullest extent to rescue imperilled humanity -and to do that we need more ships, more men, more equipment. '
. DISCUSSION
Mr. Marr assumes the Chair pro tern.
Mr. Frederick S. Titsworth: I would like to ask if the Lake Carriers'
Association, through their splendid co-operation with one another, do
anything in the way of rescuing ships on the lakes in distress in co-oper
ation with the Guard?
'
Chairman Marr: I was reserving that statement for the discussion of the .Commander's paper, that the`Lake Carriers' Association has Co-operated very extensively indeed with the Coast Guard Service. They hold the Coast Guard Service in the highest regard and we have been very active in furthering the interests of the Coast Guard both with
respect to their internal questions of organization and supervision under the government and with regard to the salaries paid, which never have
been commensurate with the service they perform or the class of men
they require for this very highly skilled work.
_
Mr. Welch reassumes the Chair.
Marine Section
561
Mr. J. H. Thompson (Travelers' Insurance Co.) : I didn't know that you had safety committees on ship board. That is mighty interesting to me because we believe as a company that the committee work which we have tried to do and we have tried to do it largely on shore and in indus trial plants, is the most important thing that there is. We have studied statistics a good deal so as to find ways and means of approaching the proposition and we find that physical guarding is only a little bit of the subject. We have many concerns where physical guards--I mean guards over cutting apparatus and gears and pulleys and ropes and all that sort of thing--would only prevent ten per cent of the accidents. It varies anywhere from ten per cent down to forty per cent and all the other accidents, the other ninety per cent, or from forty to ninety per cent, and the average is around sixty per cent, perhaps sixty-five per cent, you cannot touch with physical guards. You have got to work it through this organization, through the committee work.
It means in a ship or in a plant on shore if you are successful in starting committee work and you make that committee a real live one, a committee that really Is in earnest, has the owners in back of it whole heartedly so that they will leave no misunderstanding on the part of the employees that they mean business, you not only accomplish your committee work but along with that you. get all of your physical guards taken care of andT you get the best possible results.
TRADE AFFECTS RATE
.
Mr. Kerrigan: The trade is one of the main factors taken Into con
sideration when a rate is being quoted to an owner, the trade In which
he is in and his route. His experience is also taken Into consideration,
but to how great au extent I am not sure.
-
Mr. Smith: Have any comparison with the lake conditions ever been
attempted by the P. & I. Association, the navigation, conditions and the
liability of cargo damage in cases of that kind? Are the conditions in
New York, Philadelphia, Boston and Norfolk considered worse than the
conditions in the lake harbors or has it ever been considered one way or
the other?
Mr. Kerrigan: I do not know whether it has or not- I don't fhfnk so except that every trade has a separate rate and I dare say the lake rate is much lower than the ocean.
Mr. Smith: The stress of weather on the ocean Is greater than it is on the lakes and your personal liability and shipping cargo damage is greater.
Chairman Evans: The two different classes of commerce are hardly comparable for this reason: On the Great Lakes most of the cargoes carried are bulk. In the ocean trade, while there are a great many where the cargoes are mixed; In fact, a large majority of the tonnage Is of mixed cargoes instead of being straight coal up the lakes or straight grain down as the principal part of it Is.
Chairman Evans: The courts have held repeatedly that where the facilities of a hospital are available to a man and where he. has been
562 Twelfth Safety Congress
put in. and given treatment and cured as nearly as it is possible he has received all that Is due him from the ship. The courts have held also that where a man is put in a hospital where he is being taken care of, maintenance and cure being furnished, and leaves of his own accord before he is cured, he has no further claim because he has by his own act given up and abandoned what was due him.
The number of accidents of a major character which occur on ships are no higher than in the average factory or plant or organization of any kind or on shore. The percentage of deaths occurring at sea are due to marine disasters, to ships catching fire and burning at sea, or foundering or stranding and going to pieces before they can be rescued and that jumps the number up to large percentages in a single disaster, a single day. Take those away from the average run of accidents and you will find that they are brought down to a very small percentage.
You will find some of the companies today who are taking some interest in this kind of work--they haven't gone near as far as they should, but they have so much 'less in the way of reports that it is noticeable, that it stands out. You cannot help but remark about it.
At the beginning of this year there were engaged to man the American ships engaged in the foreign trade about 25,000 unlicensed seamen and about 5,000 licensed officers. The ratio on the ordinary cargo ship is about one officer to .five men. When you get into the big passenger shipping you lose that ratio. You increase substantially the number of unlicensed personnel as compared with the officers. But in the coastwise trade at .the present time, I am talking about tonnage and operation, you have about substantially the same number of men and officers employed in the coastwise trade as you have in the foreign trade because our coast wise trade has until the time of the war and since been much larger than our overseas trade. It doesn't need anyone to advise you of that fact. I am not telling you any news in that respect. .
Mr. Welch at this point re-assumed the chair. Captain Evans: I make a motion to the effect that our chairman be'authorized and empowered by the Marine Section to act as a com mittee of one to convey to Mr. C. X>. Mallory personally and as president of the Mallory Transport Lines, Inc., the suggestion which has been made here that his company permit the efforts to be made with his assistance and co-operation to establish the safety committees on ships owned and managed by his company, and that with the backing of the Marine Section our chairman will go to them informally. I think it will be more effective that way. The motion was carried. -
S
Chairman Welch: Gentlemen, in regard to Captain Billiard of the Coast Guard I am very much interested. I would like to have a motion made that a committee be appointed especially to help. Commander Billiard get an appropriation through for an aviation service.
The motion was made, seconded and carried.
ADJOURNM ENT.
Metals Section
October 3 and 4, 1923
T. H. McKEMET, Chairman Superintendent of Labor and Safety, Illinois Steel Company, Chicago, III.
WAMEE HART, 'Vice-Chairman James & Laughlin- Steel Company, Pittsburgh, Pa.
J. A. NORTHWOOD, Acting- Secretary Cambria Plant, Bethlehem Steel Corporation, Johnstown, Pa.
WEDNESDAY MORNING SESSION
HAIRMAN McKENNET: Mr. Mulligan, who was elected at the
C last session of the Congress to act as chairman of these sessions,
recently left the employ of the Bethlehem Steel Company and engaged in private business. He tendered his resignation as chairman of the Metals Section. Mr. "Walter Hart, who was elected vice-chairman, for personal reasons did not care to serve. As secretary, I was then notified by the National Safety Council that he would have to serve, and seeing no appeal, I agreed to accept the chairmanship. I believe that we all feel that It is somewhat of a loss to the section in losing the services of Mr. Mulligan. He has been always an indefatigable worker, and I am sure we will miss him in our deliberations.
Two meetings of the executive committee were called since the last Congress; one on Friday, October 20, 1922, at New York City, and another in Pittsburgh on Wednesday, March 21. The latter meeting was for the purpose of definitely lining up a program for this Section this year.
THE ESSENTIALS OP SAFETY
Benjamin K. Fatjnce, Superiktendent, Steep, Cab Depabtment, Cambria
P .Plant, Bethlehem Steel Company, Johnstown,
a
"Hindsight is clearer than, foresight.
But foresight is better and safer, old chap.
Experiment teaches, hut common sense reaches And tests bright baubles In Dame Future's lap."
"I'm telling you what Eph Landers did The time that critter lost his fid.
563
564
` Twelfth. Safety Congress
He was sort of a quick. Impulsive man; When others walked, he always ran.
He never waited to calmly view. But he got right up and slam-banged through.
Believed that the moments a fellow took To give the future a good square look
"Was simply so much wasted time; His plan was, "Never look up; just climb."
He was yanking boulders a week ago And things got balky and moving slow.
He strung the chain 'round a good big rock And found that he'd lost the little block
To catch the link; it's used instid Of a hook and link, and it's called a fid..
And Epb, he held the unhooked chain By the ends, and he looked and he got profane.
But he couldn't find it and wouldn't wait. He was mad as a bug and desperate.
And the crack-brained critter--what do you think? "Why, he stuck his thumb in the unhooked link.
He didn't consider that 'twan't his fid. But the oxen started--and then he did!
He see'd his mistake, as most men do. When the deed is done and the thing is through:
You stick your thumb where it don't belong And the world will yank it, good and strong."
'
.
"Hindsight is clearer than foresight. But you better ask foresight to give you a point; And the first thing you're knowin' Old World will be goin'
And he'll laugh while you howl with your thumb out of joint."
Up to the beginning of the nineteenth century, history records mostly the achievement of individuals; and in fact until the beginning of the twentieth century nearly all accomplishment has been ascribed to some paricular leader. At the present time and in fact for the last decade, it
Metals Section
565
is-ulmost impossible to recall a movement in which, any particular in dividual stands out with a great degree of prominence. We are learning to do things tpgether. We solicit the aid and assistance of every in
dividual in order to bring about desired results.
The safety movement depends almost entirely upon cooperation.
Safety cannot be attained.by leadership alone but must have the active
support of every individual.
''
95mOTJOSTTESSKTESS CAUSES
PER CENT OF ACCIDENTS
Safety records for the past fifteen years show that 95 per cent of acci dents occur because someone failed to think properly or because someone failed to think "Safety." Millions of dollars have been spent in ways of safeguarding machinery and mechanical appliances, yet the large proportion of accidents which occur are due to thoughtlessness and are not preventable by the application of mechanical safeguards.
I can, perhaps, indicated the progress of safety in one particular plant
during the last few years as follows:
*
In 1914 this particular plant had 3.62 per cent lost time cases per month; in 1922 the same plant had .63 per cent lost time cases per month. The difference in these figures is directly due to cooperation for safety.
Suppose you men were a body of workmen applying for work in a plant, and on being hired to fill a position you were told that every second man would be obliged to lose time due to injury each year, and that the average of the lost time would be two weeks. How many of you would want to start work?
Last year in the same plant it would take fourteen years before a man could expect to lose time due .to an accident and the goal is not yet reached.
1 recently asked one of our foreman, "Who is on your Safety Commit tee?" He enumerated five men and seemed taken a little aback when I told him that he was wrong. He had 59 men working for him and I told him that all of the 59 were his safety committee. He got the point Im mediately.
The best in accident prevention will not be attained until every man feels his responsibility in tbe matter of prevention of accident, to himself and his fellow workmen.
~ BETHLEHEM'S SAFETY METHODS
The following is an outline of Bethlehem Steel Company's method of handling safety work:
First: Bach Department has a safety committee made up of an equal number of foremen and workmen; to each committeeman is delegated the responsibility of certain definite hazards. This committee meets once a month to review and discuss all safety matters pertaining to the depart ment and to recommend such action as they deem proper. The depart ment superintendent is the permanent chairman of this committee and in his executive capacity passes upon all recommendations. He is respon sible for tbe prompt completion of safety work recommended by the
566 Twelfth Safety Congress
committee, and which he approves. Any items which' do not meet with his approval can be referred by the department committee to the second committee known as the "permanent safety committee." The depart mental safety committee has the authority to appoint additional work men, to look after special hazards, in case the area is too great to be covered by the committeemen themselves. This is a material help in getting safety to each man in the department.
Second: The permanent safety committee is composed of one or more representatives from each department who have a definite area to cover. These men are appointed by the departmental superintendents and act as special representatives for safety work. These committeemen post safety bulletins and all safety records that come from the safety depart ment. They look after the first-aid boxes, investigate all lost time acci dents, help in training the first-aid men, and in fact handle all safety activities carried on in their respective areas. This committee meets once a month with the safety engineer, who acts as chairman of the meeting. A. permanent safety committeeman receives extra compensa tion for this service. At this monthly meeting reports of committeemen are made, covering- safety work in their department, and general plant hazards are discussed. They receive ' specific safety instructions and policies from the Safety Department.
Items of safety construction, involving large expenditures, and other matters which they deem advisable are referred by them to the plant safety committee, through the safety engineer. .
Third: The plant safety committee meets once a month with the plant manager as chairman and is composed of all department superintendents including the management's representative- This committee outlines general safety plans and policies and takes executive action on matters referred to it by the safety engineer. It acts on matters referred to it by the safety engineer or by department superintendents.
At this meeting the plant management's representative presents depart mental records of previous month's accidents and shows departmental ratings.
The old saying that, "A chain is no stronger than its weakest link," is particularly applicable to plant safety work. The elimination of acci dents is dependent upon the active cooperation of every man, beginning with the plant manager and ending with the common laborer.
The great difficulty in putting across safety work is in stimulating the desire and imagination of each man for safety.
Over 50 per cent of all accidents come under the "handling of mate rials" classification and nearly 20 per cent more are the direct result of material being placed, or left carelessly, in improver locations. Of the total accidents only about 6 per cent are caused due to working on or around machinery.
Carelessness is the direct cause of practically every accident, and the common term "Carelessness" is more truthfully defined by the word
Metals Section
567
"Thoughtlessness.'' The great universal safeguard against accident is
"Thoughtfulness." This safeguard can only be installed as one man put
It "by forkin', torkin,' torkin,' nothing but torkin'."
-
There is no great difficulty in teaching men to do specific work and to do
that work well. There is no great difficulty in teaching the same men
"Safety Practice" and to teach them so that "Safety-First" will stick.
The ability of men to acquire knowledge of work and their ability to
acquire knowledge of safety and its application, depends upon the same part of their body--from the ears up.
DISCUSSION
-
Dr. G. H. McKinstry (Spang Chalfant Co.) : I would like to ask Mr. Faunce whether or not the safety committee meets on company time or whether they meet on their own time?
Mr. Faunce: The safety committee meets on the company's time, and the most active cooperation is not only asked for but is expected of the company--everything in the nature of safety work. A . man who hap
pened to be on salary, of course, has no extra compensation, but any
man who is on piece work or tonnage or day work, has his earnings made up to him for all committee work that he attends to.
Dr. McKinstry: Do the men understand that it Is necessary for them
to attend the meetings?
Mr. Faunce: They certainly do. Not only that, but I will say that
the men who are on those committees are rather proud of being on committees and they receive a great deal of attention, and feel as though
It is a certain recognition to be on those committees.
Dr. McKinstry: Is it left to their own option whether or not they
attend ?
"
Mr. Faunce: No, It is not. Of course, sickness or anything like that,
by reason of which they are absent, is different. The meetings are held during the working hours of the plant, and other meetings are generally held . in the department superintendent's office, and he certainly knows If they are not there. .
Mr. J. la. Junkin (Wheeling- Steel Corp.): Do these committeemen
wear any sort of a badge or button to show that they are members of
.this committee?
'
Mr. Faunce: The plant has a badge which is the safety embelm of the
works, but it isn't anything particular. Some years ago the Bethlehem
Company gave a special badge, but the old organization, after a man
had served his time on the safety committees, had a special emblem to
indicate that he had been a committeeman on safety, and that was a
permanent badge which he wore. I thought that that was a very good
idea, although we are not doing that at the present time.
"
568 Twelfth. Safety Congress
APPOINTMENT OF NOMINATING COMMITTEE
Chairman McKenney: At this time I will announce the names of
the Nominating Committee. They are Mr. George Barry, of the Bethle
hem Steel Company, as chairman; Mr. W. W. Waters, of the National
Malleable Castings Company, and Mr. Harrington Shafer, of the Colorado
Fuel & Iron Company.
'
'
That committee is required to make its report not later than tomorrow morning. I would suggest that they get together as soon as possible and agree on the names which they will present for your officers for the coming year.
For our next paper we have the subject of "Safety on the Plant
Railway." A telegram has been just handed me reading as follows:
"Mr. George W. Barry, care of National Safety Council, Hotel Statler,
Buffalo, N. Y. Impossible for me to get to Buffalo. Cancel my talk.
Charles F. Dullenkopf."
*
Most certainly somebody here is capable of starting this talk. Looking
around, I don't know of anybody who might be better than our friend
Mr. Woltz of the Youngstown Sheet & Tube Company, of Youngstown,
Ohio.
.
SAFETY ON THE PLANT RAILWAY
J. M. Woltz
First you have your standard-gauge operations, then your narrowgauge or "dinky" operations, with all the various classes of cars that are used in both of these operations. The matter of protection for the different classes of cars on "dinkies" alone is a serious problem and one that presents a great many hazards from large variety of points. You have your engines, "dinkies," that handle not only your small cars but, in many instances, the large standard-gauge equipment as well. There should be some means of safely connecting the small engine to the larger equipment. There must be some arrangement a3 to coupling.
The ingot cars, for instance, present a hazard all their own, and it is
a problem that has been worked upon to my knowledge by various com
panies during the time that I have been connected with this movement.
In many instances these problems have been worked out successfully,
various companies reaching a solution through the experience or knowl
edge of the engineers who handle these subjects, either safety or me
chanical.
.
I simply want to bring out two or three points, perhaps, that others may discuss. One of them is the uses of an automatic coupler. Is it possible to devise an automatic coupler that can be used on ingot cars? Is it possible to devise an automatic coupler that may be used suc
cessfully on your dump cars? In taking care of your trackage ought all switches to he properly numbered, and should there be a bulletin or booklet containing the information as to the location and names of tracks and your switches?
Metals Section
569
Chairman McKenney: In our company we have devised an automatic
coupler and are equipping all of our "dinky" equipment with them. They are working very successfully.
Mr. Johnson: (American Mutual Liability Insurance Co., Boston, Mass.) : Prior to my going with the American Mutual I was with the Newport
News Drydock & Shipbuilding Company as active foreman of transpor tation; therefore quite interested in this problem; I was also safety inspector in that plant and I naturally would couple the subject of safety with transportation. I might mention a few of the methods which we used in that department to make it safe on our plant railway.
We had standard-gauge tracks only. We operated two GO-ton steam locomotives, two 30-ton General Electric Company storage-battery loco motives, and one 20-ton General Electric Company storage-battery loco motive. All of the yard flatcars were originally received at the plant as second-hand and in bad shape. However, in the course of time they were all made safe for some rated capacity, which was stenciled on the side of the car. It was very necessary that that load be not exceeded. One of the strict rules in the department was not to move a car if it was overloaded, and that rule was strictly adhered to. All cars were equipped with standard couplers. Sometimes the connecting bar of the coupler was broken or the locking pin was broken. We made it a rule that no car was to be moved unless the automatic couplers were in perfect shape; any found damaged were immediately reported and sidetracked for repairs. When they came three of the cars had side steps and grabirons. All of the cars within two weeks had four steps and grabirons. If a step was bent or a grabiron bent or pulled loose, that car was immediately sidetracked for repair and not used until repaired. I found that that was absolutely necessary for safe operation because in transporting materials around the yard the train crews rode the cars because the hauls were sometimes long, and they had a great habit of boarding the car's after the train had attained some considerable speed. I observed several of the men boarding the cars by stepping on the journal boxes, which is a very unsafe practice which you will admit.
SAFETY BRAKING MEASURES -
With respect to hauling long trains, where we did not have automatic
brakes on the yard flatcars, the braking being done by direct air from
the locomotive, we found it necessary for safety's safe to reduce the size
of the trains to' not over six cars. In the case of foreign cars coming
in from the C. & O. Railroad, we hauled as high, as 15 and 18 cars,
bu always by hooking up the automatic air. After having gotten one or
two cars away and run through the yard and taken off the forward
truck and a bumper on the end of the spur track, safety said "use the
automatic air and keep the automatic couplers In perfect shape."
With respect to the locomotives, there was a sign placed on the for
ward and rear end with "Danger! Keep Off!" Train' crews insisted
that the men around the plant should not ride on the running-board.
That was very hard sometimes to carry out, but in general it was fairly
well adhered to.
.
570 Twelfth Safety Congress
The problem which was really the most questionable from the stand point of safety was crossings. All crossings are at .grade, naturally, the main highway crossings were formerly guarded by a watchman who flagged the road traffic when a train was about to pass. We did away with it, requiring the conductor of the train to advance ahead of the train and flag it himself, and we gave the right of way, wherever pos sible to the road traffic in order that there might be no accidents on our account to pedestrians or motor traffic.
The question of mounting a train while it was in motion was very problematical, due to the tendency of the train crews to step on the front running-board of a locomotive between the rails. It was a rule that they should mount the running-board from outside the rail and get on it when the train had just barely started, not let it come up 100 yards and attain a speed of 10 miles an hour before mounting. It 1^ a great stunt, getting on a train that is going fast, approaching. After seeing one man step over the running-board and slip--he was not injured, fortunately-- the engineer was scared to death. They decided that it was a pretty good stunt to get on the running-! oard from outside of the rails, and when the train was standing still or had just tarely started.
The question of switches was a big one--there were some stubs and some standard switches. We secured switches with a good throw, and the switches were named, tracks named, known by their names, and the dispatches of the trains gave his train conductor orders to stop the cars in certain locations beyond certain switches, by their names and the tracks by their names, with the final result that we had no accidents of any kind, whatsoever due to transportation on flatcars or foreign cars about the yard. I can't say that with respect to hauling material by cranes, or scrap in a foundry, even though with a pit, because some times somebody got hurt; but the transportation of materials was made safe by rigid rules and severe discipline for infringement of those rules, and maintaining standard equipment, with standard couplers and stand ard sidesteps and grabirons, standard switches and a standard track, laid properly.
Mr. J. A. Oartel (Carnegie Steel Co., Pittsburgh) : I want to say, first, that I am glad to see the fine attendance at the Metals Section, in which I have a particular interest because I was once chairman of this section and know what it means to this executive committee to put on a good program; then again because I am a steel-mill man and know some thing about the hazards of the steel industry.
FI2TD MAS FAILURE AS CAUSE OF ACCIDENTS
When we made a survey of our serious railway accidents over a period of years, we found some startling things. We found out what caused the accidents--not overloading or defective equipment, so much, but man fa.i1we. I just want to tell you of a few of the causes.
Standing in the middle of the track, and stepping on the foot board of an approaching shifting locomotive.
Coupling on the short side of a curve.
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571
"Trespassing;'* as we call it; that is men going from one de partment to another, and crossing the track somewhere other than at regular crossings.
A railroader hanging on the side of a car which is sideswiped somewhere.
Climbing over cars in going to another place, instead of using a bridge over the track.
Those are the things that produced these serious accidents. So we
planned a campaign, a "railroad drive" as we called it, and we carried
it on for two years and it was very successful.
_
We ordered every one of our plant and department safety committees
to put "Plant Railroad Drive" on their program every month for a
year--that, no matter what that department was, they had to discuss
plant railroad accidents in all their committee meetings and keep the
subject before them; and we planned some bulletins picturing these
dangerous practices that caused the accidents.
'
On all of our literature which we used in inter-mill' work, our en
velopes and things like that, we printed a slogan, "Make Railroading
Safe." '
Those are some of the things we did from our general office. I might
mention one or two plants. Our Homestead Plant did a fine piece of
work; one was to make a survey of all their tracks in order to eliminate
tad curves, to eliminate tad places anywhere that they knew caused
accidents; and they found out some things and they remedied a lot of
them. Also at our Homestead Plant we used to have a narrow-gauge
department that produced a lot of accidents, but today it is one of the
safest departments in our entire company because they went after the
accidents and they cleaned them up. We use automatic couplers on
broad-guage and narow-guage. and we just lately installed a device
on our hot-metal ladles that Is very effective--an automatic air cutter
where a man does not need to go near it because he can stand half a
mile off and watch the operation.
-
Mr. J. W. Benner (Homestead Plant, Carnegie Steel Co.) : I will sup plement the few remarks made by Mr. Oartel.
Coming down to the narrow-gauge; we have about 5,000 cars, and we started out with the common-llnk-and-pin coupling, and found that
that was unsafe as we were smashing men's fingers and cutting off their
hands. We put up a prize of $100 for the best device for an automatic
coupler, and we had a few submitted and picked out the best one, as
we thought, and equipped a lot of the cars with them. We found that there was a mechanical defect in them and that we could not keep them
in repair, so we abandoned that and used the Jenny Coupler, the same as on the broad-gauge ears, and we now have half of our cars equipped
in that way, and so we have eliminated a great many accidents with
those cars so equipped.
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572 Twelfth. Safety Congress
ALL TRACK CROSSINGS ARE ELIMINATED
Dr. G. H. McKinstry (Spang Chalfant Co.) : We have an unwritten
law in our plant in regard to accident prevention; that is, that accidents
don't_ happen, they are caused, and the reason they are caused is from
some improper condition. That applies to plant railways as well as to
any other operation.
We have gone into the matter very thoroughly and carefully in order
to see that all conditions surrounding our plant-railway equipment are
as ideal as they can be made. We maintain standard clearances- for
a railroad of eight feet; we see that all crossings are clear and are well
lighted. Our crossings are guarded by an overhead gate and also a
watchman. Cars, where they enter a building, must be preceded by a
switchman. No flying switches are permitted inside of the plant. No
one is allowed to mount or ride on the cars except the train crew, outside
of the safety engineer or superintendent of yards. On all inclines the
rails are provided with stops which must be kept locked. At the ap
proaches of all buildings there are also stops which must be kept in
place. This insures the non-pushing of a car into a building until it
comes to a complete stop before entering the building; the switchman
must throw the stop and then precede the car in. This has eliminated
practically every accident in our plant from a railway cause. The rails
and crossovers are all protected by guard rails, with pulley blocks, so
that no one can get their shoes caught within tie rail. The tracks are
laid out so that no two railroad tracks cross each other, thereby elim
inating the chance of two cars coming together at a crossing.
Mr. H. G. Hensel (Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co.) : At our operations
we use a flat car provided with a shelter in the center of it and a rail
ing around the head for our locomotives and our cinder ladles. This is
used for the loader to ride in in making the trip from the furnace to the
cinder dump. We found this advantageous in keeping men off the foot
board of the locomotive, where they are apt to ride between the engine
and the ladles, and we have had some accidents along that line- which
caine to our attention. .We think this system will prevent accidents of
that kind.
THURSDAY MORNING SESSION
Chairman McKenney: We will have the report of the nominating com
mittee.
Mr. J. L. Junkin: We have nominated T. H. McKenney, Superintendent
Labor & Safety, Illinois Steel Company, Chicago, Illinois, for chairman,
A. C. Gibson, Industrial Manager, Spang-Chalfant Company, Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania, for vice-chairman, and Fred G. Bennet, Buckeye Steel
Castings Company, Columbus, Ohio, for secretary. In deference to our
chairman, I would suggest that the secretary proceed with the order of
business.
.
Secretary Northwood: You have heard the report of the nominating
committee, gentlemen, what is your pleasure?
(A motion to cast a unanimous ballot was made, seconded and carried.)
Metals Section
573
FIRE PROTECTION IN STEEL MILLS AND FOUNDRIES
J. M. Woltz, Youngstown Sheet and Tube Company, Youngstown, Ohio
A few months ago, a man who had recently become associated with
one of our large, steel plants, ashed why it was necessary to have such
elaborate fire protection, in our mills, pointing out that most of the con
struction was steel, concrete and brick. He expressed surprise when
told that in our Hast Youngstown works alone we frequently receive from
75 to 100 alarms a month, and each of these called from one to three
companies into action. It is due to the ability of our firemen and the
almost instant response to calls of small fires that we are saved serious
conflagrations. When asked by my friend what there was to burn, it
was pointed out that accumulations of oil and dirt in pits,, wood lockers,
(where they still exist), wood piles, oil dipping and spraying tanks, oil
soaked floors, flashes from rolls, motors and trolley bars, hot steel set
too close to building or in cars of wood construction and railroad ties
are all serious fire hazards. Oil, benzol and other inflammable materials
sometimes spill and are set on fire by locomotive sparks and infrequently
you get a hot metal spill that is grief for every one concerned.
The first matter that one should be familiar with and have in the start
ing of fire prevention work is an accurate, drawn to scale map of the plant
and its structures. The fire underwriters all have such maps of risks.
Then, a personal inspection of the nooks and corners of the cellars, attics,
pits and floors of every building should be made, first, to see that the map
is correct; second, to see what the fire hazards may be; third, to plan
your location of extinguishers, hydrants and hose racks or reels, and
fourth, to see that ample aisle space is provided at all times to permit the
unimpeded use of the fire fighting equipment. Let us consider these four
items briefly.
First. Maps are helpful and a necessity, but only helpful if accurate
and up to date. When the organization is large and the executive offices
may be located many miles away or quite often in a distant city, the map
is usually the only source of information as to local conditions available
at a moments notice. It should show, or separate maps should show,
water lines whether high or low pressure, sprinkler systems, valves, gates
drains, cutouts, pumps, hydrants and other hose connections, hose reels,
risers, fire houses and special equipment.
Fire extinguishers whether hand or on wheels, size and kind should
be spotted.
..
.
Fire boxes and fire alarm lines should be shown also, and the various
zones should be definitely and accurately indicated. It is just as impor
tant to have all these things for a small plant as a large one. Of
course, many mills would not have a very elaborate outlay to record on
a map, but Whatever there is, should be shown in detail.
MAKING THE SURVEY
Second. A careful survey of each building, shack, shanty, pit, cellar, flor and garret is essential to get an idea of the Are hazards. No place is too small, too much out of the way, too little used or too well protected
574 Twelfth Safety Congress
to be over looked in such a survey. Then an effort should be made to have
the obvious hazards cleaned up, methods changed or discontinued. Wiping
rags, oily waste, greasy overalls and working clothes are hazards. Dust
of any kind is explosive when properly mixed with air. Paper and old
files have made many bad fires. Electrical equipment, wiring, switches
and connections should be gone over with minute care. Storage and use of
wood, coal, oils, gas, gasoline, benzine, benzol, zylol, etc., should be careful
ly checked and regulated. No open fires, lights, cigars, pipes or cigarettes
should be permitted where gases, oil or vapor is used, stored or issued, in
rooms or in close proximity to them, even in the open. The location of
steam and hot water pipes should be gone over to check against the
chance of wood, paper or other inflammable material being or coming
in contact with them. Heating apparatus, stoves, electric, coal or gas
should be examined and connections checked. Proper protection under and on all sides should be provided. Chemicals and compounds should
be checked as to proper storage, containers and use. Paper or cardboard
shades for lamps of any description should not be permitted. All openings
through which steam, hot air or stove pipes issue, should be properly
protected by fire resistant material. This is particularly important if
structures are of wood.
.
Waste and its disposal is an important matter. These are a few, very few of the obvious hazards. Hundreds of others just as dangerous, perhaps, are familiar to many of you and should be sought for assidously as those mentioned.
Third. If your fire fighting apparatus is not distributed to advantage and where it is easily of access it is a wilful and criminal wast^of money. A few moments between the inception of a fire and its extinguishment may mean a serious conflagration, perhaps heavy property and life loss,' or no damage at all. So when you locate your hose, extinguishers, reels, etc., confer with your operative department as well as your engineering. Fire doors should be checked daily as the only safe proposition, as these in spections frequently indicate a defect sufficiently serious to prevent their automatic action.
In order to care for fires at inaccessible places it is necessary to arrange
special facilities. At each of our blast furnaces we ran a 2^ inch water line along the stairway leading to the top of the stoves and along the platforms to which is attached a hundred foot length of 1^4 inch rubber, wire wrapped hose with regular nozzle having % inch tip. On an alarm from Gamewell Box 317 which indicates, "Fire on Top of Furnaces" two firemen hasten to the Boiler House and speed up the pump attached to the special risers, raising the pressure from the normal (110 lbs.) to 250. The hosemen and nozzlemen, along with the captain rush up the flight of steps and stretch the line, going anywhere around the top of the furnace. Fires at this point usually arise from the lighted gas igniting the oil soaked dust, as well as the oil on the cable and wheel of the hoist.
Fourth. Space should be provided to operate your fire fighting equip ment. Do not permit material to be piled In front of, over or around the
Metals Section
575
reels, and bose houses.. Aisles with ample passages to haul the carts and extinguishers mounted on wheels to transport them trough the building and yards should be provided and always kept clear of obstructions.
The Inspection and maintenance of your equipment is just as important an item as its installation, perhaps more so, for if you have equipment in stalled, naturally you look to its being a protection in case of need, and if it should not be in first class working condition or not in its proper place, there may arise a serious situation. So that frequent and thorough in spection of all equipment should be made/ Forms and records must be provided as a* proper check on such work. You can not afford to take a chance in such a matter. Systematic and careful attention to every de tail is essential.
ORGANIZATION OF FIKE FIGHTERS
These are, as I recognize this work, the fundamentals. Next, we must consider organization, training and records.
Organization. This, of course, depends entirely upon the plant, its size, product, location as to surrounding hazards, installed fire fighting equip
ment, hours operated and protection available from outside sources. The careful selection of a head for your Fire Brigade is as important
as any other executive, for upon him and his lieutenants and their efficien cy, may rest the future success or failure (by destruction from fire) of the plant. He must be a diplomat, as he will be in more or less constant con tact with the operating end, and, of course, will have intimate association with the entire force of employees. He should know what is safe to use on the classes of fires that he will have to handle and be equally familiar with material that is difficult and dangerous to handle. His familiarity with the power lines, water supply, exits, fire escapes, etc., will be as a matter of fact come with his work. When a fire exists his authority should be supreme in the threatened district, superseding all- operating officials.
If the plant is large enough there should be an assistant for night duty,
perhaps, also for day relief.
Companies may be composed of from six to twelve men. A foreman, or captain, lieutenant, one hydrantman, two to four nozzlemen and the rest hosemen.
In some plants salvage corps, ladder truck companies and other special organizations may be required.
From your companies you make up your battalions, and from these your brigade. The number of companies In a battalion will depend en tirely upon the arbitrary divisions you make in your works. We have as few as two companies in several of our battalions and the largest has ten. There are a total of 524 employees in our Youngstown District fire brigades.
Each battalion has its commander. One of the company captains is usually designated as assistant. Companies are composed of workmen who can, as a rule he best spared from ordinary operations,, but should
576 Twelfth Safety Congress
have a considerable number o mechanical men, such as electricians, pipe litters, etc., as these men are, as a rule, scattered throughout your plant, know Its electrical hazards, where power can be cut off from affected areas without disturbing others, know the water lines, gates, and valves. It's a highly Important matter to know if it's safe to throw water on a power line or not.
Fire headquarters should be located as centrally as passible. There should be space enough to house wheeled or motor equipment, work and repair shops should be made at this place. All repairs to fire equipment should be made here. Hose should be inspected, repaired -and dried here and all used equipment should either be cleaned, inspected or refilled at this place or from materials kept there. Here all records should be kept and reports made. To do this requires certain inspectors, repairmen, operators and clerks. '
- now RECORDS ARE KEPT
In our plant we require a twice daily inspection of all fire equipment. This is done" by our patrolmen on their regular rounds, and a written report of the condition or irregularities, if any, is made at the end of each turn. In case used or empty equipemnt is found by patrolman, he at once uses the phone to notify fire headquarters and a man is sent out to bring in the equipment or refill it and replace it in its proper station. A report of this is made by the fire inspector and this is recorded on a card, and in case an extinguisher is refilled the metal tag in the apparatus is punched with the month, day and year. A check set of cards are made up with the record of each extinguisher showing location, number, make, size, and last date filled. These are filed by months, and when any soda and acid extinguisher has been unused for twelve months, it is discharged and refilled, proper record made on metal tag and the card. The card is then set back for twelve months, and when that time elapses it automat ically comes up to action again, provided, of course. It has not been used and refilled in the meantime.
Captains are required to make reports of all responses to alarms and are required to hold at least two drills each month. These are also re ported on forms. From these reports we make up our pay roll. We pay $1.00 per month to each member provided he attends these drills. In addition he is paid 25c for each alarm responded to upon call and if hose is laid is paid at the rate of 50c per hour for every hour he is upon fire duty. This is reported by the captains upon their regular forms. These sums are paid to the employees semi-annually after the 1st of July and 1st of January of each year. In the winter we have a dinner at our works offices, with talks, singing, music, etc., and vouchers are distributed. In the summer we have a field meet with various contests, band music, feed and voucher distribution. The Youngstown district pay will run about ten thousand dollars ($10,000) per year.
Hose is tested at stated intervals. Each section is recorded on a card and repairs, inspection and station is noted. It is taken from its station, water run through it, outside casing washed, drained and dried, twice
Metals Section
577
yearly. All hose houses have a red lamp in front that is lighted at night. They are also provided with an electric lamp inside the house that lights automatically when the doors are opened.
All hose houses and boxes are kept sealed. If a seal is found broken by the patrolman as he makes his rounds he reports it at once to fire head quarters. An inspector visits the station, checks up the contents, replaces what may be missing and reseals it.
Hose and all other fire equipment, including hydrants should be used for fire purposes only. This should be a hard and fast rule. The fire chief being the only person who can, in case of emergency, permit the use of fire equipment for other purposes. When our fire hose becomes worn or old it is turned ever to the operating departments, a band of red about a foot wide painted around each end of the discarded hose and it can then be used for cleaning, opening sewers, etc.
EQUIPMENT USED
We use 1 quart, 2 quart, X gallon and 10 gallon pyrene extinguishers. 2%, 5, 20, and 40 gallon soda and acid and 2% and 40 gallon fire foam extinguishers. These machines are distributed according to the require ments of the works. The pyrenes where there are electrical hazards.
The soda and acids where the danger is greatest from wood fires and the
fire foam where the oil, light oil, and gas fires are the outstanding hazards. All of our power houses have 10 gallon Tetrachloride machines. These are
operated by air pressure and have paid for themselves many times over.
In winter the soda and acid and fire foam machines are kept in electrically or steam heated compartments. All apparatus is numbered and its stations are numbered similarly.
Roofs are reached by steel ladders equipped with steel safety backs. Hose
boxes with full equipment of hose, wrenches, nozzles, ropes, axes, etc.*- are located on tops of buildings. Risers from the ground to roof are placed at convenient points. This obviates the hauling of hose from the ground to building tops, and the attending labor and danger of this work, espe
cially under cold and icy conditions. Railed cross-overs are provided be
tween high and low bays.
_
We have a triple combination, 750 gallon, American La France pumper. This machine responds to second alarms only, except in our housing plants. We have a Gamewell Fire Alarm System with 71 boxes divided
into zones and use the Gamewell Police call system also.
Fire alarms sound only in the zone from which it is desired to call companies, that is the zone from which the alarm is sent. If necessary
to call additional companies any one oxgall zones can be connected and as
much of the man power or equipment of the fire brigade may be summoned as is needed and this has the additional advantage of only calling to fires the force really needed and not disturbing the rest of your employees.
When a fire alarm is received at police headquarters (this is where our
board, switches, etc, are located as we have an operator on duty here
covering the 24 hours) he fills in a card form addressed to the superintend ent of the department from which the alarm was sent, and incloses a
blank form upon which the superintedent reports to. the safety department
578 Twelfth Safety Congress
the cause of the fire and damage sustained. This then goes to our en gineering department. Here the engineer in charge of our insurance gets in touch with the underwriters adjusters and the damage is estimated. All of our insurance is carried by outside old line fire insurance com panies. In case of actual damage to insured property the safety depart ment and district superintendent are notified by phone by both police head quarters and department superintendents, so that immediate investigations and Inventories can be made with the insurance adjusters.
On the first of the month a form is sent to each head of a department upon which he makes a.report o.f new buildings, material, and equipment added to his department, also of buildings torn down, abandoned machin ery scrapped or moved and material or stock covered by insurance used, moved or discarded. This is sent to the insurance bureau of engineering department, to check against their records. This report has been the means of turning up some rather surprising facts.
COOPERATION WITH CITV DEPARTMENT
We have a city alarm box in police headquarters that is used to call the
city department when a fire has the appearance of being at all dangerous. We consider our department as a sort of first aid measure and do not hesitate to ask for help if there is any apparent need for It. When the city apparatus responds the officials of it assume full control and direction of the work of putting .out the blaze and our aim is to cooperate as ordered.
As our plants cover many miles of territory, much of which is difficult to reach by wagon or truck, we have equipped each of our standard guage locomotives with 1% inch rubber lined hoze and nozzles carried in the cab or on reels on the tanks. The water is supplied from the injector line. Nozzles are protected to prevent burns from .heated water. We have found this is to be well worth while as our. engines have extinguished many an Incipient fire that would have developed into serious consequences had there been no ready fire fighting apparatus at hand. All of our locomotives
are also equipped with stretcher, blanket and tourniquet.
This in a general way covers our own organization, as well as a number of other of the largest companies who were kind enough to respond to my request for information..as to their work, organization and eqaipment.
We have not covered coke, by-product and benzol plants In this paper. While their problems are not by any means complicated, some special pre cautions are called for to provide adequate fire protection and a great deal more than ordinary care is needed in tbe regular operations.
Our triple combination pumper carries in addition to the regular equip
ment, hand searchlights and approved universal gas masks for use In
heavy smoke, fumes and gases.
Mr. Woltz shows two reels of motion pictures.
' DISCUSSION Mr. P. A. Epps: I would like to ask Mr. Woltz about the ten gallon tetrachloride extinguishers. It has been my impression that tetrachloride
Metals Section
579
has never been used in large quantities, only in the quart and a halt size, primarily because of the danger of letting larger quantities of it
loose, particularly where the ventilation might not be good.
Mr. Woltz: You understand the capacity in which it acts? It forms
a gas which is a blanket and shuts off combustion. If it is to be used in places with strong drafts, you are not going to get much benefit from
the use of your fluid.
Mr. Epps: At the same time tetrachloride gas itself is a good anes
thetic. You apply it on a fire and it brings down hydrochloric acid gas,
both of which are poisonous. Your operator has got to lie down close to
the floor, and he is going to get in the area of fumes. Mr. A. C. Germaine (Minnesota Steel Company) : We .have had ten gal
lon extinguishers in our plant, and with each one we have army gas masks. We have installed these in our power houses and sub-stations all over
in the plant for more than a year. We have had some fires in confined places, and we have not experienced any trouble so far. Personally, I
would rather fight fire with carbon tetrachloride with a mask on, than take a chance with something else in extinguishing electric fires.
Secretary Northwood: I'd like to ask Mr. Woltz how often he uses
his locomotive equipment for fire protection? Mr. Woltz: In eighteen months time we have averaged five fires each
month that have been put out exclusively by the locomotives. That in cludes fence fires, and in two instances rather bad field grass fires, and
as you all know in your larger plants in making changes of the switches,
etc., there is a great accumulation of old ties that are piled up some place
until they can be broken up and burned in your furnace, and we have had a number of fires, bad ones too, in old tie storage yards, one in a
board yard that we have, and two that threatened to be rather serious
because they are difficult to handle, in turnings. We had about 500 turnings that caught fire, and had it not been that one of these loco
motives was close at hand and we were able to put it out almost as soon as it caught fire, I know what we would have had, and it certainly is
a heart-breaking job to get a crane in there and tear that to pieces so
as to get at your burning turnings.
'
RELATION OF THE MEDICAL AND SAFETY . DEPARTMENTS
G. H. McKntsTEr, M.D., Spang-Cha i.fqnt Company, Pittsburgh:, Pa.
The safety department and the medical department must be "buddies." They .must be square to each other.
I have heard both sides and I know that there are many cases of mis understandings. Each takes a rap at the other. I will give you my experiences in this matter.
It might be well to go back to the time, some seven years ago, when I started in my present position. The Safety Movement was compara tively new at that time, but nevertheless, functioning quite well. A new dispensary had been opened just before I came to the company..
I
580 Twelfth Safety Congress
I was introduced to the plant manager and employees through the
so-called safety engineer. I had been practicing general medicine and really felt that I knew quite a bit about handling people. I must confess
that, at the start of my connection with industry. I had to learn other
methods of attack.
.
We established a medical service in connection with the regular com
pensation work--all of which were gratis. Employees are privileged to
consult the writer about anything that might be on their minds. A suf
ficient quantity of drugs are kept .on hand to take care of brief and
ambulatory ills. We make house calls in some cases of illness such as
tonsilitis and colds, knowing that the average workman will not consult
a physician for such slight ills and with the view of cutting down his
lost time.
I was far more reticent then than now--a bit backward about making
a bid for business. I depended on the safety man to hunt it up for me.
He was the laisson officer for the hospital. On his trips through the
mills in the early days (he made a lot of. special ones just for me) he
would make it his business to acquaint the foremen with my duties and
would tell them that I was a fine man. When the men complained of
headaches, colds, diarrhea, constipation, etc.; they were forthwith sent
to me.
I gradually shook off some of my self-consciousness and ventured forth
among the men on the job. I was received cordially and as I came to
know the foremen I began stirring up a little business for myself. I
tried to "sell" the hospital and its services to the foremen so that they, in
turn, would push it with the men. I tried to gain the confidence of the men--tried to make them feel I was heart and soul for them. It is my
belief, and I think you will agree with me, that a plant physician
represents to the workmen, the management itself--only in imagination,
of course--and if he can arouse the faith of the workmen in himself he
can create, thereby, a strong attachment to the management.
PERSONAL OBSERVATION OF WORKMEN
When some pax'ticular workman makes more than the average number of trips to my office with an accident slip, I decide he needs immediate and close observation. In this work, the safety man is my best bet. He watches this man in the shop when I can't get away from my work to do it inyself. He reports the results of his observation and together we go over the possible solutions. Whatever I tell the safety, man about the personal history of and employee is always a secret between just us two. If it is in the form of a written card or letter, it is locked up in the safety man's drawer or safe and never gets beyond him and myself.
Frequently, I go to the shop where one of my patients works and watch him on the job. In this way, I can often detect causes of disturbances which are bothering the man. If a man heeds light work, I give him a note to his foreman requesting that he be given something easier for the time being. The foremen, as a general rule, receive these requests without question.
Metals Section
581
I have great opportunities to get my message before the foremen dur ing foremen's meetings. Ever since "Gibby," the safety man, introduced me to them as "a Damn good scout," they have been after me to talk to them when they get together and, of course, I never miss an opportunity.
However, whenever I do have a set-to with a foreman. I get my safety sidekick and break the news gently to him. He hotfoots it to the foreman, and with the diplomacy of a Lloyd George, irons out the matter much to my advantage.
There are large plants where the safety and medical departments are friendly only to that extent necessary for the safety man and the medical man to hold their respective jobs. Each has a poor opinion of the other. I heard of one plant which employs approximately 9,000 men the other day. A new safety director was installed in his official capacity and inherited a physician who had been with the company for some time. The safety man was as good a safety man as the physician was a good physician but whenever they collided there were sparks.
These two men were at loggerheads fob months before they finally saw each other in the right light. In this case, I think the fault could be laid to the company for not introducing the men properly, outlining the plant policies and the respective duties of each man and asking for wholehearted cooperation. -
In my own case, I know I was not as cooperative as I should have been..
I inherited "Gibby" and we had rough sledding for awhile. Mild tempered
as "Gibby" really is, he "saw red" many a time when I was obstinate. Here too, no policy had been outlined at the start. I was not sold on the proposition as X should have been by the powers that be. "Gibby" and
I were simply, to our minds, cogs in the machine and were supposed to
function automatically. But we are teaming in fine shape now, as I
have previously indicated.
'
SAFETY JUKSV CAST AID PHYSICIANS IX MANY WAVS
You safety men can ease the way for the medical men a great deal. The plant physician is only human and makes errors in judgment of men occasionally, or he may lack tact insofar that he bawls out a man for not reporting an injury and the medical department thereby loses a friend- It is up to the safety men to do these jobs. The medical depart ment should be there only for service and it is not up to the doctor to do any disciplining.
When you have a case of infection caused by iieglect of a workman to come'to the medical department for treatment, you should, in reprimand ing him. try to convey to the man that you got your information through the daily reports of the hospital in the superintendent's office and not from the hospital direct. This will lessen the general Idea that the doctor is a tattler.
In your travels through the mill you will hear criticisms of the physi cian and the medical department, just and unjust. Drop into the hospital as you find time and tell us how we stack up with the men. Good or
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Twelfth Safety Congress
bad, ft can't hurt; it can only help the medical department.' If that department is in bad, it will be its duty to rectify its standings if It is in good, then shall the standard hold.
DISCUSSION
Dr. Chas. J. Steim, (Medical Director, Philadelphia Company, Pitts burgh, Pa.) : Mr. Chairman, I am quite surprised to hear that there could
possibly be any friction between a medical department and a safety department. In the first place, a man wouldn't be a doctor at all If he hasn't made up his mind to "dedicate his life to service, and ho would certainly not be an industrial physician or plant surgeon, because there isn't enough money in it. Look upon it as a service department. A medical department in any industry, or anywhere else for that matter, is, strictly speaking, a service department, and can't, in any way, inter
fere with the realization of the ambitions of any individual department in an organization. It can only help, and I am quite sure that there will never be any friction between the safety department and the medical department, because safety work and medical service are so closely inter woven; they are absolutely one and the same thing.
Dr. C. F. N. Schram, (Chief Surgeon, Fairbanks, Morse & Company,
Beloit, "Wisconsin) : I came especially to hear Dr. McKinstry's paper this morning, and I am surprised that his experience is something like mine. At the time I Went to Fairbanks, Morse & Company, the safety man was
not introduced to me as the safety man. He just sauntered in once npon
a time. I met him in that way. The hospital, or first aid room is often hooked up under your safety department previous to their hiring a physician. Now, that, at the start, is probably the logical way. but at the same time, it is just as logical after the physician comes In. and the safety department gives orders, to have a little friction arise. The patient is the physician's patient, and when the safety man orders him into the hospital, or begins to order him back on the job, which he has been doing previous to the physician's coming, it just makes a little friction, and we just ironed it out. That is all there is to it.
The executives that are here, or the safety men who are going to
employ a physician--if you can start the ball rolling right at the be
ginning with a good, square understanding it will work out all right
.
In regard to your question as to the attitude of outside physicians--
I struck the same thing with thirty or thirty-five physicians in a small town of 22.000, and they certainly did hand it to me when I first went there. My experience has been almost the same as Dr. McKinstry's. I went along and minded my own business, gave just as good treatment as I knew how. Every time there was an operative case, I called the family physician; he got in on that operation, and while I do not want to blow my own horn at all, at the present time I am president of the local club of physicians in Beloit.
Metals Section
583
There is nothing- phenominal about it; I played fair with them, just
as I have done my very best to play fair with the man who is out. working
in the shop--it doesn't make any difference whether he is an executive or
a yard switchman. Mr. Peake (American Radiator Company) : I would like to raise the
question as to what is said to employees when they come for first aid
in pointing out their weakness or carelessness--whether that is thought advisable, and whether it is not dangerous.
Mr. S. H. Reamer, (Safety Engineer, Cadillac Motor Car Company,
Detroit, Michigan) : We have three doctors in our different shops, and
we have a series of accident hazards that we make it a point to get out. They know the conditions. They will talk to the workman far better
than I can, and I find we are getting elegant results. Of course, the
doctors and I work together, shoulder to shoulder, at all times. The only kick I have, is that they give me too much work.
Mr. D. C. Hunter, (National Cash Register Company, Dayton, Qhio) : We had a chap come in who had lost his thumb In a punch press.
I immediately started to question him as to how It happened. "It is
all your fault," he said. I saw right away he was not in a frame of mind
to question any further about how the accident happened. I let it go
for a day or two, and'got talking to him again, and I found out he was
in a different frame of mind. He told us he had deliberately left his
hand under the press when he tripped it.
.
It brings out the need in many cases when a man comes into the hospital
is not the time to question him regarding how the accident happened.
I think It is better to wait a few days to get it straightened out bo-
fore you go into that. I think you get better results.
STEEL INDUSTRY COMMENDED
Dr. L. W. Chaney (IT. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Washington, D. C.) : A certain phase of the figures which I have been compiling now for many years struck my attention the other day, and I'd like to have them stick In your minds as they have In mine.
I have been immensely proud of the accomplishments of the iron and steel industry in the matter of accident prevention. It Is most remark able record, and no one else in American industry has yet touched the same accomplishment. I don't mean that there aren't accidents, but In comparison with the hazard which you encounter, and in comparison with the conditions in which the Iron and steel' industry was ten years ago or more, you have accomplished a very remarkable result.
Just within a few weeks past I was compiling the figures for the year 1922 for the industry, and I happened at the same time to compile the figures for about 50 per cent of the Industry which included the plants which had for the longest time and for the most energetic accident prevention work, stood out among the plants of the iron and steel industry.
Now, here are two figures that I would like to have you meditate upon. The 50 per cent of the Industry which has for the longest time and with the greatest energy pushed the safety movement have an index figure
584-
Twelfth Safety Congress
for ;the frequency of their accidents of 13. The industry as a whole has an index figure of 33. Now do you see what that means? There are some of you who are a good deal above the average in order to bring up the average to that point.
That figure* of 33 was a creditable figure, but if the best plants are getting an index of 13, and the industry as a whole is getting an index figure of 33, there is still something for somebody to do. There isn't any reason why any iron and steel plant shouldn't be as good as the best.
There is just one thing more I want to say. I hope that every one of you, if you haven't done it already; will get hold of the last bulletin on this subject which the Bureau of Labor Statistics has published. Bulletin No. 339. It is the most generally informing bulletin on accidents that the bureau has put out. It doesn't cover your particular industry with the same thoroughness as some others which we have prepared, but for general information it covers more ground, and I believe will have more matters of interest for you than any other bulletin we have put out. If you supplement that by asking for the October number of the Monthly Labor Review, you will have the situation so far as the iron and steel industry is concerned, brought down to date.
Mr. John A. Oartel (Safety Director, Carnegie Steel Company, Pitts burgh): I want to say a word about Dr. Chaney's remarks. I doubt whether we all realize the contribution that he is malting to accident prevention work. "What he said this morning, in my mind, is one of the biggest contributions that has been made to safety, and I think It should have publicity in the headlines somewhere. This great iron and steel industry of America, which we all know, is hazardous, but is really get ting somewhere in accident prevention work.
ADJOURNMENT.
Mining1 Section
October 2, 3, 4, 1923
B. F. TIILSOJf, Chairman Assistant Superintendent, New Jersey Zinc Company, Franklin, N. J.
G. M. GILLETTE, First Vice-Chairman General Manager, The Consolidation Coal Company, Frostburg, Md.
J. I. BOAEDMAN, Second Vice-Chairman Safety Engineer, Anaconda Copper Mining Company, Butte, Mont.
TFILIilAM CONNIBEAK, Third Vice-Chairman Cleveland-Cliffs Mniing Company, Ishpeming, -Mich.
R. H. SEEP, Secretary Safety Engineer, New Jersey Zinc Company, Franklin, N. J.
TUESDAY MORNING SESSION
.
REPORT OF CHAIRMAN
HIS industrial section was organized in Philadelphia, October 1, 1915.
T A total of 121 addresses have been made before this section since its
inception. These addresses totalled 1,157 pages. Fifty-five with 550
pages were on general mining subjects; 14, with 113 pages, on anthracite
coal mining; 19, with 126 pages, on bituminous coal mining; 22, with
190 pages, on metal mining and 11, with 178 pages, on miscellaneous
subjects.
`
There has been criticism, as is quite right and quite healthy, of our
activities. Only this year there was forwarded to the Chairman a criti
cism of a metal company that the bulletin service and the other service of the Mining Section of the National Safety Council was all very good
as far as it went, but the trouble was that it was mostly coal mining;
and within the same week another letter was forwarded to me from a
coal-mining company which you would think had been copied directly
from the metal-mining letter. It said that the service was all very well,
but there was not enough time and attention devoted to coal mining.
Rather a happy coincidence; so long as we have objections from both
sides of the fence, we are probably straddling it as well as could be hoped.
The fact remains that the chief objection from every one is that they
are, not getting enough service, not enough bulletins, or enough of any
thing which interests them in safety. In one way that is a healthy
585
586 Twelfth Safety Congress
viewpoint and -could best be cured it these same people who are not getting enough would try to give something. If we all take that attitude, there will be a fund of material that will be of benefit to all of us.
It has been advocated by your chairman in the past that it would be well if this section would raise more funds so that more service could be forthcoming. The service the companies get for a dollar in the National Safety Council is absurdly large. It has been my criticism for a number of years in the executive committee of the National Safety Council that our dues are so small that we are not really respected by the executives of industry as we would be if they had an investment in our service really comparable with the services that ought to be given.
I hope that the time will come when the Mining Section of the National Safety Council will successfully prosecute a campaign for increasing the dues of its members to a sum, say, equal to the dues that those members are paying to the general National Safety Council, this increment of dues to be applied solely to the activities of the Mining Section, that is, to be returned in direct services to the mining companies who are mem bers of the National Safety Council and of the Mining Section. Even that would not supply enough funds to give the service which we would all like to have, but it would be much more than we are now receiving.
When one makes a fundamental investment, every addition to that fundamental investment should produce pi oportionately greater returns. There are certain overhead and fixed charges which, in any organization, are considerable, and when you add a revenue above that your returns will be more than proportional to the increased expenditure.
During the past two years we have been fortunate in having an ar rangement with the United States Bureau of Mines whereby we have re ceived assistance In maintaining a safety engineer in the field represent ing solely the mining industry and the activties of the Mining Section of the National Safety Council. I refer to the services which we have had from Mr. C. Li. Colburn, who before he was delegated to co-operate with our Mining Section in this capacity, was serving as Assistant Chief Mining Engineer of the United Sattes Bureau of Mines.
Other sections of the National Safety Council have not had as much service as we have. Ever since we organized we have had pre-prints of those papers that arrived in time. These were distributed to the members in galley form. So far as I know that has never been provided at any other meeting of the National Safety Council.
Then again. Uncle Sam has expended for us $6,600 or $6,700 a year to pay the traveling expenses and salary of his mining engineer while he was serving as safety engineer for our section. Then again, we also got from the general fund of the National Safety Council an appropriation of $1,200 a year for two years to supplement this investment of the Gov ernment in paying the expenses of this service. This we have enjoyed for two years. In this way also we have received more from the Council than our members have paid In.
The Cooperative arrangement was not financed in the appropriation for the year 1923-24, so that although we are still strongly cooperating
Mining Section
587
with the United States Bureau of Mines as we always have and always hope to, we shall not have the services of a field service man for the bal ance of this year or next year, either.
Apparently the director of the Bureau of Mines felt that in having carried on the experiment for two years and demonstrated its possibilities to the Mining Section, it was only proper for them to take up the entire burden if they felt the services were worthy of the investment, so if you desire that service to be reinstated, the money must be raised somewhere. It may be necessary, therefore, as already suggested, to have specific addi tional dues for the Mining Section.
APPOINTMENT OF NOMINATING COMMITTEE .
Chairman Tillson: I will appoint Mr. J. T. Ryan, chairman of the
nominating committee, to canvass the field among you and present a
slate of candidates for the officers. With Mr. Ryan I will appoint Mr.
R. H. Seip and Mr. G. J. Johnson.
.
We will now have, gentlemen, a report from Mr C. L. Colburn.
REPORT OF SAFETY SERVICE ENGINEER
During a two-year period the Mining Section of the National Safety Council, in cooperation with the U S. Bureau of Mines, engaged in safety service work for the benefit of the mining members of the council. Acting under the terms of this cooperation, the U. S. Bureau of Mines assigned a member of Its staff to the cooperative work. The salary of this engineer was paid by the bureau, but his traveling expenses were paid partly by the government and partly by the National Safety Council.
Under the cooperative plan, the mining engineer assigned to this work was Instructed to visit the mining-company members of the National Safety Council, to acquaint these companies with the scope of the tech nical service available to them through the cooperation, and to familiarize himselE with the best methods of preventing accidents,* as demonstrated
by the mining companies who are most advanced in that respect; to establish cordial relations with the mine superintendents and foremen at the operations he visited, and, as occasion permitted, to disseminate suggestions directed toward improved practices, yet nevertheless free from criticism of the practices noted; to collect photographs, blue prints, sketches and other information suitable for the preparation of "Safe Practices" leaflets of the National Safety Council and bulletins, tech nical papers and other publications of the Bureau of Mines; to coordinate and develop the safety work of the Mining Section of the National Safety
Council with the safety work of the Bureau of Mines; to disseminate among the operators, foremen and workmen in the mining industry, by personal visits and orally, with more concrete application and detail than written communications would probably provide, the arguments for and against increased or new activity along any lines of endeavor or research, looking to increased safety in the mining industry.
588 Twelfth Safety Congress
At the beginning no one bad an idea boar this cooperation would work out. Almost everyone thought that success depended upon the ability of the engineer to visit min*v collect Information, and impart that infor
mation to other mines. During the first year 78 mines were visited, which is about the maximum at man can visit during a year if at the
same time he is called upon t* write article*, prepare bulletins, attend
safety meetings, and give
tik These 78 mines did not cover
tbe entire membership of the council. ** with one man in the field it was
fbund impossible to give each member a personal visit with specific safety
service. It was also found that $n rhatmc tbe mines the engineer was
collecting information rather chan Tmpartlac information. The different
members of the council had MwuR ways of doing things. To weigh
the advantages and disadvantage* of each method would have taken more
time than it was practical to give.
`
After the first year it wa* decided to devise a way for the different
member companies to get together and teach one another. Therefore,
during the second year several aafety conferences were arranged and the
different mining companiea were requested to send delegates who could
profit most by the dlaatudoa. This plan worked out splendidly. A
safety engineer, superintendent or foreman with a pet safety idea had
an opportunity to present that idea to a meeting composed of men from
other mines. In the discussion that followed the practicability of bis
idea could then be attacked from every angle. These safety conferences
became popular. Every section voted to repeat these conferences. There
fore. during the second year of the cooperation the engineer visited only
49 mines, but was required to travel farther and to make more safety
talks.
JIErajOPMEST OK SECIIOXAI. CONFEBENCE I'JLAX
The development of the sectional conference plan promises to accom plish more for safety than any other activity that can be promoted by the Mining Section of the Council. In addition to arranging conferences there are other specific duties that must be imposed upon tbe cooperative safety engineer. He must prepare articles for the National Safety News, must collect material for safety bulletins and must assist in any other
special work that comes up from time to time. This summarizes the manner in which the safety service work devel
oped. Other suggestions for this service were made which should be
discussed.
. .advisability of a representative of the National Safety Council making min-c inspection--This idea is not practicable. Mine inspections are being made by four different agencies, and any work in this line by the National Safety Council would be duplicating work that can be better performed by others. Inspections are made by inspectors selected by the mining companies, by state officials and by insurance companies. In
addition to this the U. S. Bureau of Mines has a corps of trained safety engineers who will make inspections and give recommendations gratis to those mines asking for such service. To give service to its members
effectively, it would he necessary for the National Safety Council to
Mining Section
5S9
employ a large corps of inspectors for the area to be covered is large.
It is impossible for one safety engineer to visit every mining section
In the country and to make the careful, detailed study necessary to give
constructive safety suggestions to the companies thus visited.
Safety engineer enthusing foreman--The suggestion that the safety
engineer interview the mine foreman in order to make him enthusiastic
for safety work, is good, in that it recognizes that mine safety, to be
effective, must have the full support of the foreman, who is the most
important person to create the desired enthusiasm for safety. It also
overlooks the fact that in most cases the management has not been fully
sold to the safety idea, and for that reason the `foreman is not the key-
man to the situation. If the management is determined to install the
safety idea throughout the mine, then it is comparatively easy to enlist
the efficient support of the foreman. The best way to educate the mine
foreman and other mine bosses is through sectional conferences.
Safety engineer becoming an authority on mine safety matters--The opinion was expressed that a safety engineer, having close contact with
all the mine-safety work in the country, would become an authority on
the subject. It is true that the engineer notes a variety of safety plans
being put into effect under a diversity of conditions. Such an experi
ence is bound to broaden him and give him an unusual store of infor
mation. His knowledge will, of course, he limited by his ability, and if
he becomes an authority on mine safety he must be a brilliant engineer.
There is not much probability that any man will become so well informed
on mine safety that he will be an authority on every phase of the sub
ject. It is unnecessary for the traveling safety engineer to become an
encyclopedia on mine safety. It is his province to see that the different
ideas as to mine safety are brought out for discussion and for adoption
by those who recognize their value and are in a position to use them.
The foregoing discussion shows how the scheme for developing the
safety service has taken form as a result of the cooperative agreement,
the following is a more detailed account of the activity of the mining
engineer assigned by the Bureau of Mines to conduct this cooperation.
During the first year the work divided itself into four parts as follows:
first, visits to mines for the purpose of gaining and imparting infor
mation regarding safety; second, writing, articles 'describing commend
able safety methods and new ideas regarding- safety for the National
Safety News; third, taking photographs of safe and unsafe practices and preparing safety bulletins; fourth, making talks on safety where
the opportunity presented itself at society meetings and meetings of
miners.
.
During the first year 78 mines and 14 mills were visited. Trips were
made through these mines and mills to gain intimate knowledge of the
working conditions and the measures taken to provide safety for the
workmen. Forty-two of the mines visited were coal, 31 were metal,
and five were non-metal. Of the 14 mills visited, six were breakers or coal-washing plants, five were concentration mills at metal mines, and
three were mills connected with non-metal mines.
'
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Twelfth Safety Congress
.
These mines and mills were in the following mining districts: the anthracite district of eastern Pennsylvania; the bituminous district of western Pennsylvania, western Maryland, and West Virginia; the Lake Superior copper and iron districts; the coal-mining districts of central and southern Illinois, central Indiana, eastern Ohio, Kentucky, Alabama, southern Colorado, Utah, and Washington; the metal-mining districts in Colorado, Utah, and the Coeur d'Alene region in Idaho; the lead belt in southeastern Missouri; the bauxite (aluminum) mines in Arkansas; the iron districts in Alabama, the phosphate mines in Florida: the salt mines in Louisiana; and the zinc and copper mines in eastern Tennessee.
During the first year 17 articles were prepared for publication in the
yational Safety 2?cics.
.
Ten talks on safety subjects and miscellaneous work were made at mining meetings, and conferences were held with state mine inspectors and state compensation commissioners regarding the different states adopting a standard form for the reporting of mine accidents.
During the second year of the cooperation the engineer visited 49 different mines, one smelter, and three mills. He wrote 2S articles deal ing with safety. These were published in the National Safety Xeics.
The safety service engineer took 261 photographs in and about mines, showing safe and unsafe practices. From these photographs 32 safety bulletins were prepared.
ASSISTS IX AIIXE SAFETT COXFEREXCES
The safety engineer assisted in the Mine Safety Conference held in Duluth, Minn., October 26 and 27, 1922, where more than 80 delegates were present from the Lake Superior Iron Mines. He promoted the
Northwest Mine Safety Conference held in Butte, Mont., November 20,
21 and 22, 1922. One hundred and twenty-five picked men were present
at this conference, representing all the important mining districts in the Northwest. He promoted and acted as chairman of the Southwest Mine Safety Conference held in Globe, Ariz., March 19 and 20, 1923. One
hundred and ten picked delegates were present, representing mining com panies in the Southwest and Mexico.
The mine safety engineer" was asked during the second year to address
16 different meetings on mine safety. It was necessary for him to travel 26,747 miles by rail in order to carry on the work during that year.
The above recital covers the cooperation up to July 1, 1923, at which time the cooperation of the" Bureau of Mines with the Joseph A. Holmes
Safety Association was added to the duties of the safety engineer. Since July 1, the National Safety Council has contributed nothing toward the
traveling expenses of the safety engineer which has materially decreased
his traveling appropriation.
.
Between July 1 and October 1, 1923, the safety engineer prepared
three articles for the National Safety News, and furnished material for
S bulletins.
;
Mining Section
591
He visited Duluth, Minn., and had several conferences to aid in making arrangements for the Mine Safety Conference of the Lake Superior Mining Section of the National Safety Council, held August 28 and 29, 1923.
He attended the First-Aid and Mine-Rescue Meet at Salt Lake City, Utah, August 27, 28 and 29, 1923, and presented the National Safety Council Challenge Cup and gold medals to the winning team, and the silver and bronze medals to the second and third teams.
The safety engineer .has had several conferences and is now following up the proposal of holding the Northwest Mine Safety Conference in Wallace, Idaho, early in December.
At the annual meeting of the National Safety Council held in Boston, the inadequacy of mine-accident statistics was discussed and a committee was appointed to draft plans for the accumulation of more complete statistics. The? Bureau of Mines agreed to compile these statistics, pro
vided the National Safety Council members would furnish the basic information. The committee dratted a plan of procedure, which was adopted at the annual conference held last year in Detroit. The engineer assigned to this cooperation was therefore charged with explaining the statistical work to the different members of the council in order to gain their cooperation and get them to furnish the basic information needed. During the past year many of the mining members were informed of this constructive work done by the committee of the National Safety Council, and more than 170 mines are now furnishing detailed informa tion on every lost-time accident. '
(A unanimous vote of thanks was extended to Mr. Colburn and the
Bureau of Mines.)
-
Mr. Tillson: Mr. Adams will not be here to report, and if he were, it would be somewhat early to make such a summary of his findingsHe has written that he is getting complete reports. Eighty-three ,companies have reported, covering 278 mines, and from January 1 of this year, when the report started until I presume September 25, 4,333 lost time accidents had been reported, including all that resulted in the loss of one day or more. During the month of October he hoped to be in a position to start tabulating this Information that he had just completed, and he sent me a copy of a book of closely typewritten pages which was a codifying of all these causes and contributary facts in regard to acci dents, nationality, time lost, nature of injury and cause of the' accident
In detail. It was a task for any man to place on the tabulating cards all the codifying symbols and to summarize all the items of information so I am hot surprised that he has not been able to group and tabulate all the statistics and render a report. I am assured by him, however, that we may expect it before long.
592 Ttcelfth Safety Congress
' SAFETY IX UNDERGROUND TBANSPORTATION IN METAL MIXES
Br*os D. Shove. Satett Esgisees, Ouva Ijtox Mixxxc Cojcfaxy, Iitoswoon, Mica.
In dJacosstiTiR the safety features in undeisioimd hn?ge in metal mi****., I will -confine myself to conditions as they exist in the mines o the Oliver Iron Minina Company, which is a subsidiary of the United State* Steel Corporation, and particularly to the mines of the Gogebic I>3<trict- located at Ironwood. Mich., with which I am most familiar.
We will start with the shaft or level station and follow through on a typical main level, taking in as we go the safety features necessary to safe hanlase uadergroand.
All shaft stations are equipped with pockets into which the rock and ore is damped. From these pockets the material is drawn off into an nvtm.fi- pocket which holds just enough material to fill the skip. These pockets are covered with grizzlies or guard rails, the distance between which must not exceed eight inches. These rails act as safeguards in making it impossible for anyone to fall into the shaft pockets. The shaft station is well lighted and all electric wires are in conduit. The trolley wire is guarded on both sides by an inverted trough guard made of wood. The sides of this guard are vertical and extend below the. trolley wire not less than three fuches and the space between the sides is not greater than six inches. This guard protects the men, when barring down the ore in the pockets with an iron bar, from coming in contact with the trolley wire. After motor cars are dumped, the doors on the cars are closed before leaving the shaft station to guard against flying out and striking against post of a level set and causing train to be wrecked.
UTMOST SAFETY PROVIDED. IW DRIFTS AND CROSSCUTS
Just north of the shaft station and in direct line with the cage com partment is the timber station. The character of our ore is such that every foot of drift or crosscut, which is driven in ore, must be timbered and the set of timber properly lagged. Safe haulage can only be ac complished where the sides of the drifts and crosscuts on haulage levels are kept free of timber, plank, lagging, ladders, rails, etc. As it is neces sary to keep on hand, underground, a sufficient supply of these materials to carry on daily work, it is certainly a safety precaution to have a storage place for them. With us, the timber station serves this purpose and by its use we are able to keep our haulage ways tree of all materials.
Drifts and crosscuts are driven straight, even though in some cases it requires more rock work. We feel the advantages gained in doing this more than offsets the additional costs by increased safety and effi ciency. They are well lighted and these lights are placed at different intervals depending upon conditions. Lights are also installed at all switches, cross-overs, chutes and refuges or safety zones. These safety zones are found throughout the haulage level and are spaced about 100 feet apart. They are timbered openings, cut in on the side of the drift
Mining Section .
593
or crosscut, for a distance of three feet and afford a safe place in which to sand when motor train is passing. A green light is installed outside
so that anyone seeking these safety zones would be able to locate one,
in a hurry, should occasion demand. The trolley wire in front of each
chute Is guarded, in a similar manner, as at the shaft station. It is our
practice to place all chutes on one side of the drift or crosscut-and never
stagger them. This makes it much safer for the motorman, as he knows, beforehand, the exact location of these chutes. He does not have to be
dodging back and forth as he would If chutes were staggered. Care
must be taken by men loading cars at the chutes, to see that no chunks
or loose ore is permitted to accumulate on the track under the mouth of
the chute. This prevents possible derailment of cars. Trolley wires
throughout the level should be kept as nearly in alignment as possible.
This lessens danger of trolley jumping. All track frogs, switches and
guard rails should be properly and securely blocked so that a man walk ing over same could not get his foot caught. All throw-switches are of
an. approved type. The main safety features of. these switches is the
weight which is attached to the end of the throw handle. This keeps
switch in an open or closed position.
Where a drift branches off a crosscut, the radius of the curve is thirty
feet. This varies, naturally, on existing conditions but it is kept as close
to this figure as possible. The outside rail on all curves is banked by
raising the frog one and one half inches higher than the inside rail.
This eliminates derailment of cars in going around curves. Where more
than one electric locomotive is in use on the same level, block signals
are installed. The main block signal is located In the shaft crosscut.
As a locomotive goes out to the shaft, the trolley passes over a spring
contact switch. This throws on red lights in the drifts and 'crosscuts
from which other locomotives are pulling. When locomotive returns
from the shaft, contact spring switch is automatically thrown by trolley
again but in the opposite direction. This turns out red lights and throws
on green lights, showing that block is clear.
-
ELIMINATE EEiKSONAX. EQUATION By AUTOMATIC WARNING
Timber is taken from the timber station on trucks. It is pushed by hand or pulled by locomotive into the timber raises. Here it is hoisted up into the subs by tugger hoists or dropped to the subs below. At the timber raises, space is provided for storage of small quantities of timber so that no timber is found in the main haulage ways. When locomotives are used in taking in loaded timber trucks to timber raises, we have a rule that trucks must be pulled, also that a long connecting bar shall be used between locomotive and truck. If a loaded truck, was pushed by locomotive there- is a possibility that the top part of piled timber would strike on the bottom side of the chute and push one or more pieces of timber back onto motorman. In years past, we have had serious accidents to motormen whose feet, hanging outside the locomotive pit.
594 Twelfth Safety Congress
were crushed between, locomotive and cars or timber trucks. We have, therefore, made it imperative that motormen shall, when locomotive is in motion, keep feet inside locomotive pit_
No one is permitted to ride on cars and the motorman and brakeman are the only ones allowed to ride on locomotive. It is their duty to see that no materials are carried on locomotive. Automatic gongs of the gravity type are placed on all electric locomotives. The gong will sound at all times when locomtive is in motion. We feel that any such warning device should be automatic so as to remove the personal equation which is always -present in hand-operated warning devices. Headlights are placed on both ends of the locomotive and are protected by meshed screen guards placed in front of open face. We use two types of trolley poles, namely, the pole and the diamond. When using the pole type, pole is so placed as to trail locomotive. If pole was placed ahead of locomtive there would be too much danger of trolley pole jumping wire, causing possible injury. Of the two types the diamond is preferable. This is due to its position remaining constant at all times. The position of the pole trolley must be changed periodically to conform with rule that pole must trail locomotive. The diamond type also affords better contact between the trolley and wire and motorman can at all times guide it, should it become necessary.
A red taillight is carried on the rear end of the train. We have tested out numerous kinds of taillights with varying results. The taillight we use is a railroad flagman's lantern, and is manufactured by Adams & West lake Co., Chicago, 111. It is very similar to a railroad switch-light but considerably smaller and lighter. It has two red bull's eyes which are in line with each other. The light is furnished by a lamp in which signal oil is burned. The taillight is attached to the end car by means of a handle which extend over the end about half the depth of the car and is set back under the gable bottom of the car. This last feature protects the taillight at all times and particularly when car is being loaded at chute.
The couplings on our cars are of the link and pin type. To prevent accidents, when coupling cars,- we permit no one to do this work except the brakeman. He is instructed to lift the link into place, using the pin when making couplings. This puts this class of work in the hands of a man who understands and is familiar with it. When coupling cars on a curve, special care must be taken to do this coupling when standing on the outside of the curve. This side affords a greater distance between cars to be coupled than it. would if brakeman stood on the inside of the curve.
SAFETY 8Y7CCSSS COMES ONLY THKOUOH EDOCATON OF WOEKMEN
In passing over switches, locomotive must be stopped before motorman or brakeman leaves the locomotive to throw switch. Under no condition are flying switches to be made. Another ruling, in regard to motorman, is that he shall not turn control handle and move locomotive while standing on ground. He must be on locomotive and his feet in
Mining Section
595
locomotive pit. At the end. of the shift or, should motorraan leave his locomotive for any length of time, lie should remove the trolley from
wire, put controller handle in an "off" position and place reverse lever
in neutral.
When blasting is being done in the subs, close to a chute, there is always a possibility of some of the powder falling down into the chute. Trammers or any other men working on the level at or near this raise should be. notified and all traffic stopped at this point until blasting has been completed.
Our haulage equipment consists of the following: 25 pound rails are used on all main levels and tracks have a 24 inch gauge. Electric
locomotives are of two types--four and five tons. The four ton is manu factured by The General Electric Company and The Westinghouse Co., the five ton by The Goodman Manufacturing Company. Our main level cars are 24 inch gauge, iron, side dump, gable bottom, equipped with Hyatt roller bearings with spring lever dumping arrangement on end -and have a capacity of two tons. The axles are 2% inches, cold-rolied polished steel, equipped with 16 inch semi-steel wheels, one of which is pressed onto axle, the other being loose. This loose wheel takes up the slippage when car is going around a curve. The couplings are of cast steel and the links and pins are made of wrought iron.
Haulage accidents can be avoided only by the strict enforcement of all
safety rules and regulations. Daily inspections should be made Of all
rolling stock and a rigid educational campaign should be carried on
among the men engaged in this class of work. For after all has been said
and done, education is really the keynote of accident prevention. Some
one has so truly said: "The greatest safety device known is a careful
workman."
.
DISCUSSION
Asked by Mr. John R. Brownell, Mr. Shove said that parallel-throw switches were not used but that plenty of space for operation was pro vided. In the reply to the same question, Mr. Shove said that the trolley wires were not protected throughout the level hut only at the chutes and so as to extend on each side 3% feet beyond the end of the bumpers
of a two-ton car. The car was, of course, spotted immediately opposite the chute and consequently any man working at that point was fully protected.
The ore is a soft hematite with much moisture. For this reason it does not always run as readily as desired. Much poking has to be done, and the trough used to be arranged so that the bottom edges were further
apart than the top edges, but, unfortunately, when it was so built a man
could put his shoulder up in the trough. Now, the boards are placed
parallel and enough space (six inches) is left to give the trolley wheel
room to pass through but not enough that a man can get his shoulder
between the boards.
596 Twelfth Safety Congress
Mr. W. F. Pellenz, Jr., said 111ax the Oliver Iron Mining Company, at Eveleth. Minn., was using an electric tall light on locomotive ore trains which gave satisfaction, and that in the mines of his district a caboose was put on timber trains as it bad been found that on a return trip the empty timber trucks were apt not to be visible. Men who have stepped out for the locomotive to pass are apt to step back into the timber train. To avoid that a caboose is used equipped with the ordinary switch lamp,
burning carbide.
On the chairman asking whether electric couplings were provided between the cars Mr. Pellenz said that they had been used but, though it was the aim to keep the cars of the timber train intact, they were often switched and separated from the train. The chairman said that years ago the New Jersey Zinc Company had attempted to operate and equip all its cars in that way, but trouble was experienced in maintaining a good circuit with any kind of coupling it could devise at that time. Mr. Pellenz stated that the couplings required no more attention than equipment of this kind should receive.
USB OF CABOOSE
Mr. R. H. Seip wanted to know if anyone was using a caboose for his trainmen between the locomotive and. the trip, not on the timber trip
hut on ore or coal trains. The chairman said that owing to a' single accident the New Jersey Zinc Company had established the use of the caboose. A man who was riding on a locomotive was knocked off fay a chute, crushed between the cars and killed. That one accident occurred after many years of immunity from that cause of accident, but that one unfavorable experience caused the company to build a small coupling car on which three men could ride and disembark from without danger. It is not provided with a cab. No one present declared that they were using any such safety equipment.
On Mr. A. H. Trestrail asking if any one was using automatic couplers,
Mr. Shove said the Oliver Iron Mining Company was not using them in
the Ironwood district, in fact they were possibly the only company that
was not using them, though he believed they were "the only thing."
The chairman then said that the New Jersey Zinc Company had equipped
the last 20 or 30 cars purchased with automatic couplers of junior size
but had so far had little experience with them. Some people regarded
them as a nuisance because they could not be coupled ou curves without
shifting the coupler bars but that had to be done in every case with the
link-and-pin couplers.
'
Mr. Joseph "W. Reed asked what was the depth of the junior coupling. How much would it be necessary to raise one bar above another to cause them to uncouple or was the coupler arranged on a different principle
from that of the Gould coupler on railroad cars? The chairman replied that he did not see how it could uncouple. The two knuckle joints lock in each other and the pin drops down and holds the couplings in place. It is a pin coupling inside a knuckle joint.
Mining Section
597
Mr. Reed responded by saying that he knew of a small car in a coal mine that had been equipped with a coupling 4 inches deep. The track was not in good condition, and it was found that the cars uncoupled at every low joint. Finally the blacksmith made a coupling of small chains and the use of the automatic couplers was discontinued.
Either the track was greatly at fault or the coupler was deficient in depth. Mr. Reed added that a coupler 10 inches deep had be'en used on a large mine car and given no trouble whatsoever. Mr. E. W. Haggerson said that the Youngstown Sheet and Tube Company had used automatic couplers, but they would slip out in passing over a slight change in grade. The management had them all taken to the blacksmith shop. There shoulders were added at the top and bottom, and as a result they now never come apart.
Mr. A. H. Trestrail asked whether it was not an objection to the
automatic coupler that on a curve the man who was coupling the cars had to reach in and line up the connection either with his hands or his feet, but the chairman declared that the same difficulty presented itself with the link-and-pin coupling. Mr. Trestrail wanted to know, whether
an arrangement could be made on the outside of the car. so that the man doing the coupling could avoid the necessity of reaching between the cars.
Mr. Haggerson said that the Youngstown Sheet and Tube Company used
acetylene tail lights made in their own blacksmith shop and found them quite satisfactory.
The chairman added that the New Jersey Zinc Company had used acetyiene lamps but were troubled by the breakage of the red lenses. Mr. Haggerson's experience was similar. In two or three months 254 lenses were broken. At last they found a non-breakable lens. The lens would break, but the parts would not separate.
SAFETY IN MINE LOCOMOTIVE HAULAGE
G. F. MacWilliams, Electrical Engineer, Pennsylvania Coal and Coke
Corporation, Cresson, Penn.
The quantity of coal to be hauled, the distance the loads have to be
transported, the grades to be traversed, and the weight of the empty
car all combine to govern the weight of the locomotive or" the size of
the hoist that must be used in mine haulage.
As, on a gradient of 7 per cent, a locomotive or loaded car will slide
if once started downward, hoists should be used instead of locomotives
on gradients of 7 per cent or. over wherever possible. This commends
itself as a policy, for as a locomotive must haul itself as well as its trip
it becomes extremely inefficient on such gradients.
As a trip will run readily on a 2% per cent gradient, and will run
backward if a coupling should break, drags should always be provided
where the gradients are 2 ys per cent and over.
Even if no one is injured, the wrecking of a single trip will prove far more expensive than providing a . drag. Thus economy as well as
safety will be promoted by its use.
.
'
598 Twelfth Safety Congress
As heavy rails give conditions favorable to traction and also support the load more safely and keep the track in better shape and for a longer time, they should he used in preference to light rails.
I-OCOMO uvts
The wheel base and the diameter of the wheels of a locomotive should be proportioned to the radius of the curves the locomotive is to run over, to the speed of the locomotive, and other factors. For instance, with a curve of eight-foot radius, the wheel base should be 20% inches, and the diameter of the wheel should be 18 Inches. Similarly with a curve of 4 feet, 7 inch radius, the wheel base should be 10 feet and the diameter of the wheels 33 inches.
No less a tread than 3 inches should be used on a gathering loco
motive running on 16- or 20-pound rails, as the track cannot be kept
in gage unless the tread is at least that specified. With a haulage loco
motive, however, a 2%-inch tread will suffice if the tracks are kept in
proper condition.
'
The minimum clearance of the lowest part of the locomotive from
the cross rails should be 3% inches, this allowance being increased,
to 5 inches at the bumpers.
"
The weight on the driver of a locomotive should be carefully bal
anced. Otherwise the locomotive will tend to climb the rails on curves,
the drivers may slip, pinions and gears may be stripped, the brakes may fail to hold and the motors may burn out.
It Would appear that the' practice of connecting sets of drivers by. sprockets and chain so as to balance the load could be carried with beneficial results much further than is customary. The braking effect on a steel wheel is greater and its tendency to slide backward is less on steep grades than with the cast-iron wheel. For this reason it is a safer wheel to operate, but changes from cast-iron to steel wheels should not be made without considering the effect on drawbar pull, as tbe motors are liable to be overloaded by the greater tractive effort after the change is made unless the speed is reduced in some manner.
The cast-iron wheel is cheaper and will wear less when first installed than the steel or steel-tired wheel, but as soon as the "chill" is worn through it must be scrapped. Due to the hardness of the tread of the chilled cast-iron wheel its adhesion to the rail is less than that of steel . wheels. This reduces the drawbar pull as well as the power of the brakes. The steel wheel, whether rolled or cast, or the steel-tired wheel win give 25 per cent more tractive effort than the cast-iron wheel and, if properly designed, can be turned successfully several times, thereby offsetting the lower first cost of a wheel made of cast Iron.
` The most dependable form of brake is one that acts directly on the wheels, for brakes acting on the armature or intermediate shafts may be put out of service by the fracture of a shaft or the stripping of a pinion. For this reason regenerative or magnetic braking with the motor should be regarded as merely auxiliary. When such braking is provided
Mining Section
599
the hand, brake which applies pressure directly to the wheels by no means should be neglected. The brakes should be arranged so that the pressure against all the wheels will be equalized, for by that means the maximum braking effect will be attained.
MOTORS
In order to prevent overloading, which may cause the trip to get out of control when descending grades, and because of the high cost of main tenance when the motors are overloaded, they should be of such capacity that they can cause the wheels to slip.
One side of the motor should be suspended on springs to prevent shock
to gears, pinions, axles and armature shafts. Many cases of high cost of maintenance may be traced to the condition of these springs or their elimination.
The axle linings and the housings of bearings should be carefully in
spected for wear, for many armatures as well as many gears and pinions
are destroyed from the lack of adjustment of either or both, which throws
the gears out of mesh.
'
BUMPERS
The writer prefers as a bumper, a steel channel with wood blocks,
having two inverted ells near the center, for in a collision the wood acts as a cushion, the ells preventing the locomotive from being overridden by the cars. "When the bumper is thus constructed the steel channel will bend or spring whereas if the bumper is a casting it may be broken in two.
.
CARE OP WHEELS
.
Wheels should be kept in condition,, or the locomotive will be' derailed. Many methods have been tried for overcoming the effects of wear, and the best means for maintaining safe wheels is a consideration closely allied to their safe operation.
Steel tires, if shrunk on, will prove expensive fo maintain unless a
good mechanic is on hand to see that the tire is shrunk on the wheel in the correct manner. A tire that can be removed and installed like an automobile tire has been used with success by our company. We have a dummy center on which it can be installed readily for turning whenever the tire becomes worn. We tried for some time to true the wheels by grinding, but the eost was high, and the mechanics-made much objection to the dust raised during the truing operation. Furthermore, it is diffi
cult to keep the wheels true by this method.
We have reduced the number of shapes and sizes of wheels on our locomotives to comply with certain standards and have so arranged them that in many cases after a wheel has been turned down a number of
times it can be used on a locomotive taking a wheel of smaller diameter.
Whenever a wheel has worn on the tread so as to give a false flange
*4 inch deep it is sent to the shop for turning.
600 Twelfth Safety Congress
ELEVATION OF WEDGING RING AND CROSS SECTIONS OF
DEMOUNTABLE TIRE
~
,8 Holes tqu<r//y * spaccet
I'' int2"/enptf, ~ irzgrVjvnJllii\t/t20-00.7052nD"oira-0m.d. oJSo/s"r^jxnc^es
\ r"'22^ "dan:.
P;^ ,| /*jc
*
Enlarged Section I A"A
~-.Z0.250"Diam., Tolerances *0.002''or-O.OOSJ"
S%J.
li t -it
Sis lb
--
*! Sf. Section Through
** ^ Wheel Center3
!
o
\<r~Track" gage fine
Taper 4"Diam. in f2 "/wy/A
;| IX
Section Through Tiro
At 1 is shoicn hoio the tire is teedged into place "by two rings having tapering surfaces ichich ftress against the tire as the' bolts arc tightened up. At 2 is shown a cross-section of the tire, in which an f shows the finished surfaces. The diameter is at ?io point allowed to be 0.005 in. larger or 0.002 in. smaller than standard. At S one of the rings is shown and in J the wheel center with its finished surfaces, f.
At the shops standard shapes are kejpt to which the flange and tread are turned to fit; all wheels are checked before the wheel Is mounted on the axle to determine if the bore and tread are at right angles. The wheels of any pair must be turned so that the diameters are within
sVinch of each other. Where the flanges of the wheels are so badly worn that they cannot be finished, with a flange at least % inch thick, the wheel is condemned. Wheels also are rejected when the thickness of the tread after turning would be less than % inch.
HOW TBBADS ABE BEPAIBED
The wheels are gaged at the four quarters with a track gage, with ends
shaped to the tread and made of
inch flat steel, the purpose being
to determine if the axle and wheels are true. The wheels are checked again at the mines with a similar gage to determine whether they have
Mining Section
601
been damaged- in shipping. We have made no attempt to build up by welding the whole tread of a worn or damaged wheel, for fear that doing so would warp the wheel or set up heat strains. However, flat spots in the tread, not over 2 inches in length, are sometimes restored by weld ing, the. wheel being turned true after this operation.
WHEEL, AND TIRE GAGES USED BY SIR. MAOWIEEIAMS
Thickness 4k"
Check at fourpoints to determine ifcrx/e ./*> ta true and tf treadis at rigtrt ang/es. k^----------------------------------36"Gage ----------
The Pennsylvania Coal and, CoTce Corporation is confident that by beeping the axle true and the tread at right angles derailments can be avoided.
We have not been successful in using self-grinding brake shoes, as every locomotive wheel would need a shoe suited to the deformity pro duced by wear, and the wheel would have to be carefully watched. The shoe would have to be removed when it has done its work or it would wear down the tread excessively.
All the wheels should be turned at the same time, for if one pair has a thin flange and the other is new the locomotive will not ride parallel to the track, and derailments are likely to occur. Consequently, when new wheels are installed a complete new set should be provided.
I believe it is safe to state that 20 per cent of the series fields in loco motives that have been operated over three years are defective, and it is good practice to test the fields whenever an armature is'changed because It may burn out from overloads. Of course, an armature running in a defective field will tend to rotate faster and if in parallel with another motor will carry an excessive load. ` It is for this reason, principally, that I believe it to be bad practice to provide only one circuit breaker or one fuse for a locomotive. Contrary to the general practice, each individual motor should have its own protection.
If a thorough inspection were made of all locomotives, it would be found that in many of them the wire is too small. In consequence, time is lost on the road, material is destroyed, and the operative exposed to danger unnecessarily. These defects could be avoided were more con sideration given to the size of the wire and its proper installation.
TROLLEY WIRE
In most caSes 4/0 trolley wire is as small as should be used, and in some cases we are about to try 6/0 wire so as to obtain more power and give the trolley "wheel a better contact. In few roadways should the hangers be placed over 25 feet apart, and in many places they should be set even closer, as the price of a hanger and the cost of its installa tion is easily lost in the damage to pole heads, wheels, poles, etc. Further more, when the wheel strikes the roof the operative Is In danger.
r
602
Twelfth Safety Congress
Seldom are enough hangers Installed on curves, and the trouble re
sulting from the incorrect alignment of the wire is so frequent that the
motorman regards it as a condition altogether to be anticipated. The
feed to the trolley wire from the feeder is generally mechanical and of
insufficient capacity. Soldered feed ears with soldered lugs instead of
set screws and a soldered tap to the feeder would give better results.
It is remarkable to me that no one wishes to try out in the mines the
Edison three-wire system, using the rail as a neutral. If the locomotive
is in perfect condition, but the track or feeder system is in poor con
dition, safety and economy are still lacking.
In many instances it will be found that a feeder having a cross sec
tion of as much as a million circular mills has been installed, with 2/0
or 4/0 bonds on the rail and no return conductor. If the rail Is of ample
capacity it is more economical to bond the rail to its capacity than to
go to the expense of a return conductor, as the labor cost of Installing
the small bond will be nearly as great as that of using the larger, and the material cost of the large bond will be much less than the cost of the
small bond and the return conductor. The- writer prefers the welded
bond, for while the first results of the compressed type of bond are as
good as those of the welded type, the welded bond unquestionably lasts
longer.
Wherever possible, feed ears should be of the soldered type, for after a clamp feed ear has been in service for a year its value is doubtful. To give the necessary strength the suspension ear should be long and thin rather than short and thick, so that the trolley wheel may pass over it smoothly and without vicious sparking. With an adequate feeder or return system, the locomotives will work inefficiently, the cost of main tenance will be high, and as the headlights will fluctuate, an irregular illumination of the track will make the haulage service dangerous. Fur thermore, with bad trolley wire and hangers the vicious sparking that will inevitably occur will blind the operative and. distract his attention.
For main haulage hardly anything will compete with the trolley loco motive. If the excessive ventilation required by a gasoline locomotive can be provided without undue cost, that form of traction can be used, but where such ventilation is difficult or costly the gasoline locomotive cannot compete with the electric.
For gathering, the storage-battery locomotive is probably the safest, but it has the disadvantage' that during the day's work it is constantly losing power. The cable-reel locomotive Is probably the type most liable to cause accidents, for at the room neck the operative must make con nections either with the trolley wire or with both the trolley wire and the rail. The dragging cable also needs care if accidents are to be avoided. We have found the combination locomotive economical, as the battery
has to handle only one or two cars in a room and the time lost in connecting the cable is avoided. The combination locomotive is safer than the cable-reel type because the danger of coupling the cable is oh-
Mining Section
603
viated. We get more coal per locomotive with the combination gathering locomotive than with either of the other types, the straight battery ma chine gathering least coal of any.
All our cable reels are grounded through the frame of the locomo tive, and when using concentric cable some of the dangers may be avoided by making the outside copper always of negative or of ground polarity.
BESTBICTED USE OP SAND
The less sand used, the safer and more economical the operation is. The ideal quantity of sand to use would be such as would give the rail a coating as thin as that placed on sand paper. A handful of sand will offer as much resistance as a two per cent adverse grade, and a large quantity will obstruct the trip after the locomotive has passed. It will also tend to reduce the power received by the locomotive and is liable to insulate it from the rail, making it dangerous for persons to touch it. On a man trip if an insulated coupling is not used the current passing through the couplings may shock the men in the cars.
Too little attention is paid to fnses on all mine machinery; copper wire, pieces of iron, etc., often replacing fuses. Circuit breakers are jumped or blocked with the result that the equipment is overheated, insulation is roasted and in' consequence in case of short circuits or other troubles neither machine nor operative have any protection.
MUTE CABS
.
All kinds of mine cars are used, yet, as far as I can learn, little consid eration has been given to reducing the friction in plain bearings by properly proportioning them to the speed of the wheels, except possibly in the case of the hollow axle.
Most couplings are of primitive type and a source of danger. The car in general is seldom designed so that it will haul the largest quantity of coal with the least dead weight possible having regard to the kind of mine in which, it is to be used.
We have had at our mines only one minor accident due to locomotives in three years and only three minor accidents due to electricity in that same period. In the past we had many derailments some of which were due to the springing^ of axles in the unloading of wheels. Since we have put our rules in force we have had no locomo.tive derailments for a whole year.
DISCUSSION
Mr. M. S. Murray said that the experience of the Ford Collieries Com pany with welded bonds had not been fortunate. His company had been using the type where the bond is welded to the hall of the rail. Mr. MacWilliams said that he had taken up with the American Brass Company the question as to the proper shape for a bond and the proper place for its application. He had induced the American Steel and Wire Company to develop a triangle shape which is put on the top or base ef-the rail. It bridges the fish plate beyond the joint.
604
Twelfth. Safety Congress
He tried welding on the ball of the rail and under the base of the rail but in both places had trouble. Mr. MacWilliams assured Mr. Murray that the bond finally adopted was a flexible bond. He said that he had discovered--what apparently hitherto had been given no consideration-- that the area of the weld must be ten times the cross-section of the bond itself. The type of the bond which the American Steel and Wire Company devised for the company is called the A-C type. Some of the bonds have been installed already for one year.' The bond is of a flexible copper cable. The head is welded on in the factory. .
Mr. MacWilliams said the demountable tire-was manufactured by the
General Electric Company, and that in one place where they`were being
used, the trips were being hauled a mile over a 4% per cent gradient,
much sand being used. He watched the demountable tire carefully to
see if the heating would cause the tire to expand and loosen. He found
that it did not.
..
Mr. Tillson then called Mr. MacWilliams' attention to that part of his paper in which he advocated "the practice of connecting sets of drivers by sprockets and chain so as to balance the load could be carried with beneficial results much further than is customary." He desired to know whether he applied that suggestion only to locomotives that have only a
single-motor drive or intended it to apply to those which have a motor drive on from and rear axles. Did he, said Mr. Tillson, believe that these should be interconnected?
Mr. MacWilliams replied that in every instance it was advisable to connect the'axles with sprockets and chains and added that, without such a provision, he was convinced that the effort on the two axles was not adequately equalized. Asked by Mr. Tillson whether in the dirt of the mine it would not be well to limit the use of sprockets and chains and whether the benefits of equalization would not be lost in the dis
advantages resulting from the use of this additional mud-gathering complication.
Mr. MacWilliams replied that he had had a 14-incli sprocket and chain in use four years and that sprockets and chains had been used both with single- and double-reduction gearing. The sprocket was applied to the main axle of the locomotive, the sprocket and chain being at one end and the gear of the motor at the other.
*
rriGjr sijked storage hatteky r.ocomotive
Mr. Tillson said that* the New Jersey Zinc Company was trying a high speed two-and-half ton storage-battery locomotive with a remotecontrol system so that the usual crew of three men (two men to load the cars from the chutes and dump the ore and a third man to spend most of his time in the locomotive spotting the cars) could be reduced to two by mounting on the locomotive a spring-retracting cable reel. By hang ing a relay three-wire cable wound on the reel to a nail near the chute, the chute loader standing near the rail and operating the bars can control the locomotive moving it back and forward on the slow-speed position.
Mining Section
605
This device is to be used in. intermediate levels where the hauling distances run about five or six hundred feet and where small cars and hand tramming are now generally used because of the restricted sizes of the drifts and the sharp turns in the timberage. The equipment, said Mr. Tillson, has, as yet, not been received and so it is impossible to say how successful it will be in actual practice.
In response to Mr. Hall's inquiry, Mr. MacWilliams stated that the Pennsylvania Coal & Coke Corporation, that had such a remarkably low record for accidents due to electricity and derailments and had not had a locomotive derailment for a year had thirty-six mines and 205 locomotives. In one mine the haul was over five miles and in that mine the average haul was 3.8 miles. The tonnage of all the mines is between 15,000 and 18,000 tons daily.
All the coal is hauled by locomotives and hoists. On some extremely bad grades hoists are being used and the Pennsylvania Coal & Coke Corporation found them very economical and safer than the locomotive. The company also has small 5-hp. hoists with which cars are gathered to the room beading.
In reply to Mr. L. C. Iisley, Mr. MacWilliams said that insulated couplers, made in the company shops, were used on all man trips, the coupler being built up of flat iron and hard fiber. Mr. M. S. Murray said that the Ford Collieries Company, was using insulated couplings on many trips similar to those described by Mr. MacWilliams, except that wood was used instead of fiber. He added that the wood in time would draw moisture making the coupling leak, and then the wood blocks bad to be renewed which was not difficult or expensive matter. Mr. MacWilliams stated that the fiber was more expensive than wood but that the couplings lasted a long time when manufactured according to the designs which the' Pennsylvania Coal & Coke Corporation was' using.
In reply to Mr, Tillson, Mr. Murray said that they did not paraffin the wood used in their couplings. Mr. Tillson said that if the wood were soaked in melted paraffin, it would materially increase its electric re-
INSULATED DRAWBAR COUPLING
This coupling is used at the mines of the Pennsylvania Coal < Coke Corpora tion for preventing current from running back from the locomotive to the mine cars. Fiber serves as the insulating medium.
606 Twelfth Safety Congress
sistauce. It was common practice to use paraffined wood on rails to insulate locomotives. Mr. MacWilliams advocated the use of fiber as wood split too readily and fiber would last.
USE OF BAKELITE
Mr. Tillson desired to know if any one had used Bakelite. He said; he had found that insulating material inefficient on an underground min ing signal. Though it is used on automobile magnetos it is not a good insulator when moisture gets on the surface for, being a carbonaceous material, it carbonizes and gives unsatisfactory results underground.
Mr. MacWilliams said, that the National Electric Light Association thought well of the form of protection used at his mines. The steel coupling is protected by a coating made of boiled linseed oil, red lead and jajan. On the fiber ^as used a baking varnish, well baked in. Mr. Tillson said that porcelain, if used, would not stand the shock. In this Mr. MacWilliams concurred.
Mr. A. C. Germain said tbat he noted that at both Mr. Shove's mines and those of Mr. MacWilliams link-and-pin couplings were used. With these, men frequently had their fingers smashed or amputated. He said that the company with which he was formerly associated had standard ized on a certain maximum curvature and had requested the National Malleable Castings Company to provide a coupling that would meet his company's conditions. That firm recommended a three-quarter size Vul can Standard Coupler, and this was installed. After that no accidents occurred during the year and a half in which the couplings were under his observation.
Mr. Germain said that he did not know how the particular car, which was small, compared with a mine -car as he was not a mining man. Asked how the couplings compared with Master Car Builders' coupler, Mr. Germain said he believed it was of the same type. Mr. MacWilliams said his company would be glad to discover a patent coupler tbat would go satisfactorily over the sharp vertical curves over which the trips had to pass. In hoisting on to the tipples the cars had to travel over sharp knuckles and he had not teen able to find one that would pass over those knuckles satisfactorily.
SAFETY IN UNDERGROUND TRANSPORTATION AT
COAJL/ MINES--TRACKS
Ai.phoxse F. Bbosky, Associate Editor, Coal Age, Pittsburgh, Pa.
Haulage is that phase of mining over which the operator has the great est control. He is not so well able to protect his men against falls of roof and coal as he is against accidents from locomotives and mine cars. It may also be pointed out that, as in many other instances, safety in mine haulage Is good engineering practice, not only humanitarian but profitable to any operator or engineer who provides it. Wrecks are as wasteful of time and equipment a3 they are of human lives.
Mining Section
607
President Rush N. Hosier told the Coal Mining Institute of America
that in Pennsylvania bituminous mines "one employee in every 250 engaged in haulage is killed each year, and annually one brakeman and trip rider in every 120 engaged in that work is killed." An analysis of
his tables giving the causes of fatalities from accidents in the haulage of bituminous coal discloses that 28 per cent of these accidents occurring during the last five years on the outside of the mine and 41 per cent on the inside are due to wrecks.
CORRECT HAULAGE METHODS REDUCE ACCIDENTS
In most cases wrecks are not the direct fault of the employees. Faulty ' rolling stock and trackage are responsible. More attention to clearances, more effort to keep the haulage roads clean, more provisions to prevent
derailed cars from displacing timbers, the employment of trap doors that operate automatically and a due regard for discipline will ultimately reduce these percentages to a normal level/ Proper attention to the
safe practices in haulage will afford steadier work to all employed, and
this results in greater efficiency.
Underground transportation can be bettered in two directions--one,
attention to the road bed and the other a study of the more technical
features of the problem.
For safe and economic haulage the. track should be well supported
and straight to a fault except where curves are necessary to meet changes in direction. Such curves should be of long radius. On the main haulages
the curves will be so gradual .that the motorman will feel assured of safety and so will not cut off any of his power and the only reduction
in speed will be that which is the result of the increased friction between
wheels and rails and between axles and bearings such as is inevitable
when traveling around curves.
.
If he is not compelled to "feel" his way around the curve, then assuredly
that curve is properly designed and constructed. The rails should be
so well matched that the joints have neither vertical nor horizontal offsets
of any magnitude. Then the locomotive and cars, will travel quietly
except for the inevitable noise of moving parts and rubbing surfaces.
The cars will not sway from side to side as the wheels hit irregularly lined joints, nor will the wheels be mounting or dropping at stepped
joints. To insure this regularity of track, the rails jnust be tied together
by fishplates firmly bolted and be mounted on ties spaced close enough and ballasted well enough to carry the loads to which they are subjected.
Judgment and not a rule of thumb should be used in selecting the
kind and size of ties and in deciding upon their spacing. Sometimes
when the spacing seems to be correct the support may be insufficient, due to the condition of the timber. Ties to ail appearances sound may
be rotted on the bottom, in which case the track is likely to spread or
break down at an inopportune moment, fail without warning and cause a serious wreck. There is ample proof, from those who have already
tried out the plan, that wherever track is to be kept in permanent use,
treatment of the ties with wood preservative is both an economy and a
608 Twelfth Safety Congress
safeguard. The rails should rest on tie plates, especially where the ties
have been treated with a wood preservative and so are likely to have a life long enough to make it profitable to preserve the timber from the
tearing action of the spikes. And here let it be said that only the best
ties obtainable should be used. Culls have no place where strong track
is desired.
The Inland Collieries Company recently adopted as standard practice the laying of creosoted ties on all the main haulage roads in its Indianola
mine, located near Pittsburgh, Pa. Whenever' old, untreated ties are
replaced on these roads, creosoted ties will be used for the purpose and
their life will be lengthened by inserting tie plates between rail and tie.
An example of this practice is well illustrated on a west- haulage road
off the main north entry in this mine. A stretch of 2,500 ft. is laid with
60-lb. iron, resting on 5x7 in. creosoted yellow pine ties spaced on 19-inch centers. In providing a suitable grade for this track much rock was pene
trated. This refuse was utilized in ballasting the track. Though the cost
of the treated ties was about $1.10 each, the ultimate saving warrants
the expenditure.
.
No fixed rule has been adopted for the spacing of ties on `underground roads. Too often they are set too far apart,' with resultant track trouble
due to insufficient support. The track gets out of line simply because the
ties are too few to keep a sufficient grip on the roadbed and spreading
is likely to occur if by reason of the sparsity of ties a sufficient number
of spikes cannot *be driven to hold the rails to gauge. It is better always
to err in the direction of placing ties too close to each other than to
attempt to economize by putting them too far apart.
If the tracklayers are careless and do not leave enough clearance at
the joints before plating and spiking, the rail is likely to buckle. If old
track sags and gets out of alignment, it may be realigned, the joints may
be made tight, ties retamped and conditions greatly improved thereby
without interfering with current operations; but if it buckles, no matter
to what extent, there is but one positive remedy and that is to tear
up the entire length affected, to jack the crooked rails until they are
straight, to shift the ties back into line and to re-lay the track.
The Elkhorn division of the Consolidation Coal Company maintains a
uniform joint clearance of
inch in all its mines. A gauge of poplar
V& inch thick is furnished all tracklayers for this purpose.
.
HEAVIER BAILS FOE UNDERGROUND TRACK
The growing tendency in mines is towards heavier rail on main haulageways. Rails heavy enough to sustain almost rigidly the loads which travel over them should be provided. With *'ie introduction of the electric mine locomotive 40-pound rail was laid on all major haulage roads so that today only rarely is a mine with a production of 1,000 or more tons daily equipped with lighter rail than this. Where companies produce a large tonnage from a single mine they sometimes provide rail even heavier than 40 pounds for their main haulage roads. Not a few com panies have been using 70-pound rails for some time wherever long hauls
Mining Section
609
form the face to the shaft bottom or to daylight necessitates the. maxi mum speed allowed by law. With the rapid advances in underground transportation/ may we not believe that at some future date all mines with large acreages will be laid with 70-pound track, and the whole system laid out so as to approach that on our present railroad systems?
To maintain good track after it is once laid, the entries, wherever water is likely to gather during the wet seasons, must be provided with drainage ditches. In many mines where the roadbed softens and expands when wetted, the management need look .no further than this for a cure of its haulage ills. Ordinarily, in a well-drained roadway the waste material of which the roadbed is made tamps to a compact mass that gives but little under a passing trip of loads. But when wetted this same material loosens up and heaves, distorting the track and failing to support it properly.
BRACING TO ELIMINATE TRACK SHIFTING
Track shifting -can be averted, oftentimes, merely by bracing the rail from the ribs. The number of braces in a unit of distance depends upon the tendency of the track to shift. Two braces to one rail length, stag gered to either side, usually is sufficient. One company, on main haulage roads, staggers these braces so that they are placed on 29-foot centers. However, on curves these braces should be inserted every 8 or 10 feet. It is a wise practice to brace every curve on which locomotives and trips
are likely to pass. In any case, the braces and ties should not be per
mitted to project above the level of the roadbed or above the walkway
on the clearance side.
.
In the Springdale mine of the Allegbeny-Fittsburgh Coal Company, the
South river tunnel crosses under the Allegheny River. Due to the charac
ter of the bottom, which is fire clay, and to the wetness of the tunnel, the management found it next to impossible to maintain a well-aligned track there until a roadbed of concrete was constructed. The track was blocked up, section by section, to permit pouring of concrete slabs to grade. These were constructed with a thickness of about 12 inches. When they had set, each section was lowered on the table-like roadbed whose large bearing surface now supports the track so well that no further trouble from this source is being experienced.
In passing, I wish to emphasize the need for care in installing and maintaining rails and switching equipment. Near frogs, guard rails should be used just as frequently in the mine as in standard railroad work. Caution should be exercised in the laying of switches to place the knuckle of the rail and fhe switch point in proper relation to each other. Carelessness in the laying of a turnout frequently is manifested by the "bunching" of the curve of the turnout near the frog. Rolling stock in passing over the resulting "hook" changes direction abruptly, as a conse quence of which, the wheels sometimes are lifted from the track.
Certain, changes must be made in trackage from time to time to meet shiftings of the live working places. Switches and frogs to a room neck, even though that room will one day become a haulage road, should
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Twelfth Safety Congress
be torn up as soon as tbe room is finished, if this eauipment will not be used again for a period of six months or more. It might be advisable to lay better track at this point later. Frogs and switches are destructive to rolling stock and the fewer there are the better.
CAUSES OF LOCOMOTIVE DERAILMENT
There is ever existing danger of locomotives being derailed whenever their tires are worn down to an extent that the clearance between the
underside of the locomotive and the rails is no longer sufficient to pass over without rubbing obstructions between the rails. A piece of slate or a hard piece of coal on the roadway may raise the locomotive from the
track and cause it to leave the rails. This is more likely'to occur where the track rolls, for in that event the front end of the locomotive tilts upward or downward as it travels along the roadway. By better loco motive design the dangers of derailment arising from the faults of the machine itself are being eliminated; In consequence practically all new locomotives are safe in this respect. In the past, a few locomotives were designed without enough underclearance to permit the machine to run safely even when the wear on the tires still was within reason.
Inquiry was made of mechanical engineers at mines as to the wear
on a locomotive tire which might be considered reasonable, economical
and safe. The reports received from many of those consulted indicated
that they were practically unanimous in the belief that a locomotive'never
should be allowed to lower more than one inch by the wearing of the
wheels--that is, the web radius should be reduced no more than that. Practice from mine to mine differs but little in this regard. Tires are permitted to wear % inch, more or less, before the first turning. Then
they are worn Vz inch more, thus lowering the locomotive one inch.
Occasionally it is the practice to allow the tires to wear down still more,
in which event they should be turned twice. The practice is neither
economical nor safe, however.
'
On well-kept haulage roads where no obstructions project above the level of the rails, a well-designed locomotive is in little danger o^ rubbing along the bottom, even though the tires be allowed to wear thin. In spite
of the fact that the motors on locomotives are hung low and tires wear or are turned until they are thin, reducing the underclearance as much as 114 inch, this should not cause the locomotive to rub on the bottom, provided the roadway is clean. It is not safe to lay too much stress on the cleaning of the roadway, however, for a fall of rock or coal from a car or from the roof may make the roadway, however well kept, far from clean at the point where it occurs.
Locomotive clearance always must be figured from the elevation of the top of the rail and not from its base. The locomotive may pass readily above the ties and yet come to grief at the transverse rail of a turnout.
Deeply grooved locomotive tires are likely to cause accidents not on the straight track but in transferring at switch points and to a lesser extent in crossing over points of narrow-angled or large-numbered frogs
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Twelfth Safety Congress
rib. Where the roof load is no greater than may be carried safely by the coal itself, short blocks resting on the coal may be used to support the crosspieces. This will keep the footing above the danger zone which lies between the bottom of the roadway and a point slightly above the top of the mine car.
Steel timber sets find their greatest use at turnouts, and it is just here that a derailment is likely to occur. Anchoring the legs on concrete piers placed in the bottom will not always prevent these posts from being dis lodged when hit by a derailed motor. The safest practice is to build a concrete wall approximately the height of the mine car and to-rest short legs on this.
When a long trip of cars, either of loads or empties, travels along the roadway, the motorman being on one end and the snapper on the other, a mine car in the middle of the trip may leave the track and ride the ties without either man becoming aware of that fact. Sometimes the motorman can feel by tbe jerking of his locomotive that a car in the trip is derailed, but this is rare.
FOUR DERMA SENT RERAIDERS UNDERGROUND
.
These rcrailers replace cars automatically as the trip proceeds on its tray. The illustration is front a photograph taken at JJine -Vo. 294 of the Consolidation Coal Co.. Jenkins? Ky. The ?`crailcrs retrack cars both on coming and going
trijts. X'ote the wood inclines which raise the ichccls gradually to a height at
which their flanges or their treads can move readily over or onto the rail, rcs2)cctively, and drop into place.
I
Mining Section
613
He may ascribe the "hard" running to a lack of lubrication or .to some other condition and remain content until a pile-up occurs. A derailed car often will continue to run in this manner for long distances, being held from further displacement by the cars on either side of it. Several cars may leave the track before the motorman discovers that something is wrong.
TJSE OF KE-KAILERS PREVENTS TBilK ACCIDENTS
Nowadays, permanent re-railers are being introduced at points in the mine where cars are most likely to leave the track unnoticed. These form an integral part of the track itself. Sometimes they are placed on the outside of the track and sometimes on the inside. Occasionally they are placed on both sides. They automatically rerail mine cars and are equally effective in guiding the wheels of a locomotive back to the track, using its own power for that purpose.
When these rerailing devices are used an elevating platform is placed between the wing flanges and the straight track. This usually is of wood and is arranged so as to rise to the rail level at the point where the rerail and the other rail come most closely together. This is known as the "throat". In this way the wheels will be at an elevation that will make rerailing easy and automatic.
Though derailments occur where conditions are such as to' favor them they are likely to happen even where they are least expected. Motormen insist now that their locomotives, regardless of type, shall carry rerailers. Efficient companies are equally insistent on this score, main taining that time should be saved that is wasted in looking for the para phernalia wherewith to retrack derailed locomotives.
The use of props, ties or a jack in this work is to be discouraged if
possible as that practice is fraught with danger to life and limb. No
man is a coward nor is he lacking in devotion to duty when he refuses
to hold a tie or prop in position for the rerailing of a locomotive. Unusual
conditions surrounding the scene of derailment may make it impossible
for a locomotive to regain the track on its own power. Another loco
motive, a block and chain or a Sylat post puller will aid, the last two
by holding what ground is gained by the locomotive in moving under
its own power. Extreme care should be taken by the men to keep out
of the direct path of the chain for the latter is sure to act like ,a whip
whenever it breaks. .
_
' rKOPEK INSTALLATION AND MAINTENANCE IMPORTANT
Some one method of laying track should be adopted. The tracklayers will readily adjust themselves to it. Coal companies do not insist with sufficient determination on the proper installation and maintenance of their track equipment. This is just as important as good materials for complaints against the material in use often lies not so much in faulty fabrication as in improper installation and maintenance.
Track should not be laid with rails of too many different w.eights. The usual three classes--heavy for the main roadway, medium, for cross
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Ticelfth Safety Congress
or room entries and light for the rooms--should be strictly followed. Transferring from one size of rail to another is better accomplished by switches than by joints, and if this plan is adopted derailments will be fewer.
The use of parallel-throw switches throughout the mine not only pro tects the lives and limbs of snappers but also pi'eserves the switch points from damage and eliminates derailments of the locomotive. In setting a normal-throw switch, which is thrown toward the track, the snapper
has little time until the locomotive is upon him. Thus hurried he may not close the switch completely. In consequence the locomotive will dam age the switch point and on rare occasions will climb over it. The parallel-throw switch, because it is always in the clear whether opened or closed, imparts a confidence to the snapper that moves him to set it correctly.
A comparative freedom from haulage accidents is best attained in one of its elements by careful inspection of mine cars. Some superintendents are beginning to sense that fact, and at least one is a "stickler" for thor ough mine car inspection; the highest paid employee on the outside of his mine is none other than the man who inspects the mine cars. That
employee is not even burdened with the job of lubrication and hence he can concentrate his attention- on inspection.
BRAKES IMPORTANT OX AIIXE CARS
Brakes are placed on mine cars for a purpose. If we may judge from the indifference which some officials exhibit as to the condition in which they are kept, brakes are merely added through a whim of the manufac turer. How often has it happened that a snapper reached for a brake to
check the speed of a mine car only to find that it did not take bold. The result usually is a collision. Only infrequently is there a derail ment, but the damage done by frequent collisions of a mine car with another will indirectly cause it to leave the track at some time or other. But because no cars leave the track directly as a result of poor brakes, there is no reason why the brakes should not be carefully watched and cars with jjoor brakes taken to the repair shop, for the shocks sustained by cars having ineffective braking equipment will inevitably bring them there before long.
The breaking of mine-caf hitcbings is quite often the cause of wrecks. If the snapper breaks the law by not riding the last car in the trip-- which he sometimes does--the breaking of a hitching behind him will drop one or more cars from the trip. The snapper will have no knowledge of this fact. If on a level stretch of track, these cars will block the pas sage of the next locomotive and may cause a collision. If on a grade, the runaway cars are apt to leave the track by reason of the great speed which they may attain, if they do not collide with a trip coming towards them.
Runaway cars on slopes are likely to cause fatal accidents. Drag bars
may be attached to the last car in the trip, but, even so, these do not always act to stop released cars from going down the slope, wrecking at
Mining Section
615
the bottom where as many as ten men may, in some instances, be at work. Needless to say, a derailing device of some kind should be placed on all
slopes to wreck any cars that may run away. Such a derailment will do less damage to life and property than the cars might do If allowed to run wild.
Car hitchings are usually made either of open-hearth steel or doublerefined iron. Of the two the latter is by far the better though its cost at the mine is about two cents more per pound than the former. The open-hearth steel tends to crystallize and crack as a result of the innumerable stresses in compression and tension to which it is subject
by reason of its hardness. On the other hand, double-refined iron is duc tile and consequently will be distorted instead of being broken by the forces acting upon it in the mine-car hitching. Coal companies should t e discouraged absolutely from the practice of making their own hitchings. They have neither the facilities for making nor testing them. The manu facturer should test all hitchings before sending them to the mines, for one weak link may cause a loss of life or expose the mine owner to loss by curtailed operation in consequence of a wreck.
DISCUSSION
Mr. MacWilliams said that the Pennsylvania Coal & Coke Corporation had found both safety and economy in the use of GO-pound rail on main haulage, and was using 40-pound rail on room headings. The com pany is going to use in the future, and in some cases has used for some time, 25-pound rail in rooms. In regard to brakes he said that it was formerly the practice for the carpenter to hew his brakes using a hatchet for that purpose.
Now,' band saws are installed by the Pennsylvania Coal & Coke Cor
poration at all the large mines so that the t rakes will fit the wheels
accurately when they are installed, oak being used for that purpose.
Mr. Tillson asked whether ast estos might not te used to advantage, and
Mr. MacWilliams replied that it would be difficult to use it with the type
of cars in service at his mines.
Mr. J. W. Reed said he noted that 70-pound rail was recommended by Mr. Brosky in his paper. The Consolidation Coal Company at one mine was tearing out 70-pound rail on its outside haulage rails and replacing it with rail of the same weight as was used in its inside main-line system. That might seem a retrogressive step, but at this mine there was not enough 70-pound steel to keep the wheels of its locomotives worn down so that their treads would tear evenly on the face of a 70-pound rail. A. wheel that has t een worn' down on a 50- or 60-pound rail would have a contact on a 70-pound rail of only about a quarter of an inch, and the locomotive did not have sufficient adhesion tq pull the cars on grades when these were laid with the heavy steel. He did not favor light, rail, but he did object to mixing weights where any one locomotive had to travel.
Mining Section
617
suspended as described the rail would wear at those places. Consequently
we used fish plates made of heavier angle iron. To put the rails thus
worn in first-class condition, the New Jersey Zinc Company has welded
metal on the hall of the rail, but it is a mean job, especially in a wet
place. Mr. MacWilliams said he had done that on some frogs, spot
welding them up and grinding them smooth. Mr. Tillson said that he
had them ground with a hand grinder.
In reply to an inquiry by Mr. Ilsley, Mr. Reed said that the angle
irons put on the bumper of a locomotive, to prevent the cars from climb
ing and thereby injuring the motorman, should not be too far apart or
they would not give protection against the small single bumper car.
At the same time they should not be placed too close together, even
though thereby the motorman might be absolutely protected against the
climbing of cars, for the brakeman might be seriously injured by having
his arm caught between the projection and the car. To take a medium
course between the two evils the angle irons on locomotive bumpers
are spaced 16 to 18 inches apart. A rather wide round bumper Is used
on the cars.
.
WEDNESDAY MORNING SESSION
The meeting convened at 10:15 A. M., Chairman Tillson presiding. Mr. Tillson asked Mr. Seip, the secretary, to read the article of Mr. A. J. Hoskin, in the absence of the latter.
THE HAZARDS OP COAL MINE HAULAGE DERAILMENT
A. J. Hoskin, Acting Head, Mining Engineering Department, University of Illinois, Urban a, Iix.
When considering the subject of safety from derailment accidents in
coal-mining haulage one must decide that, although every coal miner or
operator is familiar with derailment accidents, he is unable to explain
more than a small percentage of them and is wholly ignorant of the eco
nomic losses they cause by curtailing production and by increasing the
wage cost of transportation.
.
Statistics covering derailment accidents are meagre. Insurance com
panies and federal and state bureaus classify coal-mining accidents but
such tabulations usually are so ambiguous that they do not provide pre
cise data about actual derailment hazards. The writer had experience in
this line when compiling data for a recent bulletin on coal-mining haulage.
Haulage accidents both fatal and non-fatal, are usually allotted to sev enteen special causes including miscellaneous. Derailments is one of the seventeen causes but it would seem that accidents attributed to such causes as switching, spragging, coupling, jailing from trips, caught be tween car and. rib, caught between cars, runaway car on trip, killed by cars, not stated how, miscellaneous, and especially caught between car and face could involve derailments. This being admitted, the data given under the single cause derailment are insufficient for our present study. Just how far they fall short one can but guess. Many men have been
618 Twelfth Safety Congress
thrown, from locomotives or cars and killed or hurt simply because of derailment. Men have been injured or killed while switching, coupling or spragging because cars jumped the track. Miners have been crushed between trips on parallel tracks by the derailment of cars on one track. Of the many deaths allotted to killed hy cars, not staled how, it is but reasonable to suppose that a considerable number were due to derailment.
PERCENTAGE OP ACCIDENTS DUE TO DERAILMENT
During the 20 year period 1902-21, there were 782 coal mine haulage fatalities in the state of -Illinois. Of these, 43 were positively assigned to derailments, while deaths from causes mentioned above totalled 441. How many of these 441 fatalities were primarily due to derailments? It would appear entirely plausible to assign at least ten per cent of these accidents to derailment, thus practically doubling the number of cases. Derailments then were probably the cause of 11.1 percent of the haulage fatalities. During the 20 year period 1901-20 the haulage fatalities in the United States totalled 6,886. If the Illinois ratio between total and derailment haulage fatalities were to hold good for the country at large, we should conclude--in the absence of precise statistics--that about 764 men were probably killed by derailments in American coal mines during this recent 20 year period, or an average of 38 men per year.
Now these are not startling figures. They are low in comparison with several other prime causes, but when we seek the elimination of every possible hazard in mining it behooves us to seriously contemplate this one source, even if it be comparatively modest. Furthermore, it would seem that such accidents would become even less frequent if due consider ation were given to the elimination of the conditions that contribute to derailments.
When we get right "down to brass tacks," we shall find that the prin ciples applicable to safe and efficient surface-railway transportation apply as well to coal mine or any other underground- haulage. The coal man can profit by making the fullest adoption and adaptation of railway safety precautions and practices in general.
CAUSES AND MEANS OF PREVENTION
For our present purpose, let us confine ourselves to just the single item
of derailment in mines and. consider the ordinary causes and the rational
means of prevention. Derailments occur commonly when the mine tracks
or the rolling stocks are in bad condition. They also occur sometimes
when track and rolling stock apparently are as nearly correct as humanly
possible. Many a derailment has been unaccountable, and we conclude
that there are still interesting problems in safety from haulage derail
ments.
Much has been done to improve mine trackage since the advent of
mechanical haulage. As locomotives have been built of increasing capac
ity (and therefore weight) tracks have of necessity been constructed
straighter, sturdier, heavier and with Increasing attention to grade, gauge
and rail elevation. It is no longer necessary to educate progressive
Mining Section
619
operators of this country along these -lines for they fully appreciate their economic significance. Much remains to be learned in these matters by the smaller or the old-fashioned mine operators. On the whole, however, I believe we may assume that the majority of coal mining officials are alert in seeking to maintain good trackage and good rolling stock.
Derailments being common at switchpoints and frogs, operators and manufacturers have long co-operated in improvements of these parts of switches. Improvements will continue to be expected. Heavier rails, stronger fish-plates, larger and more ties (preferably concrete or steel), durable ballast, more uniform grades, larger radii for curves--all these are given serious attention by progressive engineers.
If, then, decreases in derailments are to be effected, consideration must be concentrated continually upon these matters and must he used also in an investigative manner to solve hitherto unexplained derailments. There must be no mystery in such practical matters. Perhaps the inex plicable derailments of the past will become plausible when studied in the light of research.
A mine car may possess ample axles and fine bearings. The staunch wheels may be of the proper theoretical shape to flange and tread. The gauge may be just right. The car will travel splendidly and perform its function for many ton-miles, when, suddenly, upon a good straight track, it will climb the rail and perhaps involve adjacent cars in a general derailment. Why does it climb? Possibly there is something incorrect about the wheelbase--the distance between points of wheel contact on the same rail.
PROPER WIIEELHASli AND LENGTH OF CAR BODY
In the report of the American Mining Congress' committee on Stand ardization of Underground Transportation Equipment, the recommenda tion was made that, for all new developments in coal mining, the track gauge be standardized at 42 inches, and the suggestion was made that the most desirable wheelbase is also 42 inches. The report further states that the length of a car body should be three times the wheelbase and hence of a standard length of 10 feet 6 inches. These-conclusions were notreached hastily but are results of long, serious conferences and considera tions. They were presumably made to benefit mine operators not alone by the advantages attending standardization of parts but as well by the increased continuity of operations. These latter advantages cover de creased haulage delays caused by derailment with consequent improved conditions from a safety standpoint. Notwithstanding all this, in building mine cars to make sharp track-turns, operators or superintendents have often so abbreviated the wheelbase that it has been a mystery to me why the cars do not jump the track more often.
Any wheeled vehicle is in unstable equilibrium when its wheelbase does not considerably exceed its gauge. The instability is increased if the axles are rigidly connected as in pit cars. It is foolish to expect a mine car of 42-inch gauge and 42-inch wheelbase to perform as well as one of the same gauge and say 52-inch wheelbase. If the body of a mine car is
620
Twelfth Safety Congress
126 inches long, it could well he expected to ride on trucks at least half that length or 5 feet 3 inches. This would necessitate longer, easier curves or the undue spreading of rails on the curves. I understand and appre ciate the necessities for short turns in coal trackage, especially at roomnecks, but I believe that, in the ultimate economic analysis, we shall find that most curves can be built much less sharp than Is customary at pres ent. In fact the haulage lines of many large mines already have been and are being laid out on easy curves with decided satisfaction to their owners.
danger of long wheelbase
There is another element of danger in long cars with short wheelbase. When such cars travel over uneven track they roll lengthwise- If, when loaded and moving at usual haulage speeds, they pass over bumps in the track, they so jounce up and down, as to alternately lift the'front and rear pairs of wheels from the rails, momentarily throwing the entire load upon single trucks. It requires no imagination to decide that this is had practice and conducive to accidents. The longer the wheelbase, the less will be this trouble. Who would think of riding in a touring car with a wheelbase of ordinary road gauge? 1 believe derailments can be some what minimized by investigations along these lines. One of the classic arguments for the short wheelbase is the greater ease with which a derailed car can, he re-railed. In other words, cars are built of such dimen sions as to present the hazard of derailment because they are relatively easy to re-rail, when so built.
I conceive a cause of derailment is to be found in long trips or trains. This point is open to dispute, but I am not aware that contenders have ever thoroughly Investigated the subject .and are fortified with data to sustain the argument that long trips' ride as safely as short trips. I have beard men compare coal trips with railway trains in this regard. Such a comparison is unfair. Perhaps the time may come when pit cars will be equipped with airbrakes controlled by the locomotive driver, but, until that time, we cannot expect a long string of pit cars to behave as decor ously as a surface train. The cars will continue to crowd on downgrade, and. when thus crowding, there will be interference to the smooth running of the individual cars. On rough track, the drawbar of one car is liable to climb the drawbar of the next car or, if this be prevented by close coupling, the rocking of one car Is communicated to its neighbors both ahead and behind with results that sometimes prove so cumulative as to be dangerous. This crowding occurs, indeed, in short trips, but its effects augment with the number of cars per trip. Just what this relationship is remains to be learned. I do not dispute the economic advantages of long haulage trains, but I argue solely regarding safety and propound a prob lem that might well be the basis for practical research. "What is the most economic and the safest number of pit cars for mine-haulage trips?
. LOOSE HITCHIKGS
Loose hltchings undoubtedly have place in our derailment discussion. There are some advantages in plenty of space and freedom of motion be
Mining Section
621
tween cars, as in starting a locomotive with a long trip or in the rotary dumping of cars without uncoupling. On the other hand there are objec tions, one of which has been suggested in the tendency of bumpers to climb one another. Is it not possible to invent and to construct hitchings that will resist the mutual displacement of bumpers in a vertical direction hut that will permit automatic coupling, ease of starting and continuous connection when passing through rotary dumpers?
As previously suggested the hazards due to derailment in mine haulage are but loosely comprehended. Much remains to be learned in this subject. Probably much pertinent data may be gathered during, or as a result of, the present meeting of the Council but probably also many factors will never be known until real investigation is conducted by serious men. Every coal operator can well afford not only to employ technical men in this work but to co-operate with every other operator and with every independent, state or federal research bureau along these lines.
Despite men's utmost efforts to prevent accidents of any sort, such accidents continue to occur and it is a significant fact that, when they do occur, they sometimes amount to real catastrophes. An instance of this that is fresh in our minds was the disaster at an Alabama coal mine in volving many fatalities. Diagnosis of this accident differ in identifying the fundamental cause but it appears to have been a unique cdse involving a runaway derailment, collision of the car with a wall or rib that created dust, and the ignition of that dust by a simultaneous electric spark. Not withstanding such outstanding calamities, which some men consider freaks and entirely beyond human prevention, I feel strongly that this Council can.continue to aim at one hundred per cent prevention of all industrial accidents and that, in this single phase of mine-haulage derailments, there is still a big field for the efforts of every one who is connected with the coal mining industry.
DISCUSSION
In discussing Mr. Hoskin's paper, Mr. Reed said that he was not cer tain that it was practicable to increase wheel bases so that they would equal or exceed the track gauge. If the pillars did not have to be re moved it would be possible to make such curves as would permit of a long wheel base, but as in the removal of pillars the cars have to be run through crosscuts at points where the pillars were subject to excessive pressure it was necessary to use sharp curves and consequently short wheel bases might be necessary.
If the curves were not made sharp at these points the pillars might he squeezed and the roof might be weakened to such an extent as to make extraction dangerous. No end would be served if to avoid accidents due to derailments engineers were to make conditions such that more accidents would occur in pillar workings.
Mr. Green concurred with. Mr. Reed, as tp the danger of excessively easy curves and said that, where the roof was bad, even entries would be less safe if the curves were made too easy, for the entries at the en-
G2-2 Twelfth Safety Congress
trances to side headings, rooms and entry crosscuts would have to be made wider. He believed that in rooms it was easier to get the curves of sufficient radii to make a long wheel base permissible.
air. Murray said that where roof conditions were good or even normal much large wheel bases could be used. At the mines of the Ford Col lieries Company a radius of 16 feet 9 inches is being used for room turns and that would permit of the use of a longer wheel base than is now in use. The room turns are not exceptionally wide at these mines.
Mr. Hall said that Mr. Hoskins doubtless had in mind the conditions' in Illinois where the pillars are not removed and where consequently no curves are laid inside the room. Not owning the surface the operators have to support the roof and so leave the pillars intact. There are also many mines where the pillars are smaller than in the mines of the Con solidation Coal Company. In such workings it is not necessary to put crosscuts through the pillar to remove the coal. The coal is shoveled to the car standing on the straight road of the room so no curves have to be.made in the position indicated by Mr. Reed.
.
USE SET OF SCRAPERS
'
Mr. Tillson wondered if it would not be tetter under the circumstances detailed by Mr. Reed to use scrapers to bring the coal to the car whereever it might be placed and thus make a radical change which 'would permit of a large wheel base. Mr. Reed, however, said that the scraper needed even better conditions. Mr. Tillson said the scraper could be made to turn corners and could deliver anywhere even on the entry, thus eliminating curves both in the room and at its mouth.
Mr. Ilsley said that the loading machine might bring radical changes both in the size of the cars and -in the wheel base. It is conceded that to
enable the loading machine to do its best work it will be necessary to have more and larger cars, in order that the machine may be able to work a larger percentage of its time. At the recent meeting of the American Mining Congress it was stated that at a mine where many loading .ma chines were employed they loaded only about 40 tons per shift whereas the ability of the machines when working continuously might be as high as 300 tons per shift. The machine builders believe that the responsibility for the low tonnage rests with the operator. He must change his sys
tem of mining to meet the conditions. Mr. Tillson said he had been convinced by experience that the loading
machine was practicable in metal mines with cars of 20- to 30-cubic feet capacity. The New Jersey Zinc Company wes employing loading machines with small cars bolding from 24 to 66 cubic feet of ore. The use of loading machines has justified itself in the narrow drifts in which that company is using them.
Mr. Green took exception to what was said in the paper with reference to tight hitchings. He had been unfortunate enough to have experience with what were known as stiff hitchings. They were replaced by loose couplings, because in going over a grade they would interlock and would
lift one of two cars off the track causing a derailment.
Mining Section
623
SAFETY IN UNDERGROUND TRANSPORTATION IN COAL MINES--MINE CARS
G. M. Gillette, General Manager, Consolidation Coal Co., Fkostrcrg,
Maryland, and J. W. Reed, Safety Director, Consolidation
Coal Company, Fairmont, West Virginia
Safety in mine-car construction and maintenance is such a broad sub
ject and involves so much detail that in an article such as this it is possitle only to call attention to those facts which seem to stand out most
prominently.
The thickness of the seam of coal and the method of mining: restrict
the width and height of mine cars, and the size of the shaft limits their
length. These dimensions enter materially into the safety of the car, but
we cannot alter these, condtions and must use the size which permits us
to get out our coal most economically, accepting these restrictions as we
do natural hazards such as bad roof.
-
The design of bumpers, couplings, running gear and body, however, are
features which may be modified, and the safety of their construction, therefore. Is open to discussion. The coal-mine car is, and has been for
the past ten years, undergoing reconstruction in order to meet the new requirements of electrified mines. Undoubtedly many of our haulage ac
cidents are traceable to the use of a car designed primarily for mule haul
age which, with little or no change, has been pressed into service with gathering motors.
The new requirements are that the car be capable of being pushed
ahead of the locomotive around sharp curves and be able to withstand
more abuse and higher speeds than the mule-drawn car. Safety in pres ent-day mine cars is largely a matter of mechanical strength. Their axles and wheels must above all remain rigid. A flimsy car or even one in which the wheels are merely out of line will cause many derailments.
The means of fastening the axles to the car body therefore is most im portant. The axles must not be merely bolted to the car bottom. It is necessary that they be reinforced and braced from axle to axle in order that they may be held rigidly in place, and it is better yet to fabricate or weld these braces and the axles into a truck of all-metal construction and then fasten this truck as whole to the car body and drawbar.
Lubrication is important, and roller bearings, grease or oil arrange
ments by which a constant supply of lubrication is furnished the wheel,
decrease the wear on the axle and hub and help to prevent the wheels
from becoming wobbly. But of even more importance than lubrication is
that the wheel so designed that the hub and axle shall wear evenly.
The weight of the car must rest squarely upon the hub bearing. When
it fails to do this, the hub will quickly wear conical, causing the wheel
to become wobbly. To produce an even wearing of the huh and axle the
center of the line where the tread rides the rail must he very nearly under
the center of the hub bearing.
624
Twelfth Safety Congress
WHEELS AND AXLES'
In service the wheels always must remain securely fastened to the axle.
A washer and cotter key through, the end of the axle probably is the oldest and the most common form of fastening. The use of this washer
is obligatory as it prevents excessive wear of the cotter key. but un fortunately it frequently is omitted when the old wheels of a car are
replaced. Any wheel in which the device by which it is fastened to the
axle is not protected against excessive wear is dangerous and one that
will be found loose on the axle most of the time. This defect is not confined to the old-style "oil-it-every-trip" wheel, for some roller-bear
ing and grease-packed wheels have this defect. Many a serious wreck can be traced to such loose wheels, whereas had the wheels been securely
fastened the derailments would have been so trifling that the cars could be
replaced in a few minutes.
Brakes sometimes are omitted, sprags being used to hold cars on steep
gradients. This undoubtedly introduces an extra hazard, and we are dis posed to believe that brakes are a necessity in all mines both for safety
and efficiency. In a single coal mine brakes of many different designs are
commonly found in use. Much might be said for and against almost all
of them. The important requirement is that when they are in the off
position they must release fully so as not to. drag on the wheels and when
applied they must put sufficient friction upon the wheels to retard, stop or
hold the cars on the grades encountered or as the necessity of the haul
age system requires.
Within certain limits the simpler forms of brake riggings are more de
pendable as they are more easily kept in repair. Of course the brake must
be of sturdy construction and to operate satisfactorily it must have pro vision for taking up the wear of the band or of the shoes b=r which the
pressure is applied.
With compound-lever action the play in the bearings between the mov
able parts must be carefully regulated. A little top much play in each
bearing means much lost motion when the movement finally reaches the
brake shoe, and many otherwise well-designed brakes have failed entirely
on account of poorly made bearings. If you are having trouble with your
form of brake, study carefully the bearings between movable parts. A
more serviceable bearing probably will eliminate most of the trouble.
Loose bearings are one of the most common causes of dragging brakes,
and of course a brake which always rubs on the wheels usually is worn
out and useless when needed.
.
On light grades the tivo-wheel brake meets with all the requirements of safety, but on heavy grades the four-wheel brake is almost a necessity.
For safety the brake should be applied either by pulling up or back on a side brake and away from the center of the car with an end brake. All
brakes must be operated from the same side, which must be that opposite the trolley wire--that is, on the clearance side of the roadway.
Mining Section
625
rue handle or device for operating the endgate latch should either operate automatically as the car is dumped or else be placed within con* venient reach of the man standing alongside the car. To locate it so that the man must step on the front bumper to unlatch the endgate is
dangerous.
CAB WITH EKD6ATE IS STBHCTT7BAT.T.Y WEAK
Both the swing and life endgate type of car cause one entire end of the
wagon to be left structurally weak and without side support. Only with
difficulty is a car of this kind designed with the required rigidity, and
it is not easy to construct one that will keep its shape reasonably well
after some years of service. The increasing use of rotary dumps, by re
moving the need for a swinging or lifting endgate, is overcoming this de
fect and permitting of a much more substantial type of car. Where the roof is unusually dangerous and where, accordingly, it is
necessary to timber close to the track a crooked car is a menace, for the
side of the wagon may strike and dislodge such timbers, greatly increas
ing the dangers of haulage. Anything that makes possible the use of a more rigid car is a step forward in safety. For this reason I look upon
the rotary dump or any dumping system which eliminates the endgate
as a safety provision.
Car irons, drawbars and the iron ribs of wooden cars must be designed
with more than the strength desired for the car when new, it being
customary as soon as the wood portions wear out to rebuild the irons into
a new car and to continue doing so during the life of the mine, so that the irons in the car usually have the life of a number of mine cars. The
rusting and corrosion during' the length of service expected of car irons
should be taken into consideration in the original designs of the car.
The design of mine-car bumpers should he carefully considered If safety
is to. be attained. The old-style double bumper with a three to five-link
coupling was the natural outcome of years of experimenting in producing
a car suitable for mule haulage. It Is a good car for that purpose, but with the electrification of the mines and the introduction of gathering
locomotives this type of bumper became unsafe and the cause of numer
ous accidents. The single and round bumpers designed so that cars may
be pushed ahead of gathering locomotives, though they overcome some of
the objectionable features of the double bumper, introduce several new hazards which require careful consideration.
Prominent among these hazards with some kinds of round bumpers is
the closeness with which the edges of the cars approach each other on
curves. When side brakes are provided the brake handle should not pro
trude past the end of the car. End brakes cannot be applied or loosened
from the inside of curves nor can a car with end brakes be coupled safely
from that position. Tbe bumper must be large enough to furnish a good footing for the
brakeman riding the rear end or the trip and must hold the cars far
enough apart to prevent injury when coupling cars on straight track.
The bumpers must be deep, enough to prevent them from riding over one
another when the cars strike together.
"'
626 Twelfth Safety Congress
The hole for the removable pin. must be made larger through the
bumper than through the draw bar so that objects passing through the
latter will fall on through and not obstruct the hole. The coupling link
should have room back of the fixed pin so that it can slide back clear of
the edge of the bumper when cars come together. When two cars are
bumper to bumper, 4 or 5 in. of room should be provided tetween the
tops of the clevises holding the link, in order to prevent serious injuries
to hands when coupling; The removable pin must be fastened to the
car by a chain and should have a wide flange just below the hand-hold
to prevent the hand of the man making the coupling from being pinched
between the pin and the end of the car. The hole for this pin should not
be far from the end of the car body.
Much vertical play must be allowed between the link and clevis or
when the cars are pushed together the link will bear down upon the end
of the next car and raise it off the track at low joints.
As cars vary in capacity from 1,000 lb. to 5 tons or even more, their
strength must te calculated for their individual needs. However, within
practical limits, if the various parts of the ear are made heavier than apparently is required by the strength-of-materials formula, you will
have a car more easy to keep in repair, and that means a safer car, for
more accidents occur from faulty upkeep than from faulty design.
The following criticism has been made of the statement in this article,
"I am disposed to believe that brakes are a necessity in all mines both
for safety and efficiency":
"There is a strong tendency now to do away with brakes entirely.
With electric haulage and large cars, a car is not supposed to move
unless a locomotive is attached to it. In consequence, unless the grades
are excessive, the locomotive can apply all the brake power necessary.
Most accidents occur by depending on brakes. Frequently these are out
of order and a runaway occurs. Better to have no brakes and not de
pend on them than have brakes that are not dependable."
In replying to this criticism we feel that this is a fact, but we would
not recommend dispensing with the brakes at all times. It is most
difficult to arrange mechanical haulage so as always to move the car with the locomotive. Though such a manner of operation is possible yet
we do not believe it will ever "work out" in the usual system of coal
mining.
"
What is said by this critic about bad brakes also is true, but is this
not a question of upkeep, for which the management is responsible? It
does not seem that we should abandon the use of a necessary part of
the car equipment because its upkeep is likely to be neglected. Should
we not aim at eliminating such defects as prevent the brakes from being
maintained in proper working order?
DISCUSSION
Mr. Hall said that many engineers have never favored the use of brakes on mine cars. They are nearly always out of commission. When they are put on the sides of the cars they do not introduce any great
Mining Section
627
hazard, but the man who is responsible for setting: the brakes and finds they won't work soon realizes the danger and starts to throw in sprags.
In many places where they have brakes they use sprags and forget about the brakes. Apparently the Consolidation Coal Company has Its brakes in better condition and uses them. Mr. Hall also said that side brakes appeared to be safer than end brakes.
Mr. Reed took exception to the 'statement that side breaks did not pro duce accidents. Statistics of 1,500 accidents show that the many in juries were received ' in the application of side brakes. These were due it was true to faulty design. The handle of the brake extended back too far, and as a result, when one bumper rode over that of the next car the hand of the man applying the brake was crushed between the end of the brake handle and the car following. Accidents such as these caused the loss of several hands.
Mr. Hall declared that it was relatively not as dangerous as the end brake which, when a man pushed it over, might slip. In this case he would be thrown between the cars. Mr. Reed said that in his experience, many more accidents occurred from side brakes than from end brakes. Accidents traceable from end brakes were rare, possibly because the Consolidation Coal Company uses more side than end brake cars.
However, in some mines the Consolidation Coal Company has end brakes exclusively and the brakemen think they are more satisfactory, than the side brakes. It seemed said Mr. Reed that there was much more hazard with the end than with the side' brake, but the statistics do not bear out that conviction. It may be that those mines have been a little luckier than the others. Mr. Tillson suggested that the brakemen, realiz ing their danger, took greater care in operating them.
Mr. Murray said it was always possible to start an argument on the relative merits of brakes and sprags. The makers of the insurance schedule in Pennsylvania believed that it was well to have on the car some means of control and so put a place in the rating schedule for a demerit based on the absence of brakes on cars. Mr. Trestrail who admitted that he had no brakes on his cars said that the admission that
tb.e brakes were always out of order was a reflection on the management
which showed that the managers were not absolutely "sold" on the value of safety.
Mr. Green said that he was using a car weighing about two tons and holding four or five tons. There are no brakes on the cars. It is a locomotive mine. Despite the absence of brakes no serious accidents have occurred.
ECONOMY OF END BRAKE
Mr. C. A. McDowell, of Thomas, ~W. Va., said that the Davis Coal and Coke Co. had formerly used a brake set at the side of the car but now used the end brake finding that it could be maintained at less expense. All the mines of the company in the West Virginia and Maryland divi sion now have end brakes, and they are kept in first-class condition.
628 T ivelftit Safety Congress
Mr. Tillson asked if any had used hand-wheel brakes which he de
scribed as being as simple and inexpensive as the lever. He thought
it might entirely eliminate the hazard that men would slip, lose their
balance and fall between the cars. Mr. Reed said that a man had but
a second and a half' to put the brake on. He couldn't turn the wheel in so . short a time.
Mr. McDowell said that in the application of the end brake the lever
was pulled toward the clearance side and never in the opposite direction. The man, therefore, reaches in only to the center line of the car and
pulls toward him so there is little chance that he will slip. Mr. Tillson
said he might push over the brake from the other side, whereupon Mr.
McDowell said that in that case disciplinary measures would be used. Mr. Hall said that end brakes were usually imposed by pushing. The
cam arrangement that presses down the brake beam may become loose and the cam may slip a little sideways and go over suddenly precipitat
ing the man forward if he had' put much of his weight on the lever. He has no way to gage in an instant how much, weight he should apply.
Mr. W. M. Smith, of the Hockensmith Wheel and Mine Car Company,
said that in recent years the practice has been to place a pull brake
rather than a push brake on the end of mine cars and that the change
increases safety.
'
In response to Mr. M. H. Curley, Mechanical and Electrical Engineer, of the Sterling Salt Co., Cuylerville, N. Y., who said that the cars at his
mine had no brakes, Mr. Reed said that the usual speed of the trip when brakes were applied was about four miles an hour but that when some
thing unusual happened the brakeman did the best he could as long as
he could. Mr. Reed added that the brake lever, was 26 inches from the
side of the car so the body of the man putting on the brakes would not
have to be extended more than one or two inches between the cars. The man usually rests one hand on the trip, reaches over and pulls the
brake.
Mr. Ilsley remarked that the cleanness of the roads had much to do
with safety in braking, that a man was not safe who had to stop along with the trip and in doing so had to walk over lumps of coal and other
obstructions of that sort. Mr. McDowell said that the compensation
schedule expressly referred to the keeping of the road clean and that all
the companies were using that precaution.
air. Hall remarked that those remarks sounded well but unfortunately
the brakes were always applied in one place and when they were applied
the uhbraked cars jostled the braked cars ahead, so there was a series
of small collisions as the brakeman threw on his brakes, and these col
lisions frequently caused topping to loosen and fall. Even though the
roads were cleaned every night or oftener there was always a probability
that there would be more or less coal at the braking point.
USE OE DBAGS
In reply to Mr. Tillson, Mr. Reed said that 75 per cent of the applica tion of brakes occurred at one place. Mr. Tillson then asked why could not a drag mechanism, operated by power, if need be, he arranged above
Mining Section
629
the floor level to retard the cars without the use of the car brakes. Mr. Green said that a device called the mechanical spragger had been de vised for this purpose.
Mr. F. E. Harr, Industrial Claim Agent, Clinchfield Coal Co., of Dante, Va~, said that his company was using a side brake which was applied at one end of the car but the company, which had some bad grades, supplemented these brakes on steep grades with a tail locomotive which held back the cars and found it gave better satisfaction than brakes. The Clinchfield Coal Corporation sometimes uses sprags but finds them un satisfactory as they cause "flat" wheels.
Sir. Murray said that mechanical car retarders were being used in shaft bottoms to hold the cars so that they could be dropped one by one to the cage. It would be necessary to have some means by which these re tards could be released on the return trip.
Mr. Reed said he saw how this could be provided on short grades. Unfortunately it could hardly be devised to work satisfactorily on grades five or six miles long and running consistently five or six per cent.
Mr. Tillson said that with grades such as described it might be well to attach a rope to the trip and brake the drum on which the rope was so expensize that every instance in which one was removed was regarded as a great advance in maintenance.
Mr. N. M. Laidlaw, of Cuylerville, N. Y,, asked Mr. Reed if sprags were provided on these long grades and he replied that on some short heavy grades a shoe was provided that went under the wheel and took the wear that a wheel, if spragged, would suffer. The Consolidation Coal Co. tried to prevent the use of the sprag as it had such a bad effect on the tread of the wheel. In reply to Mr. Laidlaw, Mr. Reed said that trips practically never got away except where the grade exceeded .7 per cent.
Even on such steep grades, sprags were not used. The company offi cials preferred the brake shoe. If a trip gets to going so fast that the brakes cannot be put on, there is no hope of stopping except at a run away switch. Mr. Reed said sprags could be put in if an expert spragger were at hand but since 1905 or 1906 brakes have been'used, and spragging has become a lost art. Some of the boys in early days were remarkable. "I have" said Mr. Reed, "seen trips go by so fast that I couldn't see the spokes in the wheels, yet when the trip stopped I- could see sprags in every one." Mr. Reed said that at the. Consolidation Coal Company's mine trips were. never allowed to run by gravity unless a rope or a motor was attached, but that single cars were sometimes moved by gravity without such restraint.
SUFFICIENCY OF SHAKING FOWEB
Mr. Curley said the locomotive should have sufficient breaking power in
almost all cases to hold the trip so that dependence would not have to
be placed on the car brakes. He said he could readily understand that
the keeping of brakes on the many cars in a mine in operating condi
tion must be a difficult and expensive proposition.
'
630 Twelfth Safety Congress
Mr. C. Li. Petzel, Safety Engineer of the New Jersey Zinc Company,
Franklin, N. J., said that it seemed that the tractive power of the loco
motive was somewhat overtaxed if the brakes on it were not equal to
holding the trip without help from the brakes on the cars.
No one replied to Mr. Petzel, but it may be explained that in many
mines long heavy gradients favor the movement 'of loads, and the loco
motive has only to haul empties up those grades. Furthermore it is
not unusual practice to bring longer trips from the parting, when they are
cumbering the tracks, than are hauled back to the parting, simply for the reason that such trips can be moved in that direction. Whether that
is true of the Consolidated Coal Company is not known to the annotator.
Mr. Reed said that Mr. Gillette and he himself in the paper pre
sented, did not intend to convey the idea that brakes were necessary on
cars, for assistance in holding back trips on main-haulage gradients but
were needed in restraining individual cars from running away when
beng haudled in rooms or to hold the cars on a side track when it was necessary to divide the trip. Of course, a car should be blocked when
thus left, but if a single car were detached from the trip the miner who so detached it should be provided with a brake on the car so that
he could control it.
.
He added that after a miner has loaded his car at the face he usually
desires to fire a shot in the coal. If he leaves the car in place and fires
his shot the force of the blast may throw heavy pieces of coal at the end
of the car. and in a short time the end thus exposed to the violence of blasts will be battered in and will need to be repaired. The miner
should be able to let the car run back by gravity 10 or 15 feet from
the end of the track and should he given the means for stopping it and
blocking it at that point. Then he can shoot his charge without in
juring the car and making it unsafe for transportation.
In pillar work the miner should be able, when conditions demand it, to
run the car out of his place, otherwise should the place cave the roof may fall on the car so that it cannot he recovered. Of course, the
officials try to arrange the places so that the coal at the end of the
pillar can be reomved completely several hours before the roof falls. Occasionally, however, the roof does not delay its descent so long. The
rock may come down two or three minutes after the coal is loaded. If the car cannot be removed it is crushed by the falling rock. Con
sequently. it is necessary to provide means that will enable the miner
to stop a car should he remove the blocking and permit the ear to run by gravity away from that part of the room where the fall of the roof"
is imminent. Mr. Reed said also that not only is it proposed to remove
the brakes but to do so on cars having an overhung body. Thus de
signed sprags cannot be used in place of brakes. That Mr. Reed said "is where I am beginniug to make objections."
TYPE OF CABS
Air. H. J. Seitzinger, Safety Engineer of the Lehigh Coal and Naviga tion Company, Lansford, Pa., described tbe conditions at their mines in regard to the types of car used, the brakes and the gradients. The cars
Mining Section.
631
were all of one type and are constructed of either wood or steel. Most of
the steel cars have end brakes. The car runner when braking the cars,
stands on a "stepper" on the side of the car, holding on with one hand
to the grip rod near the top or the car. In this position there is little
risk of his slipping or falling. The haulageways are driven on a stand
ard gage of 0.58 per cent, the maximum grade, which is around the shaft
landings, being not more than 2 per cent. Sprags are used in stopping
and controlling cars that have no brakes.
Mr. Tillson asked whether in a mine with such gradients brakes were
needed and Mr. Seitzinger said, that brakes were not needed in the
main haulageway, but were used merely to control the cars at the shaft
landing when dropping them on the cages. Mr. Tillson added t'hat it
had been his experience in metal mines that with gradients up to two
per cent brakes on cars were not needed. Amid laughter, Mr. Reed
added that they needed grease not brakes.
The chairman called on Mr. Colburn to present the Safe Practices Pamphlet on "Maintaining Safety Interest in Mines." Mr. Tillson then explained that the pamphlet had been in the making for a year, that this was a tentative draft prepared by Mr. G. M. Gillette and E. H. Denny. As this paper will be printed when duly revised none of It will be published in these proceedings.
At the close of the summarization of the report Mr. Tillson remarked
that after ten or eleven years of intensive effort the Mining Section had not been wholly successful in holding the interest of the staffs and of the chief executives in safety work. He thought that one of the hardest tasks of the safety engineer was to maintain the interest of chief execu tives in the safety campaign.
Mr. J. T. Ryan was then asked to give his demonstration of the effect
of carbon monoxide on animals. Mr. Ryan said that carbon monoxide
was not only found in coal mines but also in metal mines when fire
occurred. It was found also in the construction of sewer tunnels. He
described it as " a prevalent and dangerous gas with which we all have
to deal."
-
Mr. Ryan showed the effect of carton monoxide on a mouse, rendering
it insensible after a period of some activity. He then restored it to
active life by the administration of a mixture of 25 per cent oxygen and
5 per cent carbon-dioxide. He also explained the all-purposes gas mask
which enatled work to be done in carbon monoxide. This universality
was attained by the addition of hopcalite, a mixture of oxides, which by
catalytic action, which left it unaffected, converted carbon monoxide to
carbon dioxide, an irrespira-ble gas without unfavorable effect on the
human organism.
'
The chemicals in the mask would take an atmosphere containing the
deadly monoxide in quantities sufficient to render a person unconscious
in five minutes and transform it instantly into a comparatively harmless
gas. It was necessary to keep it dry. Consequently the atmosphere had
to pass before reaching the hopcalite through, a moisture absorbent.
632 Twelfth Safety Congress
He also showed a small -mask for self-rescue purposes. This mask Is kept air-tight by a lead-sealed eannister until needed, when the lead sealing could be torn offhand the mask could then be used for passing through a vitiated atmosphere. Mr. Ryan also showed the operation of an equipment for ascertaining the quantitative presence of carbon mon oxide in the blood. All these pieces of apparatus had been developed, at least in principle, by the Bureau of Mines. The meeting adjourned at 12:30 p. m.
THURSDAY MORNING SESSION
The meeting convened at 9 a. m.. Chairman Tillson presiding. Mr. Colburn presented in greater detail portions of the Safe Prac tices Pamphlet on "Maintaining Safety Interest In Mines." Chairman Till
son called for the report of the Nominating Committee, of 'which Mr. J. T.
Ryan was chairman.
'
REPORT OF NOMINATING- COMMITTEE
Secretary Seip, then presented the full recommendation of the Nominat ing Committee. Chairman, R. Dawson Hall, Engineering Editor, Coal Age, New York City; First Vice-Chairman, John -L. Boardman, Saftey Engi neer, Anaconda Copper Mining Company, Butte, Montana; Second Vice Chairman, J. B. Warriner, General Manager, Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company, Lansford, Pennsylvania; Third Vice-Chairman, George Martin son, Safety Engineer, Pickands Mather Company, Hibbing, Minnesota; Secretary, C. L. Colburn, Mining Engineer, U. S. Bureau of Mines, Wash ington, D. C.
The chairman having asked for nominations from the floor and Mr. Reed having seconded the report of the Nominating Committee the per sons named were unanimously elected. After brief words of acceptance from Air. Hall, Mr. Tillson introduced Mr. Charles L. Jones.
THE FUNCTIONS AND PRACTICAL USE OF LIQUEFIED
CARBON DIOXIDE IN FIGHTING MINE FIRES
Charles L. Jokes, Industrial Fellow, Mellon Institute of Industrial
Research:, University of Pittsburgh
The public importance of mine fires has possibly never been appreciated by mine operators themselves. Statistics to show the annual loss from this type of hazard are altogether lacking. On account of the natural and proper reluctance of mine operators to advertise the hazards of their-
business, it is safe to state .that many mine fires pass unnoticed by the press, the public, or the technical literature. In many states no attempt is made to keep records of this kind of fires, and no complete record is kept by the United States Bureau of Mines. It is safe to state, however, that the average loss per fire is far above the average for all classes of fires.
More than usual dread attaches to mine fires perhaps on account of the relatively large unit cost, and because of the peculiar hazard to life that
Mining Section
633
sometimes exists. But there is another side to this picture, and from the standpoint of the Are extinction specialist mine flres offer a fertile field for the application of sound engineering principles. In most industrial fires, an emergency is to be dealt with that must be conquered or submitted to within a space of hours. In mine fires also the first minutes and hours are the critical ones, but, if the fire is not conquered in its incipiency. recourse may be had to stopping it off--an expedient not available in other types of fire. Once a mine fire has been stopped off, sufficient time may be taken to make a study of It, and to plan its extinction by sound engineering principles instead of by snap judgment. The fire is, so to speak, bottled up in a giant test tube in which its condition and extent can be analyzed and diagnosed with the tools of the chemical engineer-- gas analysis, temperature, and pressure. In no other type of industrial fire can this kind of chemical control be exercised.
When a mine fire has reached this stage and after it has been bottled up, only one means is known of extinguishing it, namely, to submerge it with a fluid that will not support combustion. The fluid may be water, and this is sometimes used, although it is often impossible to flood, and flooding in many instances imposes heavy reclamation costs. The fluid may be an Inert gas produced by the fire itself, and if it were not for the fact that stoppings, soil, even the rocks themselves are anything but gas tight, no other source of inert gas would be necessary. On the other hand, the fluid may be an inert gas introduced artificially from
without.
INERT GAS USED SEVENTY YEARS AGO
The use of inert gas for fighting mine fires is not new. Successful appli
cations of flue gases to the extinction of coal mine fires have been reported
as long ago as 1851, when a fire at Clackmannan! Scotland, was ex
tinguished by flue gases injected into the mine mouth by a jet of steam.'
In 1875 Barber* described the then newly developed methods of trans
porting liquefied carbon dioxide in steel cylinders and proposed its use
in extinguishing fires on shipboard, and since that date liquid carbon
dioxide has been tried a number of times.
'
In these various attempts all degrees of success have been met, from
complete effectiveness to entire failure, depending upon the conditions of
application and the amounts used. Bach fire is a problem in itself, and we
know that if sufficient carbon dioxide or other inert gas Is used, any fire
can be extinguished, but good results from an economic standpoint can be expected only when conditions are such that the amounts of inert
gas required will not be prohibitive in cost. Economic considerations
will be taken up further on.
Interests in the inert gas method of mine fire extinction has been
re-awakened by the recent application of liquefied carbon dioxide to a
large fire In the Bitner Mine of the H. C. Frick Coke Company, in which1 2
1 Mines and- Minerals, June, 1908, 505. 2 American CTiemist, 5 (1875), 395.
634 Twelfth Safety Congress
the writer was fortunate enough to play a small part. Inasmuch as this fire has been recently described fully in the literature,* it will be dis cussed here in brief outline only.
THE BITNER FIRE
The Bitner mine is a rather old drift mine with a considerable area of gob and old workings under light and leaky cover. In the part of the mine in which fire occurred, a main haulage way, manway, and airway extend in a direction approximately parallel to the general direction of the outcrop of the coal seam. Coal has been mined on both sides of these workings retreating towards the main haulage way from the out crop on the east side, and from old and comparatively tight gob on the west side. Fire broke out on the night of November 16, 1922, and on account of the leaky cover, it was decided that the fire could not be extinguished by sealing off. Because of the dip of the seam, it would have been impossible to flood any considerable part of the fire zone, and it was therefore decided to fight the fire by the direct method. Material and men were mobilized, and water was used in the largest quantities obtainable for approximately one month, but the fire had gained such headway that it spread in spite of the best .efforts of the fighters, until the length of the area actually on fire was 2400 feet. At this juncture Mr. J. R. Campbell, Chief Chemist .lor the Company, suggested that inert gas be considered- On December 13 it was decided to try liquefied carbon dioxide, and by the afternoon of December 16, 1440 50-pound cylinders of carbon dioxide had been hauled over 60 miles to the mine by motor truck, a line of 25 brick stoppings had been erected in the mine in entries leading to the fire zone, some of the surface leaks caused by fills along the outcrop of the coal seam had been sealed by blasting and tamp ing clay, facilities had been provided for discharging gas into the mine through three boreholes, and at 3:00 P. M. the first gas was discharged into the mine. Much better time might have been made had it not been necessary to plan and construct discharge facilities on the ground.
The drums were discharged into the mine through boreholes from the surface. They wefe attached to manifolds of 2" piping in units of five, the drums being placed on racks at an angle of about 20 with the horizontal valve downward. - In general the five drums of each unit were discharged all at once by opening the valves wide, and were changed on regular schedule, allowing from two to eight hours between changes. However, the schedules were laid out on a basis of the trend of gas analysis, temperatures, and. pressures, and on one occasion a drum was discharged completely in less than thirty minutes, while on another, drums were changed only twice daily. Bach of these units was housed in a temporary shelter, provided with a salamander for keeping the men warm. No difficulty was experienced with the discharging of the cyl inders, and all work to be done can be handled by common labor. When
' 3 Coal Industry. (i (1923), 272-9; Coal A.ge, S/t (1923), 3-10.
Mining Section
635
attempting to discharge a. cylinder in less than about tbree boars under
the coapdttkxas which
at Bftaer mine, it was necessary to heat
the valves Occamjonagy wfth Mow torches to keep them from being plugged
up with cartxsct
snow. la part as a result of this experience,
means have since been developed of discharging these cylinders in much
shorter periods than three hours, without the inconvenience of heating the valves.
emos name
A word should he said in explanation of the source and purity of the
carbon dioxide which is commercially available. The present annual pro duction of this material in the United States amounts to about sixty mil
lion pounds, meitteg at as average price according to Census figures or 11.7c per pound, hat commanding considerably lower prices in (jeantity. Small qnantittc* are made from magnesite, by fermentation, and from natural mineral springs, but the hulk of the production, over 90% in fact,
is obtained from the combustion of coke. High grade coke is burned under specially constructed boilers, with carefully regulated draft, producing flue gases with 17 to 19% carbon dioxide. These flue gases are scrubbed
to remove dirt and sulphur compounds, and the carbon dioxide is then absorbed in sodium or potassium carbonate solution, from which it is boiled out over 99% pure. Modern plants are balanced so that there is just enough steam produced from the combustion of the coke to operate
the machinery and compress the carbon dioxide Into cylinders. The gas is sold in two sizes of containers, bolding respectively 20 and
50 pounds. The fifty pound size is 8% inches outside diameter by 51 inches long, and averages slightly over 150 pounds in weight when filled. Accidents in handling the cylinders are almost unknown. Fifty pounds of carbon dioxide occupies 408 cubic feet at 32F. and 760 mm. pressure, but it may be figured conservatively as displacing 450 feet under average temperature and pressure conditions, and may, of course, occupy much greater volumes at higher temperatures, such as are met with in mine fires.
Turnover on carbon dioxide cylinders is rather slow, and since invest ment in containers is very high, interest charges, depreciation, and main tenance of cylinder equipment total as much as manufacturing cost.
The cost of the gas is therefore apparently high, but, as will be shown it compares very favorably with other methods of mine fire fighting for the results obtaiued.
The refrigerating effect of the gas expanding from the cylinders de serves especial mention. When the gas is discharged, this refrigerating effect is sufficient to reduce a part of the carbon dioxide to a solid snow the temperature of which is approximately 100 below zero Fahrenheit. The cooling effect of this snow is not great as compared with the effect of the gas in excluding air, but is important nevertheless.
C HEMICAX COIfTKOI. OF BITNEK FIRE
In directing the application of carbon dioxide to the Bitner mine fire, the fullest possible use was made of gas analysis, temperatures, and
636 Twelfth Safety Congress
pressures, as indications of conditions in the sealed-off area. Over 800 gas analyses were made of samples collected systematically
at regular intervals at the various stoppings. Daily temperature read ings were taken at fifteen points surrounding the fire zone, and some temperatures were also taken at the bottom of the boreholes by means of maximum-minimum thermometers and thermocouples. Pressures were taken a part of the time by means of an Ellison draught gage, and were otherwise noted as positive or negative. The interdependent variations of temperature, pressure, and gas analysis showed many interesting re lationships and the dependence of all three on the barometer was also noticeable. Some of these relationships will be brought out in support of the writer's conception of the mechanism of inert gas extinction of this kind of fires.
rBESEST CONDITION' OF BITKEB MINE
Gas was applied in large quantities from December 16 to. December 25,
after which the rate was slackened considerably, and small amounts were then introduced until March 19. On March 26, a new opening was broken
through the coal approximately in the center of the first zone, as indi
cated on the map. Starting from this point, on June 1 the fire area had
been reclaimed from end to end along the 'main haulage way and air
return, and along the gob area on the west side of the mine, which
connects Bitner with adjoining mines. Some hot coals were found, but
these were in small pockets in places where the gas analysis indicated
that carbon dioxide had not been very effective, and they were so small
in extent as to be easily loaded out. It is worthy of mention that the
early stopping of combustion by inert gas, combined with the slow
cooling as compared to the direct use of water, resulted in causing less
falling of the roof.
Coal is now being produced from the reclaimed area. ' Smaller areas
on the east side of the mine, that is, along the outcrop, have been sealed
up pending the time when it will be convenient to explore and reclaim them. So far as is definitely known, there is no flame in these areas,
although hot spots may still exist. Exact conditions in these small
areas will not be definitely known unless and until they they have been
explored. For obvious reasons, some worked out parts of the area may
never need to be opened.
.
" FUNCTIONS OF CARBON DIOXIDE
Many questions arise in connection with the use of carbon dioxide. How does the gas act? What is the difference in its action between shallow and deep mines? Between tight and leaky fire zones? Between coal and metal mines? What is the importance of leakage"? How long should it require a fire area to cool? Can water be used in conjunction with carbon dioxide? These and many other questions come to mind.
HOW LOKG SHOULD IT BEQUIBE FOB A MINE FIBE TO COOL?
The extinction of a fire is not a simple question of putting it out or letting It burn, but is an exact problem in heat engineering, in which.
Mining Section
637
unfortunately, many of the constants are unknown. There are all pos
sible degrees of success and failure between letting a fire burn vigorously
and putting it out immediately. The behavior of the fire depends en
tirely upon the relation existing between two heat quantities--the amount
of heat generated by the fire and the amount dissipated by conduction
through strata, by drainage, by gas leakage, or by cold inert gas intro
duced into the mine. Fortunately, both of these heat quantities can be
controlled to some extent. We know that if a smoldering fire continues
to burn without much change over long periods of time, the amount of
heat generated by the fire must be about the same as the amount of
heat dissipated. If the amount generated becomes greater by reason
of better heat insulation, increased draught, or change in the character
of the combustible, we say that the fire has kindled or increased, as the
excess available heat has ignited new quantities of material. On the
other hand, if the amount of heat generated becomes less than the amount
dissipated, we say that the fire is dying out, since it must necessarily cool.
Now it is self-evident that the heat generated in a sealed-off area
is proportional to the air leaking in to feed the fire. Likewise it is ob
vious that the time required for a sealed-off mine fire to cool depends
upon the amount by which the heat quantity dissipated in unit Lime ex
ceeds the amount generated. The introduction of inert gas in any amount
whatever excludes some air, even when conditions are such that the
inert gas is only partially effective. In excluding air this introduction
of gas that will not support combustion must affect the heat balance,
decreasing the amount generated, without greatly affecting the amount
dissipated, and therefore it must accelerate the cooling of the mine, if
the sealing is sufficiently thorough to extinguish fire without its assist
ance. If the sealing is not sufficient in itself, then the gas may even
extinguish fire which before its introduction was growing in size.
Let us examine these two heat quantities to get some idea of their
order of magnitude.
-
. IIEAT GEKEKATED AND LEAKAGE
It is obvious that the heat generated by a fire is due to combustion which requires air for its support, and hence when a fire is sealed off, heat generated depends directly upon leakage.
Now many, many mine fires are extinguished by simply sealing off, but when we speak of a tight seal we use a term that is merely relative. There never was a mine fire sealed off in a manner that even approached air-tightness. Not only do actual cracks and openings around seals or through the earth allow leakage, but often the seal, the rock, even the brick and mortar of the stoppings themselves may allow considerable leakage.
As an example of the importance of the transpiration of gases through brick walls, and the leakage through small cracks, may be cited some of the experiments of the Research Laboratory of the American Society of Heating' and Ventilating Engineers. In one test a room of approximately 1000 cubic feet capacity, having an 18 inch plastered brick wall, and
638 Twelfth Safety Congress
weather-stripped windows, was closed tight. The leakage through walls and cracks caused an infiltration of 7780 cubic feet of fresh air per hour when the wind velocity against the side of the building- was 8 miles per hour--a complete change of air in -a little over an hour. This labor
atory is now conducting further tests which should yield direct figures for the leakage of gases through a 13 inch unplastered brick wall, and these may be expected to furnish additional evidence.
Furthermore, evidence of leakage is found in facts well known to
mining men. While stoppings are sometimes blown out by slight ex
plosions and by rapid readjustments of gas volumes and direction of
air currents when the seals are first placed, it is not possible to maintain
any considerable pressure difference across a-brick stopping for any
great time. The writer has noted changes of the barometer of the order
of one inch in twenty-four hours at the Bitner mine fire. Had the fire
zone been air tight, this would have necessitated a pressure difference
of about one foot of water across the stoppings. Such pressure differ
ences may be found in some instances, but no long sustained pressure across a brick stopping in excess of a few inches of water has ever come
to the writer's notice. Further, if a hot fire area when sealed off has
an average temperature of 212P.. which is surely a low and conservative
estimate, and if the fire' is extinguished by sealing alone, the gases in
this zone should contract about 25 per cent, by volume in cooling to
normal temperature. Now if the area were really tight, a pressure
difference of over three pounds per square inch, or over seven feet of
water gage, should be observed across the stoppings. No such pressure
is observed in practice, as the pressures have been equalized through air
leaking in. And the air which has leaked in has combined with com
bustible matter to delay the cooling of the mine, or if the leakage is great
enough, to kindle the flame.
'
In the above example an initial average fire area temperature of 350 "F., which is not impossible, would result in a pressure difference of over ten feet of water gage, in cooling to normal temperature.
In controlling this leakage the obvious remedy is to follow up thermal contraction and compensate for barometric fluctuations as far as possible by introducing inert gas into the sealed-off area In place of air.
HEAT DISSIPATED------SH.VLJ.OW VS. DEEP MIKES
The quantity of heat dissipated by a mine fire is more difficult to esti mate than the quantity of lieat generated. Indeed, the best that can be done is to make an outside estimate based on a number of conservative assumptions, for not only is each mine fire a problem in itself, but in individual cases many unknown factors may enter into the case.
There is a common impression among mining men that a long time is required for a sealed-off area to cool to normal temperatures, and indeed it is true that most of the strata which surround mine workings are very poor conductors of heat. On the other hand, the writer believes that the long periods, sometimes of years, required in practice for sealed-
Mining Section
630
off fires to cool to normal temperatures, are caused by inleaking air. generating enough heat to delay cooling, but not enough to prevent eventual extinction of the fire.
Let us assume first a bed of coal burning on the floor of the mine, having
a depth of three feet, and a bulk specific gravity of 50 pounds per cubic
foot, and thus weighing 150 pounds per square foot of 'area. This is
felt to be very conservative, since the workings on fire do not include
100% of the area, there being no heat to dissipate to adjoining strata
from the interior of pillars, walls, etc., which have been afire only on
the surface. In some instances roof coal, slate, etc., are burning on the
floor in piles deeper than 3 feet, but this estimate of 150 pounds per
square foot is certainly far above the average amount of material on
fire In mine fires of any type.
.
Let us further assume that carbon dioxide has been used in such
quantities as to exclude all air leakage whatsoever, so that the only heat
to be dissipated is that in the hot coals. Assume the.temperature of the
coal to be 1000F., which Is certainly above the average. The specific
heat of coke is given in Marks' Mechanical Engineer's Handbook as
0.203. Taking this as .25 we have an outside maximum amount of heat to be dissipated of 35,000 Btu. per square foot of floor area. This is to
be dissipated, let us assume, altogether by conduction into adjoining
strata, half going into overlying strata, while half goes into underlying
strata. Assume the initial temperature of the rocks as 60F., and assume
that the mine is to be opened when thfe temperature of the workings
cools to 70P. We will then have heat transfer taking place until a
uniform gradient is established some distance above or below the
workings. If the thermal conductivity of the surrounding rocks is
assumed uniform, this gradient will pass from 70"F. to 60F. heating
a mass of rock to an average temperature of 65F. 0.200 may be taken
as the conservative average specific heat of surrounding strata, and in
this case it would require 17,500 pounds of rock to absorb the heat at
an average temperature increase of 5F. If the average specific gravity
of the surrounding rocks is taken at 2.0, this means that in cooling this
hypothetical mine to 70F. the temperature gradient would have to be
established a distance of 140 feet above and below the strata in order
to absorb the heat. Every constant assumed in this estimate is so con
servative that it is safe to say the required distance in practice is much
less than this.
.
In the Bitner fire considerable areas never reached by water were cooled almost to normal temperature before opening up the mine, yet the surface of the ground where the cover was only 30 feet was not ap preciably warmer than the ground in other parts of the vicinity. As the weather during much of the time hovered about the freezing point, any great heating of the surface would have been noted.
The writer would draw from this that there Is not any pronounced difference between deep and shallow mines as regards the rate of cooling to he expected, at least where inert gas treatment is undertaken at an
640 Twelfth Safety Congress
early stage. In the case of very old fires which have had ample oppor tunity to establish temperatnre gradients for long distances from the seat of the fires, cooling would be much slower, and the shallow mine would probably show some advantage.
. The rate of transfer of this amount of heat would be very great at first decreasing to very low values as the temperatures become equalized. This decrease is sot a straight line function, bi depends upon the tem perature difference, which by assumption is 930F. at the start of the cooling process, and M*F. at the conclusion. To avoid the calculus it will surely be conservative to base an estimate upon an average temper ature difference of W*F. between the hot coals and the adjoining strata. On this basis the time required would be 2X87 hours, or approximately three months.
The writer believes that this estimate is based upon such over-cautious assumptions that it is many times the period actually required under average conditions if all isieahage of air can actually be eliminated, and that three months may therefore be regarded as the outside maximum period required for any mine Are to cool, where the generation of addi tional heat by inXeahage of air can be absolutely eliminated.
Under practical conditions it will usually be found uneconomical to attempt to produce this result. Gas analysis and pressure observations show that in the treatment of Bitner mine fire considerable amounts of air leaked in from time to time. Zero oxygen was reached at several points occasionally, indicating what might have been obtained if all . leakage bad been prevented, but the real aim of the gas treatment is to compromise between the desire to economize gas and the desire to reopen the mine quicJtly.
Another point which should be emphasized is that where fire areas are too leaky to extinguish themselves, gas application must be continued in sufficient amounts to pat the fire out. Encouraging results at first in such cases should not Obscure the fact that such fires will grow gradu ally worse if not treated with sufficient amounts of gas.
USE OF WATER
The use of water as a cooling and quenching agent cannot be too strongly recommended. Its dangers when applied to hot coals in quan tities short of actual flooding are too well known to need rehearsal, but the danger of generating large amounts of water gas, causing explosions, and so forth, is very much lessened in the presence of inert gas, and water may be used to advantage especially in the later stages of cooling a sealed-off area which has been gas treated.
In the treatment of the Bitner fire small areas were actually flooded, and of course in these areas the gas treatment played no part whatever. Water could not be gotten to certain other parts-of the zone, so that in these parts the water played no part. In still other parts of the fire area, water was used with great effect to produce rapid cooling, but this water was not introduced until the gas analysis showed that the danger
Mining Section
641
of spreading fire or causing explosion was nil, and until the temperatures
recorded were near the boiling point of water. When water is used under tbese conditions, cooling can be much accelerated and the good effects produced entirely outweigh the undesirable tendency of the water to
absorb carbon dioxide. It was impossible to flood these areas, water being simply run through them to absorb heat, and it may be noted that the effluent water from these sections was never very hot, as water was not used in this way until two weeks after introducing carbon dioxide.
XJSE OF CABBON DIOXIDE IN' METAX. MINE FIRES
The proceeding remarks have been applied more particularly to coal mines, although the general theory discussed will hold for any fire en closed by more or less leaky surroundings.
In metal mines conditions are so vastly different from those in coal mines, that the writer hesitates to discuss them. There can be no question of the fact, however, that fires of all kinds are spread mainly through gaseous combustion, or flame, and not through the conduction of heat through incandescent solids. There is a wide difference between the per centage of carbon dioxide required to extinguish flame, and the percent age necessary to extinguish incandescent carbon. In fact, it is not be lieved that the latter object can be attained under practical conditions by the addition of carbon dioxide, unless the amount of combustible is great enough to absorb much of the oxygen remaining in the sealed-off area. This is often not the case in metal mines, as fires are usually confined to timbers, and the amount of timber varies from mine to mine.
The writer is hence inclined to doubt the effectiveness of carbon dioxide for altogether extinguishing fires in metal mines. On the other band, the addition of ten to fifteen per cent carbon dioxide to the atmosphere of a sealed-off metal mine fire will undoubtedly extinguish flame, and thereby check the rapid spread of the fire.
With the increasing development of oxygen breathing apparatus, the day i3 to be foreseen when many metal mine fires will be sealed-off as well as possible in an emergency, seals being placed in accessible loca tions. The fire zones will then be gassed with moderate amounts of carbon dioxide, which will check the spread of the flames and prevent the formation of smoke to some extent. Helmet men can then be sent into the fire areas to make a thorough exploration, possibly to cool hot and incandescent charcoal with water, but in any event to construct stop pings at advantageous locations very close to the actual fire, reclaiming large parts of the mine which are often sealed-off because they are inac cessible or filled with smoke when the stoppings are constructed. With the fire areas thus localized, further treatment with gas, water, sealing, flooding, filling in, or any other, means can be proceeded with intelligently and at comparatively small expense.
LIQUEFIED CARBON DIOXIDE COMPARED WITH OTHER INERT GASES '
Other inert gases have been proposed for fighting mine fires, namely, sulphur dioxide, nitrogen, and flue gases. Sulphur dioxide in liquid form
642 Twelfth Safety Congress
is expensive and not always available. As a flue gas from burning sulphur
on he spot, it is not of satisfactory composition, and introduces compli
cations by making irrespirable the atmosphere In parts of the mine out
side the fire area.
*-
Nitrogen is obtained in large quantities in the manufacture of oxygen
by the liquid air process. The ratio of shipping weight to the weight of gas contained, however, introduces high transportation charges, so that
nitrogen as such need be considered only when the fire is near the source
of nitrogen. Further, carbon dioxide is more effective than nitrogen in
extinguishing flame.4
Flue gas is the only serious competitor of liquefied carbon dioxide for
fighting mine fires. But flue gas is not so effective as carbon dioxide on account of its oxygen content, it is not as quickly available, it is not as
easily transported and distributed over large areas and to difficultly ac cessible places, and it requires for its production expensive equipment and
careful control. In most cases a supply of liquefied carbon dioxide can be obtained from
the nearest large city much more quickly than equipment for producing
and cooling flue gas can be erected. The production of flue gas with low
oxygen content requires chemical control and careful regulation of draft,
and the availability of large amounts of cooling water is an additional
necessity. The expense of using flue gases will prove greater than the cost of liquefied carbon dioxide, unless sufficiently large amounts are to be used to write off the cost of the flue gas generating, cooling, and
transporting equipment. The writer believes that liquefied carbon dioxide and flue gases have
distinct and special fields, and that flue gases should be used where the
amounts will be large enough to pay for the necessary special equipment,
and where other conditions are favorable and sufficient time is available to install and operate this equipment.
COST OF LIQUEFIED CARSOX DIOXIDE TREATMENT
The amount of liquefied carbon dioxide used, and hence its cost, will
depend upon the amount of the leakage and the length of time during
which gas application must he continued. These factors will vary for
different mines.
_
In the case of the Bitner Fire, the actual cost of the carbon dioxide gas
alone was less than 10% of the total expenditure, the remainder being
largely the expense of direct method fighting. Under average mine lire conditions, if there are any average conditions, bad mine fires can probably be extinguished with inert'gas for less than 50 per cent of the cost of the
direct method. In many cases where the use of inert gas is not necessary, it might
so expedite the opening up of sealed-off areas as to repay its cost many
times over.
4 ,i_ IC. Clement, "The Influence of Inert Gases on Inflammable Gaseous Mixtures," U. S. Bureau of Mines, Technical Paper 43.
Mining Section
643
DISCUSSION
Mr. Tillson said that in conducting some tests with a producer, burning'
carboniferous shale, with a large ash content and a low content of carbon,
a condition in which one would think it would be difficult to maintain
combustion, he had maintained the fire despite the fact that the oxygen
zone had only five to six per cent of oxygen.
.
He argued that the conditions of the test were unusually vigorous
because the average velocity of the circulating gases being 1,000 feet per
minute, the sensible heat was carried away with great rapidity, whereas
in a sealed mine where the gases were scarcely moving the heat would
be retained by the coal.
Mr. "William G. Duncan, Pennsylvania State College, School of Mines,
said that the fire probably started at two points (1) at No. 1. Butt in the kick-back section and (2) at the entrance to the new crop haulage.
The first fire originated so far as is known, at the crop-holes near the
kick back and traveled across No. 1 Butt and the main haulage. The
other worked its way along the dip haulage and up to No. 6 Butt.
These fires were separated and remained so, being at no time less than
1,200 feet apart. The fire was* first attacked by water, eight lines of
hose being used with a half-inch nozzle. After 84 hours of fighting by
water the fire gained such headway owing to the defective water supply
and pressure that the fire spread in the kick-back section from No. 1
Butt to the drift mouth, the point where the main haulage entered the
mine.
No rain had fallen for several days, and all the reservoirs were nearly
empty. Consequently, water was scarce and most of the little that was
available was used to water the coke in the ovens, to feed the boilers, to supply the houses and for the other surface purposes. Owing to the
demand for coke, and other reasons it was necessary to keep the ovens
in operation.
Hence only what might be termed "spare water" was used to fight the fire. In consequence on many occasions the water merely dribbled from
the hoses of the nozzles. At times when a canvas brattice erected to
fight the fire would begin to smoke and later to burn, the stream from
the nozzle of a hose would not have sufficient power to reach the cloth.
By whirling the hose or throwing it back and forth a little water could
be thrown on the fire but its effect was as if water had been thrown by
hand.
-
On other occasions the hose and nozzle were attached to a long pole _
and so extended to the desired point and as insufficient water flowed
from the orifice, the hose burned and the nozzle actually melted. As
there were two fires it was necessary to fight them separately in order
to save the fans and the mine.
MUTE IS SEALED
Despite these adverse conditions, the fire at the main opening was fought by hose and water, and burning coal was loaded at points between the main opening jmd the curve at No. 1 Butt. At length, as the drought
644
Txoelfth Safety Congress
continued to curtail the available water supply, the mine was sealed. The fire had ` been found on the night of November 16, 1922, and the mine was not sealed till December 15 or 16 of that year.
Over several portions of the affected mine area, boreholes had been drilled, not for the purpose, be it understood for fighting the fire with liquid carbon dioxide, but to act as return air courses when fighting the fire with the hose. Some of these were of large diameter, one being of approximately 8-inch radius.
The area sealed contained approximately 2,000,000 cu. ft. of air space. The mine was reopened on March 27, 1923, at a new opening into No. 9 Butt which lay between the two fires. Between December 16 and Decem ber 25 large quantities of liquid carbon dioxide had been discharged into the sealed mine. On December 26 or 27 the quantity of carbon dioxide being discharged into the mine was greatly reduced, but during the whole period approximately 2,500,000 cubic feet of the gas was used for the purposes of extinction.
It was hoped that the carbon dioxide being heavier than air would not only not escape but would allow no outside air to enter, but it was found necessary to tamp all the crevices along the crop thoroughly and even then the mine was at no time under positive pressure, and the pressure was consistently negative till the crop crevices had been sealed despite the fact that liquid dioxide was being discharged into the mine.
Mr. Duncan declared also that at the time the mine was reopened a large fire area existed at both of the locations where the fire had developened prior to the sealing, that there was 225 feet of fire near one of the stations at No. 1 Butt where liquid carbon dioxide had been fed into the mine and that the roof had fallen to a height of 7 or 8 feet.
He also claimed from No. 1 Butt to No. 6 Butt on the airway and main haulageway there was no indication of fire, that the wood brattices and wood trolley-wire protection was intact and showed no evidence of flame. He added that a 16-inch borehole in No. Butt. where much liquid carbon dioxide was used, fire was found within 70 feet of the borehole, this burning material being later wetted down by water from a hose and loaded out.
Before reopening the mine a pumping at aflton fitted with one 300-gallon pump and one having a capacity of <30 gatfastts per nttwte w*.-~ installed at the creek which runs at same distance from the main entrance to the mine, and carries much water diechaxned from adjoining mines. A booster pump also waa installed on The main water line. This pump was at the summit between the rewervotr and the mine.
tttsee Mitnii or raer jnw-imere
Mr. Duncan said that since the mine was reopened and until a few weeks ago three shifts were employed in lighting the fire, twelve men on each shift, two being apparatus men who were held in reserve. Eight lines of hose under a pressure of 60 to 100 pounds were employed con stantly, the nozzles having a half-inch opening.
Mining Section
645
In. each shift, the gangs loaded on an average fourteen cars, each of 50-bushel capacity, the load consisting of rock, slate, etc. Lately, in the latter part of September, the gangs were cut to eight men per shift.
In general until the middle of September, 1923, 36 men were employed loading out material.' At present six lines of hose are being used and 40 men^are clearing the mine. The rate of loading varied from 42 to 120 cars of 50-bushel capacity per day of 24 hours. Sometimes the tem perature of the floor when the men were working was 110 deg. Fahr., and the roof where falls had occurred was 194 deg. Fahr. Of course at such points the men worked only for short periods.
The manway on the south side to No. 3 Butt and all the kick-back
section, Mr. Duncan said, had not yet been reclaimed and is still an active
fire area. In the dip section the Are is probably extinguished, for a dam
in this area shows 12 feet of water. Oxygen apparatus were used wher
ever safety lamps would not burn and in all other operations all-service
gas masks were used when necessary.
.
Summing up Mr. Duncan said that at No. 1 gas station was 300 feet of fire, that at No. 2 gas station no fire was evident before or after, that at No. 3 gas station wood brattices, trolley boards and other combustible bodies were still intact, that at No. 4 gas station fire was found within 1&0 feet of the borehole, and 4 feet of coke along the side of the rib in the manway and that at No. 5 gas station was 400 feet of fire along an old crop gob.near the crop haulage to No. 1 room. Of this 200 feet has been loaded out.
Mr. Duncan quoted Mr. Silas Hall, district mine inspector as saying
that there was more fire in the Bftner mine after sealing and the use of
carbon dioxide than before sealing and that the
carbon dioxide
did not extinguish the fire.
Mr. Duncan added that the entire emit d SeStthid Vhm Sre to date was
quite large and that the eottqpa&y lad made Sfe Sersfr? efforts in order
to prevent its spread to oCJwr ta<r.
las ftwft esrfcastarfsfeed by
sealing at the following lathe# et fSs?
C.
Cofee Co.: No. 2.
Lemont, Youngstown, Standard. Wr-itf&s SM-.
CgfijBFiafl. Owsessedta* No. I
and Davidson, the latter hawaag had fw *>. mo <*r
waferf
and the other flooded. At KOr S0><uei,. CwtwWil
3,
iirws m4 Col
lier fires had been extinguished hr ettk-jHai;. #% Wm# *ftd the hsstring
out of heated material.
Mr. Duncan added that water
d(l
igMpBTira*ssid at earboe
dioxide for flooding the dtp jieinve. tip matm- fib-st
r. ttaMk. the
chief inspector of mines of
wis ego**# adaiwsr eC the
flue-gas method of extlngalwhiswc
Da*
TOdfecaa Se'fflSPCd that
at times when the gas
froPMt
hshim
phut ap> and
had to be exploded, so as no
<sd
ThrofeBOl
happened
on several occasions no <w*r was tKjwya'K.
He Questioned the value t the jet* wih'wo SM imuciwt seriously whether the maximum and aatahnoa therm sawders. gave the normal tem peratures of the five zones into which they were lowered. He did not
646 Ttcelftk Safety Congress
ball eve that, the high water
due to cooling of tbe sealed areas ever
caused any such influx ot air such as Mr. Jones described, for such unre
lieved water gages were present at the Barradrrille lire, in northern
West Virginia.
THE .VKGOXACT rrKE
Mr. Tillson mentioned tbe Argonaut fire in California and said carbon dioxide was used at that fire without satisfactory results, but that he was under tbe impression that in that instance legal considerations and injunctions prevented the sealing of the mine and the use of the gas for a long enough time for a profitable result even to be anticipated. He thought it might well be that at Bitner conditions were such that carbon dioxide did not get a satisfactory trial.
Mr. Jones replied to Mr. Duncan saying that he wa,s not present at the
inception of the fire but that investigation since the fire showed that it
had spread so extensively that if there were several fires at first, they
had become, before sealing, a single fire. He added that Mr. Duncan
was correct in saying that the sealing o the crevices along the out
crop was soon found to be absolutely necessary for the control of the
fire.
.
Some differences of opinion might exist as to which areas had been ex tinguished by carbon dioxide and which flooding, but the evidences were quite clear that in some places not reached at all by water the fire had been extinguished by carbon dioxide gas. In other places he held that carbon dioxide had done the work but others believed that the water was the extinguishing agent.
Certainly the water helped in the cooling. No one could deny that its presence reduced the temperatures materially. He declared that along the main haulage the fire had been extinguished by gas, but as he had not examined the airway adjacent he could not make any statement. He also said that in his belief the application of more carbon dioxide in some .places where the presence of fire was indicated would have completely extinguished the fire. The practice of fire fighting with carbon dioxide is so new that probably the work would have been more effectually per formed had the experience now available been possessed before the work
was undertaken. As in many trials of a new method or device the technique required experience and actual practice to obtain the best re sults.
Mr. Jones explained that Mr. Duncan's interesting narrative describing conditions before carbon dioxide was applied and after carbon-dioxide application was stopped should some day be set down in a complete his torical account, but. had no direct bearing on the story of gas applica tion. The facts were that on December 16, before gas was applied, the right side of the Bitner mine was sealed off and was in the words of some of those present "practically all afire."
On March. 21, before the mine was opened, the maximum indicated
temperature inside eleven stoppings and at the bottoms of tore holes
near the center of the fire zone was 78 P. On March 27, the mine was
Mining Section
6*7
opened, and the coal was still more or less smoldering in spots, bat by May the mine was producing coal. Mach fire was later encountered dur ing the summer, but this was so long after gas application bad been
stopped that this chapter of the story, in which so much material was wet down and loaded out, had no bearing whatever on the success or
failure of the gas method.
"
As to Mr. Tillson's questions as to whether fire could be extinguished in actual fire-fighting practice by establishing an atmosphere containing less than five per cent of the oxygen, he could only say that where it was established for a whole month as proved by gas analyses the fire was entirely extinguished and was found to be out when the place was opened.
Mr. Tillson said that as Mr. George C. Hewitt was not present to offer his paper on "Maintaining Interest in Mine Safety" and as it appeared that the session was extending well beyond the time limit appointed the paper would not be read but would be made part of the proceedings. This paper therefore follows:
MAINTAINING INTEREST IN MINE SAFETY
Geobob C. Hewitt, Sttpebvisob. of Industrial Insurance and Hospital
Service, Pacific Coast Coal Company, Seattle, Washington
Years ago when the Pacific Coast Coal Company was first formed and" long before "Safety First" had become an industrial slogan, the officials of the company realized that, due to the steep pitches and narrow seams caused- by the many faults and intrusions in the field which resulted in their having to confront many adverse working conditions, a concerted' action on the part of the employees was necessary for the prevention of accidents. Although the effort made at that time would seem to us now to be rather feeble, one of the fundamentals of successful safety, dis cipline, at that early date impressed itself upon us. To a recognition of this factor we attribute much of our success. Discipline for the em ployer and employee alike was, and is, the cornerstone of our safety organization, it has always been the policy of -the company to show the employees what can be accomplished by strict attention to accident pre vention, and it is particularly impressed upon them that it is wholly essential that both the employer and employee realize that they have certain obligations. to meet in order to make successful progress in the -work: and that for either to repudiate auy portion of their duties would mean a failure of the whole scheme.
The development of the State Mining Code did much to bring about a closer co-operation on the part of the employee. The presence of the State Mine Inspector and his Deputies at frequent intervals at the mines and the thorough manner in which the workings were inspected for un safe conditions and practices convinced the employees that their per sonal safety was not secondary to production. However, it was difficult to obtain the desired results due to the fact that only 25 per cent of the personnel was English-speaking people. The many nationalities, with
648 Twelfth Safety Congress
racial characteristics peculiar to each, made it difficult to bring about
the degree of co-operation that is essential if the constant hazard of
employment is to be combatted successfully.
In the Pall of 1921 the entire personnel of the workmen was changed
and in January 1922 the plan of "Collective Bargaining" was adopted,
Mine Councils were organized, and the Company realizing that safety
is a most vital subject in the minds of workmen employed in a hazardous
occupation, gave the sub-committee on safety a most prominent position
in the new Council organizations. This committee naturally works in
close harmony with the General Safety Committee maintained in accord
ance with the State mine laws.
.
In organizing the Mine Councils, accident prevention was incorporated
as a part of our business. That is to say, we explained to our workmen
that we did not approve of an occasional intense safety program where
banners were flown and prizes given, as we felt that the temporary en
thusiasm that is so easily roused in this manner was not lasting. "We assured them that we believed it was entirely unnecessary to proceed along such lines in order to awaken in the minds of the men a realiza
tion that they must cooperate with their fellow workmen and their em
ployer in order to safeguard their future health and happiness. In
keeping with that declaration, our safety education has always followed
a definite course beginning at the time of emploment. This is system
atically carried on as long as the workman remains in the service of the
company.
A workman applying at our employment office is given a private inter view. The interviewer is a man of long experience in coal mining in
this particular district. This enables him readily to ascertain the capa
bilities of the applicant and gives him an opportunity to acquaint the
applicant with the general policies of the Company relative to accident-
prevention work. We find that the impressions made on the applicant in
this manner are usually lasting and that although he cannot immediately
appreciate all that the company and workmen are doing in their efforts
to reduce accidents to a minimum, he at least knows that his hearty
cooperation is expected and that his future success with the Company largely depends on his attitude towards it accident-prevention work.
PHYSICAL EXAMINATIONS
As the workman passes through the various phases of the employment routine the safety instructions given him become more explicit. During the physical examination, which is conducted by the Camp Surgeon, it is explained to the workman that the tests are not made solely for the pur pose of eliminating such applicants as are found to be physically unfit, but also to determine whether the applicant is physically fit for the partic ular work he desires. Should there be found, during the examination, some physical impairment which would increase the natural hazard of the oc cupation, the camp surgeon would recommend a non-hazardous job.
Our past experiences and observations have proved to us that the doctor, while conducting the examination can outline to the applicant
Mining Section
649
briefly what can be accomplished, by a workman in promoting safety if he has the right cooperative spirit. This short talk carries much weight and is more readily accepted and retained than if given under different circumstances- This perhaps is due to the fact the applicant is then in a more re.ceptive mood, due to his natural desire to know Just how good his physical condition really is. This, of course, means that the examination must be conducted in such a manner as to Impress the applicant with its value and* with the examiner's sincerity of purpose.
The workman, on being presented to the lamp room, may feel that he is entirely familiar with the operations of the safety lamp, nevertheless he is required to listen to certain rules regarding the care of It. The attendant.explains to him the importance of the lamp being at all times in perfect condition and why It should be carefully examined for any oversight in assembling. If the slightest defect is found, the workman is instructed to change it for one that is in working condition.
The workman is also shown how he should adjust the position of the batteries of his portable electric lamp when working in different positions so as to prevent the battery solution from leaking due to faulty gaskets
which at times escape the most daily inspection. Thereby he is guarded against superficial alkali burns which have been known to cause serious disabilities. The workman is made acquainted with the fact that vinegar if applied promptly as a re-agent, will neutralize the alkali and prevent serious burns.
From the lamp room the workman is taken to the dry house and there he is impressed with the necessity of complying with the rules of sanitation. Upon reporting to the foreman the workman's attention is called to the bulletin boards bearing safety messages pertinent to coal mining--safe and unsafe practices--and to other bulletin boards showing the minutes of the Mine and Central Councils and of the Safety Meetings. The foreman explains the various safety rulings, giving special insructions relative to the State Mining Laws.
We believe, however, that our best safety educational work is done at
the working faces or wherever the workman's duties happen to be, whether
underground or on the surface, as all officials in every capacity are con
stantly on the alert to correct dangerous practices that come to their
attention no matter where they may be and to do this the moment they
see them.
.
The work done in committees, it is true, does much to develop co operation, but we have found that when a workman's attention is called to
an unsafe practice directly by a supervisor, it is certain to have the
desired effect- Our foreman and supervisors feel that they are per
sonally responsible for the safety of the men under them. In due time
the new man in the organization is notified to attend the Mine Safety
meetings. The membership of our Safety Committee is 10 per cent of
the total number of men employed. However, our meetings are held at
a time when any workman can take advantage of the general invitation
to be present.
'
'
650 Twelfth Safety Congress
The subjects under discussion are the usual mine safety problems,
the discussions of accidents, the report of inspection committees and the study of the monthly report of accident statistics which show accumula
tive and a comparative figure of accidents at all mines for the current year. Monthly, and at the close of each year, the Safety Committee is given a complete report, of Its accidents and particular attention is called to their fundamental causes and their severity and frequency rates. With the assistance of the supervisors and Safety Committees, the super intendents outline a campaign for the current year in which they center,
their attack upon the accidents that occurred most frequently during the
previous year.
.
ACCIDENT FREQUENCY BATE
During the year 1922, our Newcastle Mine had an accident frequency of 500 accidents per annum per 1,000 men employed. In analyzing the cause of accidents we found that 56 per cent of all the accidents occur ring underground were classed und.er falls of face or pillar^ of -coal, falls of roof, struck in the eye by flying coal, mine cars and locomotives, and that the accidents under these classifications caused 57 per cent of our time loss. A. campaign was Immediatly inaugurated against these causes of accidents with the most gratifying results. The accident rate for the present year for that mine has fallen as low as 137 accidents per 1,000 men per annum and the accidents under the classifications of "Mine Cars and Locomotives" and "Falls of Face or Pillar of Coal" have almost entirely disappeared. A similar program in the other- mines has brought about a most gratifying decrease in the number of accidents.
The training that is necessary to develop the proper. efficiency in the mine-rescue and first-aid work covers a long period, and during that time our workmen are taught that the prevention of an accident is better than the cure. We have found that in every instance where a man has been identified with either the first-aid or mine-rescue work, he has learned to realize the importance of being cautious in the performance of his daily duties, in maintaining interest in mine-rescue and first-aid work it has been the policy of the Company to hold annual intra-company
meets in which much interest is dispalyed.
'
The Black Diamond team, winner of our 1923 meet, competed in the International Meet held at Salt Lake City and was-awarded third prize in the combination First-Aid and Mine-Rescue work. We believe much of our progress in the accident prevention during the past two years can be attributed to the fact that in changing our personnel in 1921, our policy demanded that no- man be employed unless he could understand and speak English. A recent census shows that 95 per cent of our em ployees are American citizens or have declared their intentions of ac cepting naturalization. This has eliminated many obstacles such as racial prejudices, which in the past presented an insurmountable barrier to any safety program we then launched. Our intense Americanization program Is carried on at all mines for ten months out of the year, and as in all other phases of our personnel work the subject of safety is
Mining Section
651
given a prominent place. The students in the classes of Americanization
absorb the safety idea with other fundamentals that go to make up good
citizens.
.
The Boy Scouts at our camps are. given practical demonstrations
in first-aid and rescue work, not only by the Scout Master but by men
closely identified with the safety movement in this section of the State.
Through the medium of our Company paper, the Pacific Coast Bulletin,
published and distributed to the employees free each week, ^ distinct
program of safety propaganda is being carried on. Many of the articles
are written for the express purpose of appealing to the wives and families
of our workmen. This weekly paper, we believe, is one of our greatest
assets for the promulgation of safety.
The coal-mining industry owes much to the U. S. Bureau of Mines. -
Through the tireless efforts in research and'education by the men identi
fied with it, the mine operators and workmen have been taught how to
prevent accidents, and it is our belief that the time is not far distant when
coal mining in this country will not be coupled with terrible disasters
and frightful injuries.
MAINTAINING SAFETY INTEREST AMONG SHIFT BOSSES AND FOREMEN
Thomas Cowperthwaite, Safety Engineer, Calumet and Arizona Mining
Cosipaky, Warren, Arizona
Eight years ago when I started the work of accident prevention all I could hear from those who had become interested In this endeavor was co-operation. I well knew that co-operation was necessary but bow could I get it when 80 per cent of the foremen and shift bosses laughed at, or criticized, safety organizations?
After a short study of this unfortunate situation I was satisfied that with the unlimited co-operation of our management and superintendent I could demand results from the foremen ultimately even if they did not co-operate cheerfully from the beginning.
Our general manager gave a banquet inviting all foremen, shift bosses and heads of departments and at this banquet a solid foundation for our safety work was laid.
I could not at that time, nor do I at this time, see any great advantage in a central safety committee in underground mining. It is true that at many kinds of plants a central safety committee is of value to the safety organization, especially during the infancy of the plant, for various dangerous places can be discovered and their dangers reduced by those who have had experience in this class of work.
Even after all the safety appliances have been introduced and your plant is apparently foolproof accidents still occur. The question is "How can these accidents be prevented?" The most satisfactory and efficient means left is through your foremen and bosses. On these men, if com petent and capable as foremen and shift bosses should be, the safety de partment must depend to prevent accidents. The safety inspectors (who
652 Twelfth Safety Congress
should have a sound knowledge of mining and judgment in handling various kinds of ground) can greatly aid the bosses in teaching the work men various safety methods. They must make rules for them, for rules are essential in all safety engineering, and they must keep the safety movement before the foremen, bosses and workmen or all their past and initial energy will prove a failure.
As a rule the shift boss visits the places on his run twice each day, but the safety inspector can visit each place possibly only once In every two weeks or even only once a month depending on the territory he has to cover. Therefore upon the shift boss we must depend finally to have things kept in proper shape and to help in the instruction of his work men as to the way in which it shall be done. If he takes the proper interest in safety work he demands that one cardinal safety rule be unerringly obeyed and that is, "Make your working place safe before anything else is done." A large percentage of our accidents happen at the working face owing to some slight neglect, and the only way to pre vent them is to follow the rule I have just mentioned.
INTEREST MOST BE KEPT X7P
We will assume that the shift bosses have been interested In pre venting their men from being injured. As a result the safety inspector Is getting satisfactory accident records and begins to pay little attention to what is being done. What will be the result? The shift bosses will lose interest, the men will be left to resume their bad habits, and within three months his safety work will be neglected entirely and if he gets good results they will come from good luck and not from good judgment.
It is absolutely essential that the shift boss and foreman be kept interested in the work and help in every way possible. The old saying is "Money talks" and in most cases if a man is properly compensated for his extra energies he contrives to get results--if that is, possible.
To create and retain interest I use various methods and these have hitherto proved satisfactory. (1) A bo'nus of $100 is paid to the shift foreman having the best yearly record.
<2) A bonus of $30 is paid to any shift boss who can handle 2,500 men-shifts without an injury severe enough to cause any of his work men to lay off more than one day. As an example, a shift boss who has charge of 50 men, who work 50 shifts without an accident causing them to lose more than one shift is given a $30 bonus. This system has worked most satisfactorily since its adoption seven years ago.
Many engineers have inquired of me why a single shift layoff is not debted against- tbe shift boss' record in awarding the bonus. This is done solely to create and sustain the Interest of the shift boss. Many men who receive only a slight injury lay off not because of the accident but to take a rest. In fact under the present condition when our turnover is large, the shift bosses should be allowed considera tion where men are not away more than three days, for a new man who
Mining Section
653
pinches or scratches his finger may lay oft because his muscles are sore and not because he has been injured. So Ions ns the shift bosses have a chance to win this money many of them will look up the men themselves and influence them to return to work. This goes to show the
value of the bonus and the interest they take in it.
(3) All shift bosses and foremen are kept in competition with each
other and a monthly report issued to each of them showing his stand ing for the month in question, and also his standing to date for the year. Percentages are flgured on a 1000-shift basis, and 25 points de ducted for a fatal accident if caused through neglect of the shift
doss or foreman. Twelve points are deducted if the fatality is caused by the carelessness of the employee. Sis points are deducted for any serious accident and one point for a minor accident. No-time-oif acci
dents are not flgured directly against the shift boss or foreman but are figured against the mine in the monthly report of total accident per 1000-
shifts worked.
_
. THE COMPETITIVE SYSTEM
This competitive system has proved very valuable, especially in re
ducing the number of accidents of a serious nature. As six points are
deducted for each serious accident, the shift boss must prevent them or
spoil his record. I have often heard them call up the doctor and in quire why a certain man is not ready to return to work and ask how
many days it will be before the workman can return to his working place. 'I often find it best to see the doctor myself, for it is one way
of helping the shift boss maintain his safety interest.
(4) I always follow the shift boss when making my Inspection trips
and try to show him where conditions can possibly be bettered. I never discuss anything with the foreman if the shift boss can remedy the condition himself, thus preventing hard feelings between foremen and shift bosses. If the shift boss has no authority to do wbat I desire
I then discuss the matter with the foreman. However, if I find the shift boss is really not properly supervising the safety, of the men I let
the foreman know it.
-
After safety engineering has been instituted for some time and serious accidents have been reduced about 60 per cent below the old standard the safety engineer has to put on his thinking cap and has to devise new safety measnres in order to continue the reduction. My data at the present time show that a large percentage of accidents happen at the working face and that these are principally the more serious ones.
They are usually due to oversight or carelessness of the workman and often happen before the shift boss examines the place of work. In. these cases the safety engineer must depend on the carefulness of the miner or mucker and something must be done to keep these acci dents to a minimum. To fulfill a part of this difficult task I post rules at every conspicuous, place in the mines, stating the most essential things to be done every-morning and afternoon in order to prevent injury.
Mining Section
655
Wednesday Is the day chosen Tor these conferences. The notices are sent to the person in charge of this man. and he delivers one of them to the workman in person. The notice used to Inform him of the meet ing is in the form of a perforated double card.
"Too are requested to report and present this card at the library on Wednesday afternoon at.............o'clock. This is important. Do not fail to report." This notice is signed by the general manager.
On the lower half of the card appear the following:
This is to certify that Mr......................No.............................has been instructed as to the policy of this company pertaining to safety and first aid. To assist In preventing accident you are requested to help him start right.
Each morning I go down where the shift bosses are gathering their
men together and make a short talk to them so that they will understand
what new employees should be told when they arrive. When the cards are presented at the meeting the bottom half is filled
out, torn off and replaced in the envelope. The new employee is told to return it to the man for whom he is working when he returns to work on the following shift. The top half Is kept by the inspector and filed.
When the cards are filled out to send to the new employees a list is . also being made with their names and numbers on another sheet and checked when presented to the meeting, so that those in charge may be notified of anyone who failed to attend.
' SAFETY AIVD FIBST AID TAUGHT
The'object of these meetings is to call the attention of the men at the
very start to the policy of the company as to safety and first aid. These
instructions consist of a comparison of our accident statistics for several
years at the beginning of our safety work and for the same number of
years of a later date, a setting forth of the need for the men educating
themselves in the practice of safety, admonitions to the effect that they
must inform the men in charge about any hazards which the workmen
exposed to the danger, are not authorized to correct, counsel to them
to be careful of the safety of their fellow workmen,-citing some serious
or fatal injury due to the neglect or thoughtlessness of some other
person, a suggestion that if it is worth while for the company to use
means to decrease injuries, it is surely more important to the workman
to go out of his way. to guard his own body from them.
It is urged at the meeting that if every person will take the same in
terest to avoid injuries as they do to assist the injured the plant would
be much safer and that safety is the best and cheapest form of in
surance for the workman.
'
After the new employee has attended one of these meetings it becomes
the duty of those in charge to teach him to perform his work in as
systematic and careful a manner as possible and to warn him whenever
he leaves his working place in a dangerous condition. With the con
tinual vigilance of those in charge, the men soon become familiar with
the policy of the company and realize that it is gospel.
`
656 Twelfth Safety Congress
This stimulation Is maintained by regular inspection and by meet
ings ot the safety committee, which are held each month. The sur
face works have a workmen's committee consisting of six workmen from
different departments who are given one day each to make an Inspec
tion of all the surface departments and to make a report to the cen
tral committee of the conditions found, with any safety suggestions
and recommendations it wishes to make.
'
The surface central committee consisting of the superintendents, fore men and bosses, who have a meeting each month to act on the report
of the workman's committee, to discuss the accidents of the previous
month and any other business that may be brought before the meet
ing.
-
The underground workings have a joint committee, consisting of one
foreman, one shift boss and three workmen, which makes an inspection
of the mine for two days during each month and makes a report to the
superintendent of the conditions found with its recommendations for their
amendments. At first it was thought that this committee would not ac complish much because the workmen would be little disposed to express
themselves freely in the presence of the foremen and shift bosses. The
committee has been in existence for six months and has proved to be
very successful.
.
Before starting on an inspection with new workmen an explanation of
the purpose of the trip is made and they are asked to express themselves
about everything relating to safety just as freely as if the committee con
sisted solely of workmen. In a short time every one is discussing safety apparently forgetting the distinction of position. The inspections, serve
to stimulate the interest of all the members of the committee in the
safety movement. The term of this committee is two months for fore
men,. one month for shift bosses and three months for workmen. At the expiration of each term new members are chosen by the workmen
of the retiring committees. The mine superintendent calls a meeting of the mine foreman and
shift bosses once a month, which is conducted on the same lines as
that of the surface central committee.
When starting the lectures for the new men, it was thought well to
inform every one working at that time of the policy of the company.
Consequently each shift boss got his men in a group on different mornings
after going underground but before going to their working places.
The first meeting for new men was held in the library March 1, 1922,
and up to March 14, 1923, the attendance had been 964. In that time
the observations from the men had been most encouraging.
.
Mr. Tillson said that during the past year the Mining Section of the
National Safety Council had attempted "to take stock" as to what it was
accomplishing and should accomplish. He called the members' at
tention to the fact that the organization is a co-operative body and not
one organized for profit. Its results were dependent on"what the mem
bers gave not only at the meetings but throughout the jrear. Too many
were prone to forget that fact.
..
;-
Mining Section
657
They were apt to be critical of the'efforts made for their advantage and did not stop to consider how little they might have done to help the organization to do the work they desired to be done.
The Mining Section had sent out questionnaires to all members asking a number of specific questions in regard to the service being rendered and another questionnaire to a group of mine operators, 78 in all,
which dealt specifically with visits which Mr. Colburn had made to
their properties, inquiring how effective they, had been and as to the
manner in which the service he had rendered could be improvd and
how much they appreciated what had been done. From those 78 com
panies, only 32 replies had been received, which showed how difficult
it was to attack this problem by correspondence.
Of the thirty-two who replied, twenty said that they were pleased to'
have visits but said they could not itemize any specific benefits received.
One was noncommital and two stated tbat they had never received such
a visit. Apparently these two had forgotten, or did not know, he was there. The great distances that the safety engineer had to travel handi
capped him in his work. ' .
'
From the first questionnaire which went to the entire membership only thirteen replies were received. " A summary of these replies follows:
SUMMARY OF REPLIES TO CHAIRMAN TILLSON'S
. LETTER ON MINING SECTION SERVICE
-
The first. question referred to the Mining Section bulletin service. The
answers expressed general approval, with a few minor suggestionsT=="The
second question, referring to the general safety bulletins published by
the Council, brought forth the fact that many mining companies are
making very good use of these general bulletins^ as well as the sectional
series.
.'
In answer to the third question, the special mining safety articles
which have been appearing in the National Safety News were generally approved. In answer to the next question it was stated that this maga zine is generally used to keep up the safety interest of the operating force.
Most of the members replying to question five also expressed approval of
the Safe Practice pamphlets.
Perhaps the most- striking result of the questionnaire was contained in
the answers to the inquiry regarding the regional conferences. The mem
bers replying expressed hearty approval of these conferences and wanted -
to have them continued and extended.
Mr. Tillson said in comment that the suggestion from the Pittsburgh Steel Company as to the printing of the bulletins in English was one that' had been received from many sources by the National Safety Council and had been carefully considered by the Executive Committee, which had decided that the greatest need in this country was to naturalize for eigners and to this end it was necessary to teach them to read American. He called on Mr. C. ` L. Colburn to make his report. Mr. Colburn said
658 Tivelfth Safety Congress
his communication, was made without a knowledge of what the letters contained and before he had any idea that he would be called during the present year to execute any of the policies he had advocated.
MINE SAFETY AND THE NATIONAL SAFETY COUNCIL
C. U- S. D. C.Lobiheh Colburn,
Bureau of Mines, Washington,
The National Safety Council, being the one outstanding association devoted to the prevention of accidents in all walks of life, is intensely interested in mine accident prevention work. ' Many of the mining com panies are members of the National Safety Council, and as such are di recting the work of the Mining Section.
ft is fitting and proper at certain times for an organization to analyze its activities to see if it is improving its opportunities and accomplish ing its purpose. The interest of the Mining Section in safety is different from that of any other section of the Council. That is true' not only be cause mining accidents are different, but also because laws regarding mine safety are more exacting, and because there are more agencies working on accident problems in mining than in any other industry.
In 1910, following a series of serious mine disasters In the United States, the Bureau of Mines was organized With the express purpose of studying the reasons for mining accidents and for devising ways and means for their prevention. By the organization of the Bureau of Mines the Government has taken a hand in the problem and is doing splendid
work that should be encouraged. It is one of the functions, therefore, of the Mining Section of the National Safety Council not to try to dupli cate the work of the Government, but to see that, the fullest advantage is taken of Governmental activity.
The Mining Section should also be co-operating with the Bureau of Mines to see that its efforts are directed along lines of greatest need; likewise the Mining Section should keep in touch with the various states through their industrial commissions, rating bureaus. Inspection, and mining departments. The aim should always be to bring out the best thought on mine safety and to be progressive in applying practical safety ideas to mining.
On account of the extent of state and federal activity, the Mining Section should be particularly alert to see that only practical and con structive laws and regulations are passed and to prevent the adoption of laws or regulations that are detrimental to the proper development of safety in mining. The Mining Section should also co-operate with other agencies such as Insurance `companies, other safety societies, etc., in de veloping mining safety to its greatest extent. With so' many varying activities, mine safety should be in the lead.
The Mining Section is in a commanding position, and with the variety of facilities at its disposal, should make mining the leading industry in accident prevention. This can only be done with the hearty co-operation of the mining companies. More company officials should be present at conferences such as this. Satisfactory reductions have not been made
Mining Section
659
in mine accidents largely on account of the lack of endeavor on the part of the mining companies themselves. At the present time the greatest and most lasting service that can be done by the National Safety Council for the advancement of safety in the mining industry is to secure the unstinted support of the mining industry itself.
Unlike any other industry, mining may be considered a group of small industries. One reason, therefore, for the^ lack of understanding and co-operation on the part of the mining companies, is their diversity of interests. In the transportation industry, one can readily see that there is a degree of similarity between the operations of, for instance, the class A railroads. In fact, we might take an extreme case and say that there are many things in common between the safety conditions of steam and electric railroads. Now compare metal mining with coal min ing. The metal miners talk a different language, have different customs and are subject to different industrial^requirements. Anthracite coal mining and bituminous coal mining are as different as two industries. The only similarity is that their product is coal. It is difficult therefore, for mining men of various interests to pit around a table and do con clusive thinking regarding mine-accident problems. In. spite of these differences, mine-accident problems are considered alike by the public, by the law-makers, and by the courts. It behooves mining men, therefore, to act together. To bring this about is the function of the Mining Section.
THE VALUABLE SERVICE OF THE COUNCIL
The National Safety Council, operating through its Mining Section, is
already giving the mining industry valuable service. This service can, of course, be improved, but the one discouraging fact is that the service
Is not appreciated by many of the minnig companies. An active campaign
should be inaugurated that would enlist the co-operation of every mining
company doing business in America. .
'
At the present time the bulletin service is considered of most value, yet
it Is almost impossible to print a mining bulletin that is equally good
for all mining members. Most of the bulletins are of use to comparatively
few. The bulletin service can he improved by increasing the number of
mining bulletins so that each kind of mining would have its accident
problems covered by the bulletin service. - This may be due to the fact
that so many other concerns are now selling bulletins and other bulle
tins that detract from the mine-safety bulletin service. To combat this
development, it behooves the Council to give more study and thought to
the preparation of mine saftey bulletins and tbeir distribution.
Another activity that is of prime Importance in the development- of
mine safety, and that has barely been begun by the Council, is.the hold ing of sectional safety conferences. The conferences held in Duluth for
the Lake Superior district; In Butte, Montana, for the Northwest, and
in Globe, Arizona, for the Southwest, all had a beneficial bearing on acci
dent prevention in these districts. This work should be extended until
every kind of mining and every mining section is reached by mine safety conferences. The transactions of these meetings should he pre-
Mining Section
661
the schools was the solution o the problem. If safety was imbued in
the child from the start he would continue to practice safety when he en
tered industrial life. '
Mr. Tillson asked Mr. Trestrail whether any high-school graduates en
tered the mines, and Mr. Trestrail said they did in various capacities.
Mr. Tillson suggested that the mines were in general recruited with more
primitive labor, and Mr. Trestrail replied that whether the children did
eventually enter the mines or did not, the education in safety had an
other and more rapid result, for they went home and passed their train
ing over to the fathers by recounting whp.t they had been taught and in
the language the parent understood.
Mr. Tillson asked whether the safety calendar had been efficacious in
promoting safety and added that it was advertising. If you see something
on a billboard for three years the sales go up; when a company ceases to
advertise people forget, and sales go down. He added that the big prob
lem was to sell the chief executives on the value of safety. Mr. Trestrail
replied, "How many of the men coming out of the colleges to take posi
tions in executive fields have been schooled in safety?"
Mr. Duncan said that in regard to safety education in the State of Pennsylvania a co-operative agreement had been made by the Pennsylvania
State College, a state institution, with the Department of Mines and the
Department of Public Education, whereby mining is taught by paid in
structors as part of the public-school system. The associated interests
have a curriculum suited to children that outlined sixty experiments in
ventilation that could be conducted at home and with limited material.
Though the time of training is short so that much is omitted that should be taught, safety material is by no means curtailed in this instruction.
The association has sixty primary lessons in mining for beginners in the
study, and another group of lessons reaching a higher grade and fitting
men for foremanship.
Mr. Hall remarked that the coal-mining industry had the advantage that
the mine foreman had to pass an examination before being admitted to
that office, but that the character of the questions had not been suffi
ciently revised for many years and that , safety had "not been given the
place it deserved in those examinations.
,
Mr. Tillson said that the Council had courses for foremen in many
cities In which safety practices were taught. He said that it had not
furnished such classes in the Mining Section because the mines were so
greatly scattered that such instruction could be provided only with diffi
culty. There were, however, regions where such schools could be held
and it would be advantageous if the Mining Section were to prepare
leaflets for that purpose. Mr. Duncan said that the association of de
partments he had mentioned had such practice pamphlets and that ten
thousand men in Pennsylvania were studying mining with the aid of the
courses it-supplied. Mr. Tillson said he hoped Mr. Hall would form a com
mittee to study this problem.
ADJOURNMENT-
Packers' and Tanners' Section
October 3 and 4, 1923
- 3. M. EATON, Chairman Safety Department, Libby, McNeill & Libby, Chicago, 111.
MY. 1, McClEILAN, Tice Chairman Safety Supervisor, Armour & Company, Chicago, 111.
IIAHOLD F. NORTH, Secretary Industrial Relations Department, Swift & Company, Chicago, 111.
WEDNESDAY MORNING SESSION
CHAIRMAN EATON: We will open our session on time regardless of the number of the audience. I appoint Mr. A. B. Drummond, Mr. George R. Keene and Mr. Oliver Cromwell as members of the nom inating committee.
We will expect their report the first thing tomorrow morning.
SAFETY IN THE PACKING INDUSTRY
R. M. Meehan, Assistant Plant Engineer, Jacob Dold Packing Comjpanv. Buffalo, N. Y.
I believe that safety in the packing industry is not different from safety In any other Industry; no matter what you do or where you work, you have to be careful. Of course we have certain hazards which are peculiar to our industry. I would class as most frequent, knife cuts, slipping, falling and tripping, falling objects and infections.' Infections are usu ally the result of some previous injury.
Over a period of six months I compiled a list of - knife cuts which we had. There were 440 cases of hand Injuries, and 349 were knife cuts and I believe that only about 35 per cent of the employees in our industry use the knife in their work. That looked to me like a peculiar condition. Inasmuch as we employ 100 men in our plant, that would mean that per haps 300 to 350 are using knives, and yet 349 out of 440 hand injuries were knife cuts.
Next, we have found that slipping, falling and tripping, principally slipping on floors which are naturally wet and greasy, were the most frequent accidents. I notice that other addresses are to follow on falls In the packing Industry. I found, in going over our records, that perhaps falling, outside of knife cuts, was the most frequent hazard. I found
663
664 Twelfth Safety Congress
that for this year, from January X to this time, we have had 16 major accidents in slipping, while knife cuts were only 12 that involved lost time. Often we find that they fall because they are not supplied with the proper lighting facilities. I believe that the burning-out of fuses is more preva lent in the packing industry because of the continual wet conditions we have.
Another class of accidents is caused by falling objects. Most of these cases do not result in lost time injuries, yet once in a while a man is working with a knife in his hand and a hog drops from the rail, and there is grave danger there. One way to prevent that, of course, is to provide proper inspection of the hog rollers.
Infections, of course, are another class. They depend on the way that you educate your employees to pay attention to the injuries they get so that they will report for First Aid attention, and even then they will get infections, in spite of every thing that can he done..
IMTOETiNCE OP THE FOREMAST
I believe that the preventing of these accidents could be affected best by the foreman. A man was injured through the agency of one of our foremen, yet he had not reported this accident; nobody knew that it had happened. It had happened on overtime and nobody was present but the foreman and the man himself. When we found out about it we looked the man up immediately. He was staying at a rooming house, where he got no attention, and we removed him at once to a hospital and had a doctor examine hiip. We found that the man had a fractured ankle-- two weeks after the accident occurred. That is the foreman that X call a very bad type, from a safety standpoint.
Another type we have is the one who called me up on the pbooc. We had been killing kosher cattle and he said: "Bob, you know thta butcher up here that kills kosher cattle?" I said yes, that I did. -Weil a steer kicked him and he has a bad cut, but he won't come down to the First Aid." I said, "Tell him either he will have to come down to tbm First Aid or he can't kill any more cattle." And in less than five minutes the doctor had taken four stitches in his chin to get him fixed up.
That foreman is a good type. He always watches his men; he doesn't let two men work on one carcass at one time because there is danger.
Use safety treads on the stairs so there is no danger of slipping. Toe must use some method to educate the workmen to be careful.
I believe the prime thing in safety,- not only in the packing industry but in any other industry, is to teach, the man to think for himself. That is a long process, but I believe that is the only solution.
' DISCUSSION
Mr. G. R. Keene (Swift & Co., Chicago) : What kind of a knife guard
do you use?
'.
Mr Meehan: I have recently tried to make a knife guard. I brought
a few with me. I don't know what you gentlemen think of them. I
have here about half a dozen aluminum knife guards. In fact, I brought
Packers' and Tanners' Section
665
a six-inch butcher knife with me that has one of these guards attached. , I haven't had much success in getting the men to use them. I have one
man who got four cuts in a period of six weeks and he finally agreed that he had better use something like that.
(Passes knife with guard around for inspection.) On our beef killing floor there isn't a single man who doesn't carry a knife pouch, but on the hog killing floor I cannot get them to use it. I have tried to get a general order through to require every man to carry a pouch.
Our hog killing floor, in practically every .case, is on the top floor and our dressing room is on the ground floor. You can go to the dressing room and find men walking up and down those stairs with knives in their hands. It seems impossible to convince people that are responsible, that that Is a dangerous thing to do. They admit that if . a man fell or ran into someone, a serious accident would occur, and I am afraid I will have to let it go until such an accident does occur in order to convince them.
Mr. Keene: That is a matter of education. I believe the hog butchers will not carry a pouch because they use only one knife, while the beef butchers use halt a dozen knives and most have a place to carry them.
Chairman Eaton: We have not only men on the cutting floor in the Chicago plant who carry these various knives, and all have pouches, but we have, women operators in California who use sharp knives in our fruit canneries, and we have had a couple of very serious accidents due to girls carrying their knives in their bands when they go to the wash room. We have issued a rule now that the girls may not leave the operating
cable with a Jcnife- They must leave the Icuffe at the table, and we have
furnished them special pouches at these tables to stick these knives in at each particular location. Of course you can't do that with a cutting floor man; be would laugh at you.
I understand that Mr. Patten of the Pierce-Arrow Company will not be with us, hut he has sent Mr. J. M. Farmer of the same Company and Mr. Parmer will present Mr. Patten's paper.
SAFE OPERATION OF MOTOR TRUCKS
Robert O. Pattejt, The Pierce-Arrow Monro* Caw Coketisr.
35. Y.
Perhaps it might not be amiss for me to give you. gentlemen * bit of recent bistory as to what has been going on. among (Se crusaders it .behalf of prevention of accidents with motor ve&Sdes. The subject so tremendously vital that It has been given iaternaChwtai attention amt study as you well know. Our state highway commission, police depart ments, and other public service bodies are keenly alive to the situation.
It may surprise you to know that the motor truck has not caused any where near the havoc of the passenger ear. This may possibly be ex plained by the greater number of passenger cars being operated, the
slower relative speed of the motor truck, and the higher percentage of daylight operation of the motor truck. But referring to the State of Connecticut records, we find illuminating figures based upon thorough investigation of the cause and effect of each accident.
666 Twelfth Safety Congress
Statistics of Motor Vehicle Accidents Cars ................................................................................................................ 72% Trucks ........................................................................................................... 26% Motor Cycles.................................................................................................. 2%
100%
Causes of Accidents Motor Vehicle Operation .............................................................. 81.0% Carelessness of others ................................................................... 15.0% Defective vehicle equipment .......................................................... 3.5% Miscellaneous ........................................................................................... 0.5%
100.0%
Accidents Account Motor Vehicle Operation
Carelessness ..................................37 percent Failure to give right-of-way.. 21 percent Reckless driving .......................19 percent Loss of control ............................ 8 percent Wrong side of road .................. 4 percent Skidding............................................. 3 percent Poor judgment ............................ 3 percent Failure to signal ...........................2 percent Miscellaneous ................................. 3 percent
of group of group of group of group of group of group of group of group of group
30.0 percent of total 17.0 percent of total 15.4 percent of total
6.5 percent of total 3.2 percent of total 2.4 percent of total 2.4 percent of total 1.7 percent of total 2.4 percent of total
i' Accidents Account of Others
. Pedestrians.............73.0 percent of group 10.95 percent Of total
Motormen ................12.0 percent of group
1.80 percent of total
Bicycles .......................9.0 percent of group
1.45 percent of total
Teams ...................... 2.5 percent of group ' Dogs ............................2.5 percent of group
0.38 percent of total 0.25 percent of total
Motor cycles ___ 1.0 percent of group
0.17 percent of
total_
100.0 percent of group 15.0 percent of total
Fixing responsibility for reckless driving, the ' truck driver Is guilty of 9 percent of accidents against the passenger car, 91.0 percent; cutting-
in, for trucks, 8.4 percent, passenger cars, 91.6 percent; failure to grant
right-of-way, trucks, 11.5 percent, passenger cars, 88.5 percent; vision obscured, trucks, 2.7 percent and passenger cars, 97.3 percent.
Taking their experience for one year, Connecticut state highway officials
render the verdict that 48 percent of all the accidents are due to inten tional and deliberate violations of the law; 43 percent to unintentional careless violations, and the remainder, 9 percent, are classed as unavoid able, due to sudden deaths, epileptic fits and temporary blindness. But the report is startling in that it demonstrates 91 percent of all accidents
might be eliminated.
.
Packers' and Tanners' Sectio-n
667
In 1921 the State of New York reports that 1.981 persons were killed
outright, and more than 40,000 seriously injured by motor vehicles. New York State has more than 780,000 passenger cars and more than 185,000 trucks, and the astonishing fact is that the greater proportion of both deaths and accidents occurred outside the City of New York. This is due to excellent handling of traffic conditions by police in intelligently and persistently educating the public in Safety precautions and enforcing the traffic laws. In 1921 New York City suffered 3,482 individual cases of disaster--1,054 of those killed being under 15 years of age. Police of New York have declared they can and will eliminate 50 percent of the automobile accidents by educational measures to both the motor vehicle user and the public at large.
coairABisosr op auto pa.tat.ity statistics
With your further permission I want to continue this picture to em
phasize the seriousness of the situation and to show yon bow some cities
have, by eternal vigilance, improved their local conditions. In St. Louis,
in 1917, there were 47 killed per 10,000. vehicles in services, and in 1921
this was reduced to 14 fatalities per 10,000 vehicles. Milwaukee Is another
glowing example of work being well done. In 1919 there were 320 persons
killed in accidents and in 1921 only 263, and the number per 10,000 auto
mobiles was reduced from '25 in 1919 to only 12 In 1921--actually cut
in half in the short space of two years. The City of Detroit has traffic
congestion not equalled anywhere outside the City of New York. By
constructive and continuous safety efforts, fatal accidents were reduced
from 240 in 1920 to only 134 in 1921--50 percent redaction in fatalities
with an increase of 25 percent in the number of vehicles put in service.
Next time you are in Detroit look around and take the lesson home with
you.
-
In completing what has occurred in the past,, I' want to give you an
up-to-the minute summary, from which you may draw much encourage ment in your efforts.
Year
1917 1918 1919 * 1920 1921 1922
Number ' Total
auto deaths
number
per car
auto deaths
.0019 . .0016 .0013 .00123
.00119 .00114
9,184 9,672
9,827
11,358 12,500 14,000
cars
registered
5,104,321 6446,617 7.530405 9477429 10,464,005 12439,114
1.000 car pop.
48 59 71 87 99 115
10.000 car pop.
.0887 .0919 0936 .1040 .1100 .1334
14,000 Automobile Fatalities in 1922
Now we come to what has been done and what can still be done to reduce the number of accidents. The manufacturer of the automobile and truck considers himself an important factor in this crusade and is working with might and main to help the cause. He, first of all, assures
668 Twelfth Safety Congress
the vehicle being adequately equipped with brakes that will hold, signal ing devices that will sound warning, lighting apparatus that will light the way--all that, with common care in operation, human life may be safeguarded against accidents. The manufacturer strives to leave nothing undone to make his vehicle safe to operate, and makes it as fool-proof as possible.
Through the National Automobile Chamber of Commerce, essay contests
have been conducted on ways to promote saner and safer traffic. These
are conducted under the direction of the highway education board for the
best lessons and essays by school teachers and pupils on the subject of
Traffic Safety. Prizes are given--the first award usually being a trip to
Washington and the prize is presented to the winner by the President
of the United States in person.
While the automotive industry claims no direct credit, it gave the
utmost encouragement and consideration to our leading colleges and universities which have adopted, as part of their curriculum, highway
and traffic study.
Articles in the form of pamphlets are being continually written and
broadly distributed. Recently, there was prepared "Common Sense on
the Highway," which to date has had 3X5,700 requests. Some of our great
corporations had- this article placed in the hands of their employees, notable examples being the Standard Oil Company of New York, 14,500
copies; Aetna Life Insurance Company, 3,000 copies;- the Texas Company, 650 copies; the New York Telephone Company, 770 copies. The automo
bile trade, through its dealers and clubs, newspapers- and special publicity
gave to this article an amazing circulation.
-
Whenever the opportunity presents itself, the automobile manufacturer,
through the National Automobile Chamber of Commerce, supplies speak
ers, literature, etc., to carry the message of the necessity of safe and
sane operation of the automobile to the public. Furthermore, we are continually working with the various legislative bodies in furnishing
data in ord.er that laws may be enacted that will be fundamentally sound,
and at the same time not carry with them unreasonable penalties or
taxation. Along these same lines we have been working for the uniform federal highway law, the value of which will be of almost untold benefit, to the motorist and the public at large. You must realize that the auto mobile industry is keenly alert to the whole situation, and we want you
gentlemen to be assured that we are doing our share of this great work.
And now I come to the most difficult point of my contribution to this Congress. It is rather embarrassing for me to suggest methods to a body of men who are devoting a great part of their lives to what I am supposed to tell them all about. Probably what I am going to suggest to you is nothing new, but gooc| ideas bear repetition when they are carried out in the proper spirit. And in this connection I am going to assume
that we are dealing with fleet operators rather than the individual user.
In my personal contact with packers and tanners, I have found they have .two general , complaints against the motor truck, viz., the motor
Packers' and Tanners' Section
669
truck itself--and the driver of the truck, to which the motor truck in dustry can honestly reply that these are matters entirely within the range of the owner.
USB SAFE EQUIPMENT AND EDUCATE DRIVERS
Let us tackle the problem, by first considering the truck itself. Permit me to give you some frank and unbiased advice on this point.
When you use good safe equipment, your drivers know it Just as well as you do. They have a certain respect for the truck and know it is up
to them to be careful and do their work on schedule. They can rarely place the blame outside themselves, and you will find an entirely different attitude on the part of the driver for his truck and his Job. And he will protect your investment better because he wiir'lia.ve a certain amount of
pride in working with good tools.
Much has been said about the driver, and most of the blame has been laid at his door. When all is said and done, however, we only want him to drive our trucks safely and economically. It is largely a matter of careful education, securing his interest and making him understand what we are trying to accomplish. -I know .a great many truck drivers and they are eager to learn and improve themselves in life, and I have seen many of them earn, by merit, splendid promotions. Too many employers treat their drivers as a piece of the truck itself rather than as a human being, and they get Just a cold response.
Just a few more remarks about the driver'. A good physical constitution is necessary for his work. Nervous, impatient, high-strung temperament
have no place behind the steering wheel of a truck, these individuals
being too prone to take their feelings out on the truck. Drivers must possess caution,' dependability and judgment. Pick medium sized men, about 160 pounds, who have a natural smile that comes from the heart.
We all want to operate our trucks as safely and cheaply- as we can,
and must each determine ways and means to do this. Organize a drivers'
club, with the drivers as officers--the executive spirit being the owner of
the trucks. Outline the purpose of the club and base rewards on indi
vidual results. Then get the drivers together and carefully explain to
them the situation with regard to accidents; that they are vitally inter
ested themselves because the next victim may be their own wife or child;
that the vast sums spent by you for advertising are largely for the pur
pose of building up good-will, which is destroyed by injuries to the public.
After this platform Is thoroughly understood and al! pledged to work
for its success, the next meeting should be a demand for safer driving
on account of increased costs in insurance rates, delays in delivery, and
excessive repair bills. Any carefully kept record will indicate high repair
bills go hand in hand with accidents. Be frank in your statements that
you want to cut down the number of accidents, primarily from a human
standpoint, and also because it will save money for your business.'
"
670 Twelfth Safety Congress
THE BOKOS SYSTEM
Entering into this phase of the situation is the bonus system for drivers.
Frankly, I am personally in favor of the bonus system when properly
applied, and when a driver has cash at stake he is bound to be careful.
Some of you are for the bonus system and others opposed, but it simply
means rewarding the driver for efficient service by graduated sums of
money proportionate to the value of the service rendered. Properly devel
oped, it means inceased profits for the owner and higher wages to the
driver. The bonus system many times eliminates friction over wages and
automatically fixes compensation to drivers.
'
The simpler the bonus system the better, and It is wise to consider
only the fundamentals upon which to base the bonus. ' These should be
the clearly understood factors of truck operating costs; tires, gasoline,
oil and repairs. Don't set the objective mark too high, but assume con
servative figures based on present averages and pay the- bonus on the
excess.
As a fundamental rule, state that no bonus will be paid to any driver
who has an accident, for which he is responsible, within the bonus period. Suppose you are now averaging 10,000 miles on tires; 1,000 miles of fuel
is the average monthly consumption, and that 10 gallons of oil per truck
is being used. The bonus should be paid to the driver on the basis of
whatever mileage he gets above the averag figure, half of which should
go to him. If the driver, by careful driving, is able to get 12,000 miles
per tire, he should receive half of one quarter of the cost of a new tire.
If a driver, instead of 1,000 gallons of fuel, gets through his appointed
task on 900 gallons, he has earned half the cost of 100 gallons of gas. If
he manages to get by on 9 gallons of oil, he has earned half the cost of
a gallon. Repairs are more difficult and involved to handle, and the owner
must have reliable figures on which to base his average, which should be on a. mileage basis. This is the bonus system in its widest aspects, and
should be modified to meet individual requirements. '
By the organization of a drivers' club and the installation of some sort
of a bonus system, you will make the driver feel a sense of ownership and
responsibility for the performance of the truck, arid you will not be carry
ing the whole load yourselves. When you have this driver's organization
working for safety measures just as strong as you are, then real progress
will result.
.
In conclusion I want to offer a few words of caution. Don't permit
your trucks to be operated unless they are in safe condition for service.
Never allow them to be seriously overloaded. Constantly impress upon
your drivers they must never take a chance nor hesitate to stop.
DISCUSSION
Mr. Roy S. Bonsib (Standard Oil Company of New Jersey): I am verymuch interested in the truck operation. We operate about 4000 trucks. I want to back up Mr. Farmer's statement about raising the morale of the truck driver. We quit calling our drivers "truck drivers"; we call
Packers* and Tanners* Section
671
them tank wagon salesmen, and that has given them more respect for
themselves. "We also try to impress upon them the importance of the
position they occupy, both for their own sake and the sake of the company.
I think there is one mistake the operators of companies make, they
don't impress upon the man the fundamentals when he is hired. They
take it for granted when he is hired, that the man is experienced, and it
is not necessary to go over some of the principle points.
There Is one point that should be emphasized, and that is the impor
tance of keeping brakes in good working order. The brake is the only
means of protection that the man has.
The safe driving school is an excellent thing. So many truck drivers
are familiar with their machines, but don't understand some of the funda
mental principles of the machine's operation, and at that school you can
go over some of the principles of the engine. It gives them greater respect
for the truck and they take better care of it.
Mr. Bonsib: We have found this: there Isn't a man alive that isn't
interested in a machine. If he isn't interested in machines there is some
thing wrong with him. It stands to reason that he is going to take an
interest in the auxiliary parts of that machine. At least, I have never
seen that fail. The psychology of that is absolutely infallible.
Chairman Baton: There is a possibility of putting across this club Idea
without the bonus. Of course, I don't think the stockyard firms will
favor a bonus, but they are putting through certain systems In the yards
now that do favor a bonus. I think Swift's have it and we have it in
Libby's.
Mr. Drummond: We used to have a bonus for tires, but we abandoned
it about 'two and a half years ago. It didn't work out quite as success
fully as we thought it would. There are several conditions which make
it hard.
It is hard to say openly what was the main factor. We haven't any idea of being able to draw these fellows together into a club that would have
very much of the social in it.
I haven't found that the men employed in a large organization are
particularly keen" on the fellow whom they work with 'all day. A fellow
has his business associates and he has his social friends. I am rather
wondering whether the social feature would have any value. You might
be able to work out something from the standpoint of efficiency through
a club of that sort, but .unless your drivers are very large in' number
I don't believe you. will get far on a club idea.
.
SECURING OF CO-OPERATION OF FOREMEN FOR SAFETY
J. M. Eaton, Safety Department, Libby, McNeill & Libby, Chicago, III.
There are many kinds of foremen but all of tbem can be put into the
following four classes, viz: (1) the young and ambitious foreman; (2)
the middle-aged, self-sufficient, self-satisfied foreman; - (3) the rough,
aggressively belligerent foreman and (4) the efficient intelligent, humane
leader.
'
672 Twelfth Safety Congress
In order to make this paper of any real value to the safety men I have
endeavored to portray as near as possible facts gleaned from actual ex
perience In obtaining the intelligent help of our foreman in the campaign
for safety on our plants.
.
- There have been many discouraging features in the past requiring
patience .and perseverance to overcome, and there very likely will be
similar ones in the future, but the intelligent co-operation eventually
obtained is ample reward for the enthusiastic safety man. When accidents
are frequent and costly, your foreman, ns well as your superintendent,
will more than listen to you in hopes of some remedy for this condition,
but when they are few and far between your difficulties begin for the
reason that the executives apparently feel that every hazard has been
taken care of, that all the men aye constantly on the lookout for danger
ous conditions, whereas as a rule it is because for a few days things are
breaking right and every one is lucky. The safety man is then a nuisance
and his sugestions are given indifferent attention. Overconfidence is
apparent, followed by carelessness. Then come the accidents, and then
you must be ready and willing to step into the breach and take advantage
of every opportunity in which to impress the foremen with the necessity
tor ceaseless safety activities.
.
. THE VOTING AND AMBITIOUS FOREMAN
'
In your efforts to obtain the co-operation of the young and ambitious
you will have to take into consideration his nationality, his usual lack
of education if such is the case, the fact that in his own estimation he is a self-made man and, consequently, very proud of his job; also the fact that he has safety ideas of his own. You will find him willing to listen
if the boss sends you to -Kim* but if not, he may or may not pay much
attention to you other than to say he is busy and will do something in
the way of a safety guard or device as soon as he has time.
Only persistence'on the part of the safety 'man combined with diplomacy
will succeed in his case. If you use his ideas and give him credit for them
and if he' 'has in most' cases worked- his way up to his present position
and is still looking for 'additional advancement prove to him that to
get'this'advancement he must have modern ideas which means including
safety work and finally convince him that vthis will tend to increase
output.
.
Use you-r efforts to get him to serve voluntarily on the safety committee
and after you have succeeded call on him as often as you can during such
meetings for suggestions. . I say voluntarily because any foreman ordered by his superior to serve oh a safety committee, who has heretofore been
indifferent to safety work, will make a poor committeeman and will be
a liability instead of an asset to such a committee.
With the foreman of the second class who knows all there Is to know
about his job one has the most difficult task.. He is skeptical of any sug
gestions unless made by the superintendent who must be one who has
come up from the ranks to even be considered by such a foreman as really
knowing anything about the business. This kind of foreman has to be
Packers' and Tanners' Section
673
handled as yon would handle no other. He is very touchy, and absolutely will not concede that any one knows anything about the handling of his job but himself. He knows the age and defects of every machine operated in this department and when it was installed; remembers almost every man who has operated it, every accident that ever happened and the cause; insists that if the operator uses his head and has ordinary intelligence and skill which he must have to work under him, he will not have any accidents. The only way-you can convince him of the need of safety guards and the drilling of his men along safety lines is to get on the job yourself immediately after an accident in his department, and while he is still puzzling over the failure of his individual accident prevention system to work out as expected . show him then and there how, by fool proof safeguards, that particular accident could Have been prevented. He will resent your butting in even then, but you will -find that he will not resent it openly and will at least make a pretense of listening to your suggestions. Dontt antagonize him; suggest that you believe you can with his help and experience work up some kind of device that will help to prevent this kind of accident happening again and after he has grudgingly agreed to fix up something, keep after him until it has been installed. Thereafter, whenever you have an opportunity, mention this guard to other foremen as well as the superintendent. He, the foreman, will soon hear about it, as such things get around quickly. Wait a couple of weeks in the meantime and, as opportunity affords, drop into his department with others who are with you in this work and show them the guard, calling the foreman over and having him describe how it prevents the operator from getting hurt. By the end of the month, unless he is unusually, stubborn and unresponsive to-real and deserved praise you will have him with you enough so that you can get him to attend one of the safety talks and later volunteer to serve on the safety committee. Once he sees the light and realizes that to be an efficient foreman from a modern up-to-date standpoint, he must embrace safety as one of the essentials of successful operation he will be one of your best men because he is intelligent and not too old to learn new tricks and has ambition; otherwise he would not be at the head of an important department' in a producing and money-making shop or factory.
HELPING CUT DOWN LABOR TURNOVER
The rough, agressively belligerent foreman is nearly extinct; yet you will find them once in a while and invariably on account of being keen to get things done quickly, and ability to drive their men, they usually stand well with the superintendent. This kind of foreman as a rule has few dangerous hazards in his department as he is usually in charge of laborers, truckers, loading and unloading cars and his men are as hardened as he is. Once ever so often there will be an accident in this department and you have to deal with him, and the only way is to be firm and insistent on a thorough investigation as well as explanation.
If your belief in safety is backed up by aggressive and intelligent action he will go along with you and will do everything he can to make-his men
674 Twelfth Safety Congress
see the same light, but if on account of his reputation you hesitate and try to handle him' through the superintendent, you make a big mistake, as by this move on account of the man's characteristics, you have raised
a -wall of obstinancy on his part which will ever after be hard to scale.
However don't lose heart, for even this class of foreman can see the trend of the times and is usually sensible enough to- realize that be will not better his chances for promotion by refusing to co-operate with you and will come around eventually. Study him carefully, if possible learn
his hobbies if he has any and usually you will find that he is 'easily
approached and will be very friendly if properly handled.
.
As a last appeal and a method of obtaining results when your efforts:to get this kind of foreman to take more interest in safety matters seem fruitless, show him that by protecting his men from injury, he can cut down his labor turnover with consequent reduction of operating
costs. He will soon realize that those under him, no matter how dense or indifferent they may seem, will very quickly respond to such efforts
on his part by not being so ready to quit their jobs. The breaking in of new men in his endeavor to replace competent help that has quit on him is the. nightmare of the average foreman, and anything that 'will
help to keep his men on the job will appeal strongly to the foreman whose
ambition is to hold down operating expense and at the same time increase
efficient production.
'
The last and best kind of leader, the intelligent, humane and- efficient foreman, the kind every superintendent is on the lookout for at all times, is found in every successfully operated manufacturing plant, and you will not only find him respected by all who work under him but also by the superintendent and his fellow foremen. He is your keystone, he you should cultivate. Go to him for advice; he will more than co-operate with you. His example will be followed by many who would otherwise ignore
you and make your work doubly difficult. Make of him a real friend for he is the equal of any and all and his influence is felt in every depart ment. He is for safety at all times and his department will show every evidence of his constant endeavor to prevent accidents. Make 'his. office your constant stopping place and his advice your guide and you and your plant will be greatly benefited thereby. `
I have in mind a foreman of ours who has been installing safety, guards in our machines for many years, who originated his own safety
guards for punch presses and has been inventing new ones whenever
necessary to meet some specially hazardous condition and who has so
instilled safety thoughts and Ideas into those under him that they suggest
new safety devices for their machines voluntarily, thus, many times,
helping him to solve puzzling problems.
,
fokbmait's authobity should be bespeoted
Another important thing to remember at all times Is that the foreman is usually a self made man in his line and is proud of his record, that he usually has hobbies and that it is to your advantage to show interest in the things he is interested in. That you are at all times really solicit
Packers' and Tanners' Section
675
ing his cooperation, not ordering it, and that you must keep your temper
under control no matter what the provocation; and show a disposition to
help him out of safety difficulties. This attitude on your part will get
results.
'
After obtaining this cooperation the necessity of retaining it is con
stantly before you. We all know how quickly safety efforts on the part
of the workmen slack up when the foreman is uninterested, or indifferent.
There is one important item which I want to make stick so that it
will be uppermost in your thoughts when you run into a case where a
foreman has been' negligent, and where he deserves severe criticism not
only on account of his deliberate indifference to safety precautions, but
also on account of his stubborn attitude towards you. When dealing
with him at such a time there is a possibility of his exploding into abuse
and refusing to admit any fault. Therefore, if you are in his department,
at the time, be sure to show due regard for the authority vested in his position and especially so while in the presence of his workmen. This
doesn't mean that you are to be servile, but that as the foreman demands
and has the respect of those working under him, there should be no
loud criticism or condemnation of his safety shortcomings, no matter
how justly deserved while you are in the presence of his help as such
action tends to lessen their respect for him and his authority and will
get you in bad with all concerned.
.
, DISCUSSION
Delegate: Which way have you had better experience, in getting the
foremen on the inspection committees or in using straight workmen on
the inspection committees?
-
.
Chairman Eaton; Put the foreman on the safety committee and have
the foreman- select some workman from his department to assist the
regular safety inspector on his inspection work--that is, to go "over the
department often during the week and report hazards or guards that are
opt of place to the safety inspector when he comes through that depart
ment.
-----
In our plant we have just foremen on our safety committee. In
some of our western plants we have both executive safety committees
composed of foremen and the superintendent, and a workmen's committee.
These workmen's committees meet every two weeks and the executive
or foreman's committee meets once a month. The workmen's committee
make their report to the executive or foreman's committee, go over their
report giving suggestions and also discussing all ' accidents that have
happened during the previous thirty days.
.
Mr. Drummond: There is no reason, if we have the foremen and
workmen together on joint representative committees for the consideration
of other matters, why we should restrict them from accident prevention
committees.
'
Mr. Eonsib: Any company will find tbat the men themselves have more
respect for their elected representatives on the safety committee than
for any other person. We have our representatives elected by their fellow
676 Twelfth Safety Congress
employees to serve on the safety committee, and it brings splendid results. Mr. John S. Marks (Security Mutual Casualty Company): One must
not forget that certain insurance companies give credit for standard com mittees. Standard committees are fully explained in a small pamphlet called the "Hand Book of Safety Rules." In order to get this 10 per
cent credit you must have an organization as outlined in that book.
While the results obtained from an organization or safety eommittee might be better than what the management feels they could obtain by an organization as explained in the book, they would not be given credit.
That form is divided into three classes. Class A, consisting of plants employing 1 to 50 men; Class B, consisting of 50 to 500 employees, and Class C is 500 and better.
Chairman Baton: Doesn't the state regulation as to inspection apply?
Mr. Marks: Local regulations do, but it-has been our experience that state regulations are not so exacting, so to speak. You have in mind factory inspections?
Chairman Eaton: I have in mind California. Mr. Marks: California has a separate rating bureau and they will not accept a report, even though it may be more in detail that has not got the name of the California rating inspection bureau across the top in big letters. Local bureaus known as the rating and inspection bureaus which are operated under the jurisdiction of the insurance commission have in some instances, but very few, local rules. Standards are generally construed by all of them, as being standards. In other words there is, I believe, a slight difference in the rating between the New York standard and the Massachusetts standard at the present time, but there is a movement on foot now to make the standards in general rule.
THURSDAY MORNING SESSION
Chairman Eaton:- The first order of business on our program this morning is the report of the nominating committee.
Mr. A. B. Drummond: Your nominating committee submits the follow ing report:
Chairman: W. F. McClellan, Safety Supervisor, Armour & Com pany, Chicago.
Vice-Chairman--Tanners: F. Schwartz, Pfister-Vogel Leather Company, Milwaukee.
Vice-Chairman--Packers: A. B. Drummond, Wilson & Company, Chicago.
Secretary: Harold F. North, Swift & Company, Chicago. (A motion to unanimously elect was seconded and carried)
REDUCING ACCIDENTS AND MINIMIZING INJURIES
A. B. DiUTMJMONn, Wilson & Company, Chicago, III.
Quite naturally, if you are building a house or are on a construction job you lay out the definite plan so you can see your completed whole before the foundation is laid. We have a very complete system of records
Packers' and Tanners' Section
677
that are kept up to date at all times. We handle the accident cause by dividing it into different headings and I am going to read you a list under the main heading. Of course, this is subdivided into smaller groups.
Sprains or strains, nail punctures, stepping on nails, falls from ladders, etc., crushed Angers, etc., crushed fingers between barrels,
falling on stairway, falling objects, objects in the eye, burns, rollers and hooks falling, knife cuts (both right hand and left hand cuts), hand tools, slivers and splinters, slipping and falling, machinery accidents, acid or chemical burns, electrical burns, machine belt and pulley, elevator accidents, striking against ob
jects, struck by objects, scalds, knife cuts by other than injured party, hand truck accidents, hook punctures, kick or bite by animal, handling material, not reported or lack of information and fighting.
We find that our knife cuts are responsible for 12% per cent of the total number of accidents in our plant. In making that statement to you
I am including all right and left hand cuts and all other knife cuts.
We find, too, that the number of accidents we are haying is not de creasing to any extent. The severity of the accidents is being reduced,
and I think that holds true largely as a record all over the country. We are reducing the severity if not the number of accidents.
I want to say that in my opinion the man who is doing safety work must get on the job and make a study of conditions as they exist. I heard many things in some of the meetings about holding the foreman responsible. He is the key man but at the same time the powers of the foreman are limited. There are certain things, very decidedly, that the foreman cannot do, and we should not pass the buck to him and then
say that he is a bad conductor of the work. There should be a cooperative
condition between the foreman and his men.
'
OSSAjUZATIOK
The next point I want to bring out is the matter of organization. In our plant at all the principal branches we have a representation form of everything between the company and the employees. Each plant in the entire organization is a member of the fire and accident prevention com mittee, and they make periodical visits and have meetings, and the find ings are discussed . before the entire body in their monthly meeting. They make two trips through the entire plant each month. One is an educational trip and the other is an accident prevention trip, but, as we all know, these really cover both at the' same time. In addition to that there is a watch service, and the one thing that the watchman looks for is fire and accident conditions, and he reports those immediately. In all of our plants we have a fire department.
As I see it, thfe major portion of the accidents happening are due to either ignorance or carelessness', and if that is true, it becomes more a matter of education. Education must be carried out through the organ ization, spending all your time figuring out some new way of-guarding
678 Twelfth Safety Congress
against it. Our machinery is well guarded, however, and we think we
have an easier job from that standpoint, but we have a lot more .hard
work to do from an educational standpoint.
It seems to me that in the matter of accident prevention there is not
enough attention paid to hazards due to bad ventilation. Take for
instance in the stocking vats. The atmosphere is cool and the steam
from the meat goes to the ceiling and about the time the worker gets
ready to make a cut it drips down on the back of his neck.
Then there is the matter of light. Lighting is responsible for a great
deal more accidents than has been given recognition. We all have lights,
and we keep on putting in more lights, but they are not the right kind.
Are we careful in placing a machine so the light will not strike the
operator in the eye? In one state, I think it is Massachusetts, they have
a state law regulating the lighting, and under that law the regulating
force is under the state police. I think it is highly important that we
pay more attention to lights in our plants.
^
There are lots of things that can be done along that line. For instance,
I find lots of places in our own industry where a whole large room is
lighted by just one switch. It seems to me they would put in just one
light, or two or three or four or whatever is required with a control of
one single phase. Quite naturally you say something to a fellow about
turning on light. He puts on one light and it remains after he goes but
and closes the door. I think we should pay a lot of attention to the
matter of placing our lights and seeing that proper lighting is in, and
that switches are readily approachable as you are coming into a room
or leaving it. Putting in a light is one thing and controlling it is another
thing.
AIERICAL CAKE
Now to minimize injuries "the first thing is proper treatment of all injured at work, and following up those on their return to work. I hear complaints about workmen not going to the doctors after they are injured, but I am wondering if some of that is not the result of the attitude of the physician. In the days before compensation when the doctors were not there, or were not very attentive, and the days of hurried butchery were in vogue, the men did not take the pains to see the doctor. I think then we should exercise more care in selecting our physicians today and, in addition to investigating his particular skill, we should look into his general attitude toward the men. AYhen one of our men injures himself in some way and goes to the doctors'lle looks for sympathy,
and if the doctor says, "Oh, that is nothing," it discourages the men. Do our doctors all show that little sympathy? I say that when we make
a selection of a doctor that besides looking into his skill we ought to find something about his personality and his effect on the men.
Another important part of the safety game as I see it is the matter of watching the health of the employees. While, of course, a large number of accidents are due to carelessness and ignorance, I think some might be traced to the physical condition of the employee. We should put forth every possible effort to get the employees to take care
Packers' and Tanners' Section
679
of their bodies. If a man does not know how to eat and take the proper care of his body, the injury he sustains is greater. That is a condition which cannot be handled alone by the physician, but it is a mighty important part of accident prevention. There is an astonishing lack of care in the upkeep of the human body and I think that is largely the cause of a great number of accidents.
. DISCUSSION
Mr. Schwarze: The question primarily is this: shall we forget safety
for production from the foreman's viewpoint? The phase that I want
to place before you is this: who shall take the blame, the foreman or the
employer? Take it in this instance, where the foreman has brought to
him a new man, a man thoroughly instructed as to the nature of the
work, hazards, and the task revealed to him, and he is fully aware of
all the conditions, but he does what the new man always does--he gets
careless and forgets himself.
__
Mr. Drummond: I think absolutely that there should not be an in visible authority insofar as any one individual is concerned. That cannot be a foreman's job alone or the superintendent's job alone, but every man in your organization right from the front gate up to the president of the company. The great trouble as I said is not to throw authority upon any one man. If the foreman is going to be responsible and try to take care of the whole policy then it is unnecessary to have a safety control.
Mr. Schwarze: The fact is that if you raw materials are not in accordance to specifications Mr. Foreman knows where to place the responsibility; if the machinery fails the responsibility goes to some one
else. He has John or Bill or somebody held responsible, but when it comes to the human element in the plant there is a vast variance of foci.
Mr. Drummond: If you have a man that you have instructed how to do that thing and have instructed him properly to do that I think it is a matter that you discipline that man for. But when he has a large number of employees In the department and the work is varied, the em ployment manager tells the mari to go to work by saying, "Jack, there is a truck. Get busy!" In that case I would think absolutely that the fellow did not do what he should have done because the foreman did not properly instruct him in the first place. I think he ought to have given that fellow some real instructions, but we all'slip at times. If the foreman will take time and explain to that fellow not only what to do but what will happen, then I do not think you are going to have a repeat of that offense.
Mr. J. I. Fisher (Rochester Railway and Light Co., Rochester, N.Y.) : We have in our organization an association of foremen. They meet twice a month and I used to talk to them about accidents in their departments, and about eight months ago in one meeting one of the foremen made a motion that they appoint an accident investigating committee composed of foremen only, to make an investigation and report on their findings as to whether the foreman was to be held for the blame or the workmen or
680
Twelfth Safety\Congress
\
` the machinery. If the foreman is to blame for an accident he is taken
to task before the committee. If it is the material he .is handling or a
machine guard comes off, that is taken up and the foreman immediately
goes into his department and tries to remedy those defects.
SLIPPING AND FALLING HAZARDS IN PACKING '
PLANTS
W. F. McClellan, Safety Supervisor, Armour and Company, Chicago, III.
In packing plants, there are many things which can cause employees to slip and fall with resulting injury, but perhaps one of the outstanding
causes is wet and slippery floors.
Though, of course, we have janitors whose duty it is to keep floors in the safest and cleanest possible condition, there are many occasions where, for one reason or another, an employee slips and is sometimes injured. '
It wili be my purpose in this talk to put before you, in some detail, illustrations of the accidents which we have experienced as the result of
slipping and falling, and what we do in our plant to prevent as many
such accidents as we possibly can.
'
We realize, of course, that it is human nature to be careless; that employees will, as a rule, go about their work without thinking of their own safety. Accidents due to slipping on wet floors occur unexpectedly; that is, the worker slips before he realizes it and, therefore, has no time in which to prevent his falling. Prevention of such accidents is a matter of keeping the floorings and stairways as dry as possible, so as to ward off the likelihood of slipping.
Formerly, in our meat-trimming departments, pieces of fat, and other greasy substances sometimes reached the floor, causing it to become extremely slippery. However, our killing and trimming floors are now equipped with boffie boxes which prevent such fat from reaching the floors, thus safeguarding the employees. The small platforms on which workers stand are covered with sawdust.
Another item that is often overlooked is uneven floors. Floors should
be as even and level as possible, allowing for drainage. We have elim
inated many accidents by putting more grit or small crushed stone in
our asphalt floors when mixing the material and have replaced many
of our brick floors with this material..
;
As a preventive against slippery floors, applying to all sections of the plant where water or other slippery elements are to be taken into coni sideration, at the end' of each working day, our clean-up squads wash them thoroughly with hot water, leaving them in a clean and dry condi tion for the following day's work. - .
Wooden skewers, used in fastening cuts of meat together, sometimes reach the floor through carelessness on the part of employees. Being small and round like a lead-pencil, they are dangerous to step upon, and in many cases cause wrenched shoulders, strained spines, injured hips.
. Packers' and Tanners' Section
681
arms and legs. We constantly warn the employees to keep these skewers in their proper places, away from the floor where they and their fellow workers are required to walk in discharging their duties.
SOW SLIPPEKT FLOORS CAUSE FALLS
Accidents of these various kinds, however, are not always due to the
condition of the floor. For instance, one of our women employees recently
slipped and fell upon a perfectly dry, clean floor in one of the dressing
rooms. Investigation showed that her heels were badly worn down and
that this had caused the fall. This sort of slipping, then, is traceable
to - carelessness, for run-down heels are dangerous and might cause the
most sure-footed person to slip, even on a clean floor.
In our gut string factory, we have experienced several cases where
workmen, wearing rubber boots, slip upon a piece of gut. The floors
were at first smooth in surface in this factory; later we used C. P. muriatic
acid and mopped the floors, washing them off afterward with wdter. to
prevent the acid from eating too far into the flooring. This left the
gut string factory floor roughened, and has been so effective that we
have had no accidents there since.
'
Oil on the floor around machinery in the power house is a cause, of much slipping, and the only remedy is to keep such oil wiped up as much as possible, caution employees to take care in walking in such places, and provide pans or receptacles to hold oil cans and oily waste.
In our plant, our employees have access to peddlers' carts, where they purchase bananas. Passing on through the plant, they drop the peelings, sometimes in places where other employees slip upon them and fall. As' a remedy for this, they are constantly requested to throw such peels into the refuse cans which are located all through the plant in convenient places.
Slippery floors make it difficult for workmen to move truck loads of produce from one room or floor to another. Many of these floors or run
ways are on an incline. If that incline is slippery, there is great danger of falling. Trucks should be pulled and not pushed, for in pulling them there is much less strain upon the worker. Several .cases have come to our notice where men were so strained in pushing trucks that they de veloped hernias. In other instances, workmen have slipped against their trucks, and have fallen face-down against either a sharp corner of the truck or against some nearby obstacle.
In regard to stairways as a source of slipping; we have equipped all
of our stairs (where there is any likelihood of water or other moisture
coming into contact with them) with anti-slip treads. These prevent
many accidents due to slipping on stairs and in addition to this, we watch
for nails and other protruding objects which might catch the feet of
employee's using the stairways; we also .take pains to see that the steps
are kept free of anything which might cause employees to miss their
step and fall. Realizing that dark stairways are a menace to safety
and often cause serious falls, we have seen to it that all are properly
lighted so as to indicate plainly the location of the steps-
.
682 Twelfth Safety Congress
/
Accidents on stairways are not always due to the condition ol the steps, however. We experienced one case where a woman employee wearing high French heels, lost one heel wdth the result that she tripped and fell to the foot of-the steps, injuring herself more or less seriously. The remedy for casualities of this sort is, of course, the proper sort of working shoes, with extra care to see that the heels are not allowed to run over.
PEOPEH USB OB' SCAFFOLDS
On wet stairways in cellars, we use a heavy sanded burlap. Stairways that are not provided with safety threads should never be allowed to let the nosing of the step wear down as this will cause a person to slip and fall very quickly.
In working upon scaffolding to- install pipe-lines, etc., our workmen sometimes meet with accidents. In hurriedly building a scaffold in order to handle a rush repair job, they sometimes fail to securely anchor down all boards; this, needless to say,, is dangerous practice and one or two falls have been caused by treading on a loose board. Also, in regard to scaffolds, they should be properly placed so as to be securely stationed upon the floor or other base, so that there is no danger of the entire structure collapsing during the repair work. In some instances, men use horses with a plank bridged between, and fail to properly place the ends of the plank, causing them to lose their footing and fall. Also, care should be taken to build a railing along scaffolds with toe board so that workmen may take hold when moving from one place to another, or for use in case they should slip.
The plank used for platform on a horse scaffold should conform to the same specifications as for other scaffolds. Good practice is to use planks 2x12 inches and 16 ft. long. The horses should be placed close enough together to prevent springing of the plank. If any horse is not the correct height to support the plank without springing, a board the right thickness should be nailed to the top to bring it to proper level. Under no circumstances should brick and small blocks be placed under the legs of a horse to secure the proper level.
Next to scaffolds as a source of injury come ladders. The base of the ladder, if placed upon a cement, floor, is apt to slide out, causing the ladder to tumble down. This is remedied through using rubber cushions on the bottom of the ladder, or by placing a long plank on the floor and putting the base of the ladder against that plank which, being of sufficient length, grips the. floor over a considerable distance and provides enough traction to hold the ladder up securely.
The rungs of the ladders should be inspected as closely as possible to detect, beforehand, any weakness which will cause them to break when the weight of the workmen is placed upon them. Ladders built In a hurry by workmen engaged on a rush repair job, are sometimes unsafe for use, the rungs being insecurely fastened to the upright- Work men should be cautioned not to be too hasty in preparing for any work
Packers' and Tanners' Section
683
in which, they depend upon ladders, scaffolds, etc. Step-ladders are often used: these should not he braced with rope or wire, but should be rigged with securely fastened metal braces, so that there is no danger of collapse.
ELIMIWATION OF ICE DOCK DANGER
We have had our trouble with ice dock hazards but believe we have solved the difficulty by the use of chains stretched between the posts
which prevents any one from falling off the docks, at the same time giv ing plenty of room for the ice chute underneath.
Another dangerous practice around loading" docks is for men to drive nails in the platform to hold the plate in the doorway of cars while loading. You will agree that this is dangerous as the men do not pull the nails out when through. To get around this, we have changed our docks somewhat which allows the plate to lay level with the car door way and platform .does not need any nails to keep it in place. This style of platform has eliminated a good many accidents and we intend to build all platforms or loading docks along similar lines in the future.
Another feature is the iron plates used in car doorways. .These do not get buckled or bent out of shape when they lay level as they do when on an incline with the result that they can be stood up against the wail out of the way when not in use.
In closing, I would like to say a few words on "good housekeeping," which has to do with falls as much as any other item in the packing industry. In every plant the men, hand trucks, wagons, follow certain paths or aisles. These should be kept clear at all times of any obstruction and well lighted, and especially if material is piled along aisles or paths care should be taken to'pile it in an orderly fashion so as to prevent same from tipping or sliding down due to vibration when passing. At the close of the day's work, care should be exercised in seeing that no trucks or other obstructions are left in aisles that may cause watchmen or night crew falls in the dark.
DISCUSSION
Mr. Cromwell: I think we had three slipping accidents last year and one was in the finishing department where we have a dry floor except near the sponging tables where the trucks sometimes drip. In that case the man injured his kneecap.
In the scrub house we have wooden floors and they are wet about 98 per cent of the time. We tried concrete flooring but the men did not seem to like it, and I do not believe there .will be any more concrete floors put in. In some places'we have taken up the concrete floor or put a wooden floor on top of it. It seems that the wooden floor is the only one we can clean and keep from spotting. We tried steel floors in some places but you have worse slipping there than anywhere else, and I do not see how we can ask the men to work on such a floor. I think wood is about the only thing we can get and have any kind of success with at all.
684 Twelfth Safety' Congress
Mr. Hudson (Canada.) : I find it very difficult to keep the. floor clean
in the press room on account of the grease. Then there is another dif
ficulty that I have run across lately and that is tacking nails left on
the floor and carried sometimes on the stairs. I have no report of any accidents in the plant but I find myself occasionally stepping on these nails
on the stairs. It seems to be a difficult thing to get over these things and be on the safe side.
Mr. Cromwell: I might say that frequent wa*shing with steam and water
mixed will tend to draw the grain of the boards up and leave a rather
rough surface. We find that helps out a lot.
.
Chairman Eaton: I wish to advise that Mr. Eldredge. chief. Sre pre vention department, Endicott-Johnson Company was unable to get here and sent his paper by another member of the firm and that member lost the paper, so that we have to turn this paper into a general round table discussion.
.
ROUND TABLE DISCUSSION
Mr. Schwarze: In the hide house we had a hazard that Is more or less general in the tanning industry, and that is the exposure to anthrax germs. Recently we had a case ontside of the tannery, and the man finally died from the anthrax infection. The newspapers covered the case In this way: the man was a shoemaker and the health authorities considered his exposure too great. The authorities asked for a. ruling on the case and I went to see the man's stock of leather and shoes and that did not look quite right to me and I took the matter up with the health authorities and found that the anthrax germ was carried through the entire tanning process, that through the entire finishing stage it was possible for the
anthrax germ to exist in any finished leather. That was quite new to our production staff in general. It had been thought after all these chemicals had been applied the leather was deprived of the anthrax germ. We carried that further and finally agreed with the health department, and our prevention of those diseases has been to apply bichlorid of mercury to our soles before entering the hide house. We have had bo anthrax infection in our tanneries for five and one-half years, or since we have introduced that disinfectant problem.
A thought strikes ipe now relative to an inquiry I bad from the hide trimming department as to what general process was used in the trfnrtmng or what knives or guards were used. I would like to have some discussion on this matter. In the beam house proper our processes are more or less
sixty per cent mechanical and our machinery is well guarded.
Reverting back to the matter of maintaining safety to the highest
degree I will say that our foremen pledge themselves each week that they
will keep all machinery well guarded and in the best condition on every
floor, in the tank room and everywhere in his department, likewise be
pledges himself that he has thoroughly instructed each and every man
as to their individual tasks and has. warned them of the hazards that
are hidden and those that are fairly apparent.
'
Packers' and Tanners' Section
685
Mr. Cromwell: Picking out accidents in the first six months in our plant I found there were 16 injuries to the head, 24- to the body, 19 to the arm, 25 to the leg and 64. to the hands. When I say hands I meati both hands including cuts to the fingers, splinter under the nails, etc. There were 20 foot injuries, and only one acid burn. I think that is very good for the amount of acid that is used. There was only one nail injury re ported' and only one lime burn, and in this instance the man got over his boot in the lime and did not take them off and the consequence was that his foot was badly chafed. We had about 10 steampipe burns. We are getting away from them as a general rule and those 10 came from the sponging table. We had 14 infections, and these came from not taking proper care of the wounds.
The method I am using at the present time is a sort of bonus. I offer a prize to the one who reduces his accidents to the lowest level at the end of the year. I think that is going to turn out very well.
Chairman Eaton: The question that Mr. Schwarze brought up a while ago about the anthrax germs going through the whole tanning process brings up something that might be worked out at our next meeting. Some sort of paper might be worked out along the line of whether our tanneries are putting out some leathers that are detrimental to the health of the public, or whether there is anything left in the leather after it leaves the tannery that would cause that leather to be detrimental to the public health.
ADJOURNMENT.
Paper and Pulp Seetlon
October 2, 1923
ADAM WILKINSOir, Chairman American Writing Paper Company, Holyoke, Mass.
GEORGE PHILLIPS, Vice-Chairman Champion Fibre Company, Canton, N. C.
. WILLIAM P. DEWEY, Secretary
-
B. D. Rising Paper Company, Housatonic, Mass.
R. JOHN F. SANDEL: Your Chairman is unavoidably delayed for
M very good reasons. I would advise that you select a temporary
chairman until Mr. Phillips, vice-chairman, comes to the meeting.
(Mr. W. A. Gleason of the Hammermill Paper Co. was elected temporary Chairman and assumed the Chair.)
The officers of the section had no reports to give.
Chairman Gleason: I will appoint Mr. Altman, Mr. Costigane and Mr. Hoyman on the nominating committee. This committee will meet some
time during this session and report their nominations for officers for next
year.
.
THE VALUE OP PHYSICAL EXAMINATIONS IN PULP AND PAPER MILLS
Seth
L. Btjsh, Manager op Research. Crockek-McElwain Company and Chemical Paper Mfo. Company, Holyoke, Mass.
I am not a M. D. Lacking the training of a physician, I am therefore unable to handle my subject from the technical viewpoint of the medical man. My interest in physical examinations comes because, as an in dustrial relation man, I am convinced that health is an important factor in determining the peace and. progress of any industrial group.
Physical examinations in our plants are but a small part of our inclustrial relations, and our success with them has been influenced largely by the effect of the general program. Because of this, it may be well to sketch briefly the basis of pleasant contact and relationship which had already been established before we considered the question of exam inations.
687
688 Twelfth Safety Congress
About a year before, we adopted a neutral territory individual agree ment, which every employee is obliged to sign, and which place* upon
him the responsibility of conducting himself with reason while employed
and of quitting clean when he goes. This agreement has apparently eliminated from our plants all questions of factional difference. whether
they be of union, color, race or creed.
The service differential which we pay in increasing anonnts during
the first four years of employment, and our guarantee of full time employment after five years, have been attractive.
A very pleasant but informal contact has been established through
workmen's committees for discussion of any and all questions of mutual
interest.
'*
All this has undoubtedly assisted us in obtaining and keeping the right kind of employees, and has overcome the natural disinclination of appli
cants to undergo a physical examination. The fear of some of our friends that we would be handicapped by a limited number of applications on account of such an employment requirement has not been' realized.
I must confess that the first serious thought given to this question of compulsory physical examination of applicants for employment in our plants, was prompted by a selfish motive--that of dollars and cents.
We had at one plant an employee with strong indications of tubercular infection, who became the victim of a peculiar strain, which he claimed
to be the result of-an accident in the mill. This case dragged along for many months and before it was finally closed, we were certain that we were being thoroughly imposed upon, and that the employee In question was in no worse a condition than when he came into our employ.
About the same time we were in trouble at the other plant, with an
employee who claimed he had suffered a bump on the knee, and although
it developed shortly after that most of the trouble with this man came from a serious disease, which he must have contracted some time before he entered our employ, still it was with the greatest difiiculty that we
finally closed the case, even after it had been, fairly demonstrated that
the employee was a malinger.
>-
Then we had one or two suspicious hernia cases which gave us some
concern.
PHYSICAL -EXAMINATIONS DECIDED UPON
Altogether the situation seemed so grave that we talked the matter over frankly with our workmen's committee, and together decided that
physical examination of applicants. would be mutually advantageous to employees and management: We concluded that such examinations would protect employees from new comers who might become a health hazard to them and an accident compensation, burden to the company.
The more we discussed the matter, the more we felt certain that there would also be a distinct advantage to many of the applicants themselves, through their becoming acquainted with their own physical condition.
Applicants are examined by our part-time plant physician, who calls for about an hour at the plant each day.
Paper and Pulp Section
689
The examination covers the following points:
Sex, color, whether married or single, age, weight, height, eyes, ears, nose, throat, teeth, gums, temperature and pulse, arteries, blood pres sure, heart, lungs, abdomen, extremities, reflexes, urinalysis and G. 'LL
Up to July 1, 1923, a total of 547 applicants were examined, with cor rective treatments prescribed in 154 cases.
BESUBTS OF EXAMINATIONS
It Is interesting to note that 55 hernia cases were discovered; 36 being
first degree, 7 second degree, and 12 third degree. In all cases of hernia the applicant has been advised as to having an operation or procuring a properly adjusted truss. If the cases are at all advanced the employee is not allowed to work until he has procured some corrective treatment.
Thirty-two applicants were found to have venereal disease and all such cases were immediately turned over to the local public clinic.
Thirteen cases of suspicious tuberculosis were discovered and all such cases have been closely followed up, with the temperature taken each afternoon and the best possible advice given for control of the trouble.
. All cases where a urinalysis has shown the presence' of albumen or
sugar, have been closely' followed up. Among these cases were 29 pro
nounced diabetics.
.
Through examination of the ears, 27 cases of impacted wax were found,
some of them quite interesting. One applicant had been almost deaf for
twelve years, but after the removal of the wax, could hear perfectly.
Cases of defective eyes were followed up to arrange for corrective treat
ments.
In the nose examinations a large percentage of deviated septums and
enlarged turbinates have been advised to see a specialist.
All those with defective tonsils are advised as to the danger of heart infection, rheumatism, etc.
We do not employ a plant dentist but in the examination of the teeth a large field for preventive work has been shown. Much Riggs disease has been found, turned over to the family dentist and followed up.
Wherever a high rate in blood pressure has been noted the applicant is advised as to treatment, and the case is reported to the family physician.
Many interesting cases have been found but it is only such cases as refuse to have proper treatment that are definitely turned down.
One man refused to get a truss for a second degree hernia and was con sequently not allowed to go to work.
One potential apoplectic was advised as to his condition, and was per
suaded to look elsewhere for easy work.
'
Many times it has been fairly demonstrated that the healthiest looking
Individuals may have serious complications.
One case of a perfectly normal appearing man of good weight and stature was discovered to be such a serious diabetic that after a confer ence with his family physician, he was advised to take much lighter work
than he had been in the habit of doing.
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690 Twelfth Safety Congress
A very recent case was that of a well appearing young man, above the
average in intelligence, who was welcomed with open arms by the employ
ment office and by the foreman who had a vacancy, only to discover
through the physical examination, that he had a serious spinal curvature,
strong indications of tubercular trouble, a tendency toward diabetes, and
had undergone a*serious operation, which together with the other indica
tions absolutely unfitted him for anything like the work he was con
templating.
.
"Our experience has demonstrated that successful conduct of physical
examinations does not mean the exclusion of a large number of unfit
applicants. It is rather a selective process' whereby the applicants are placed on the work best fitted to their physical capabilities and limita
tions. The fact of the case is that we have refused employment to only
two of the 547 examined--one, a case of advanced diabetis, the other,
a potential apoplectic, who has since died. In both cases, we apparently
satisfied the rejected applicants that it would be unwise for them to
accept the work they desired on account of the direct hazard to them
selves."
.
This brief recital of the results of our examinations will serve, I am
sure, to demonstrate fully that the physical examination is of very definite
value to the applicant himself. We have satisfied ourselves that there is
a large enough percentage of serious accident and health risks among
applicants to make the examination very much worth while, from the
viewpoint of the Company.
DISCUSSION
Mr. F. H. Rosebush, (Nekoosa-Edwards Paper Co., Port Edwards, Wis.) : In connection with these physical examinations I would like to ask if
they had all their former employees take the examination, and if they met with any antagonism?
Mr. Bush: We did not, Mr. Rosebush. All our employees who were with us at the time did not take the examination. We felt that they had been employed without that restriction and we felt we should not insist on it with them.
We are working on group insurance now. We have been working it out for three years. We have not felt that what we have considered in this line satisfied us. We are talking it over In the workmen's meetings and bringing in a representative of one of the insurance companies and talking over every point, cost as well as coverage; and we expect to have
that in force within the next few months on somewhat different lines than we have'seen before; and when we get that in shape we hope to make it possible for all employees in the plant to have a physical examination once a year regularly. It is our idea to make that a compulsory exami nation, but it is also our idea to make it very plain to all the employees that when they pay their share towards the group insurance cost, they are paying the expenses necessary to furnish a physical examination once a year. Then we expect to start some education through the mill, urging them to take the physical examination each year for their own good--not
Paper and Pulp Section
691
compelling them to. We rather believe that we can educate them up to
the point where they will see its value and most of them will be glad to
do it each year; and certainly if they do not do it; they will know they are paying for it and missing something that they should be taking ad
vantage of.
Mr. John W. Shepherd (Eastman Kodak Co.t Rochester N. Y.) : We have
a physical examination once a year, and if at any time the management
feels an employee needs it, he gets a slip and has to be examined at any
time.
-
Mr. David S. Miller (York Haven Paper Co., York Haven, Pa.) : Just
how is a physical examination a benefit to- any `company who employs 547, when only two are rejected? I did not get the thought. I would
like to ask Mr. Bush that question.
.
Mr. Bush: Well, take the question of hernia, for example. X have for
gotten just the figure, but it seems to me there were something like 12 third degree hernias, which, of course, is a very serious stage in a hernia
case. Now, all those 12 hernia cases were put to work. Some of them
obtained proper devices; others went to the hospital and were operated
On before they went to work. There were some of those folks who did
not know they had any trouble and they were glad to find out. They went to the hospital and were operated upon before they went to work.
We had-been putting those new.men who came to us with that handi
cap to work without caring for them, and some of them were going int-o
the heavy lifting work on our platform and so on, thus creating quite
a hazard. That hazard has been eliminated. The men did not lose their jobs. They have gone on and worked just the same.
Now, when a man goes onto the job himself, in better health, or realizes
his handicap and watches himself and takes care of himself and keeps himself in better health, it means value to us the same as to him, because
we have got to help the men on the job so they-will be less of ah accident
risk.
THE PEN-SIOH SYSTEM
Mr. A. P. Costigane (Sec'y and Safety Engineer, Ontario Pulp & Paper'
Makers Safety Association, Toronto, Oht.) : The pension - scheme helps
bring about an amicable relationship between the company and the em
ployees.
Mr. Bush: We have no pension scheme; in fact, we do not believe in it.
Now, our idea on. that is merely that if we pay the highest wages that
we can see our way clear to pay and get the best employees that we can
find, and keep those employees on the job year after year--if they are the
right kind of employees--furnish them full-time employment; urge
them to save; help them save and buy their homes; if we put them onto
an independent basis themselves and teach them that that is the way
to get along, and then make it possible for them to have the opportunity to
get along, year after year, on the same basis that is possible on a salary
right straight through the year, they know, if they are not sick, that they
are going to get so much money right straight through the year, every
year they are with us; and they can plan their saving and regularly jj
692 Twelfth Safety Congress
save and look out tor the day when they otherwise might be a subject for a regular pension scheme. "We believe they should be independent and work for themselves. That is the idea. Then the individual cases that need attention, we fake care of in an* individual way and do not turn them down.
Mr. Al. Kroes (Employers Mutual Liability Insurance Co. of Wis.) : I would like to know what Mr. Bush's experience has been in the attitude of Christian Science workmen, who refuse treatment.
Mr. Bush: Tie have not had any experience In that line. "We have not found him yet. We have had some of the men who said that they did not believe there was anything the matter with them and it did not make any difference, and so on; but we have got two fine nurses, extremely tactful, and they have got a very delightful way of following up cases that need following up without making themselves obnoxious; so that when a man just does not respond, why they find some way of getting next to him, at home or in some way. I remember one case of an old man who bad been with us for a good many years--one of the old school-- and by hook or crook he had survived the chance-taking of these many, many years. He had worked in the maintenance department as machinist, machinist foreman and so on. He is an old man.When we first put our clinic into operation and told all our folks who got hurt to go to the clinic, the old man laughed and wouldn't have anything to do with it. One day he got hurt and the foreman told him he had better go to the clinic and have himself taken care of. They had to drag him there by the neck, but he finally submitted to haring himself fixed up, and the nurse was nice to him and so on; and it was not very many weeks after that I went there one morning and I found that old fellow sitting down and the nurse spraying his throat. He had a cold or something, and the nurse was helping him get it fixed up. You should lead them and they will come, Christian Science or not.
SAFETY IN THE PAPER INDUSTRY Hugh P. Baker, Secretary, Aatericait Paper and Peru* Association, New
York City
The paper industry has been very responsive to the excellent work of the Paper and Pulp Section of the National Safety Connell, and is deeply appreciative of the work of this Section. Safety in the paper mills, as you understand It, is not yet sold to all of the pulp and paper mills, and it is not to be expected that the sale will take place until educational work is done that will convince the mills of the desirability and the necessity of guarding efficiently the safety of the workers.
A New York organization recently made a general study of the interest and support given by groups of men and women to various organizations, religious, fraternal and commercial. Assume that we have five hundred pulp and paper mills, how many of these mills will take active interest in the application of safety methods; how many will he only passively interested and how many will oppose any action ? The result of investiga-
Paper and Pulp Section
693
tion here in New York determined that, generally speaking, one third
of any group of men or women making up an organization will be active
in the work of the organization. The second third will be active if they are crowded by the first third. The last third are members of the organization for reasons often not connected with the purposes of the organization, or because they are afraid to stay out of the organization.
This last third will be resistant to the aggressive work of the organ
ization and, in a way, will always have to be carried, more or less, in any forward movement. It would be interesting to see how this "rule of proportional support" applies in the acceptance of safety practices in the pulp and paper mills.
Any trade association of value to an industry is concerned constantly
with the protection, promotion and perpetuation of that industry. In
serving an industry along these lines of promotion and perpetuation
particularly, an association must work always along these lines of
promotion and perpetuation particularly, an association must always
work with certain factors of assured safety, such as safety in' supply
of raw materials, safety in the assurance of a market and assurance of an
adequate supply of the right kind of labor.
.
SAFETY OP LIFE AND LIMB VITAL. IN' INDUSTBY
This section is concerned in all of its activities with promotion of
methods which will assure safety of life and limb in the mills. The
trade journals which are serving the industry so well repeatedly print
articles by men who understand the application of safety methods in
the mills; these articles illustrate devices which will assure safety to
employees. It would be quite out of place for me, as .a forester, to at
tempt to discuss the details of safety appliances and methods with
which you have great familiarity.
The National Safety Council, through very effective educational efforts which have been projected through all the Sections, has now come to be recognized as the great advocate of safety, not only in the industries hut in the daily life of the people. One has but to go through the General Program of this meeting to appreciate the wide ramifications of the Council's work. It is very largely educational, though the results
now being obtained as a result of education are being felt in all the in dustries and are benefiting employer and employee alike.
There must be, aggressive educational effort made in Assuring safety to the industries, not only in the way of life and limb of the employee, but in the matter of raw materials, assured market, and a .constant sup ply of labor .of the right kind. The fundamental safety which every industry is seeking in the way of being able to so operate that there
may come reasonable profit from funds invested and from service given, might well include another feature which is a factor difficult to measure and difficult to inject into the relations of men. This is the securing of harmonious relations between employer and employee, aggressive cooperation between the great industries of the country with their many
694
Twelfth Safety Congress
common interests, and satisfactory and successful cooperation between the industries and the various phases of government with which they come into contact.--municipal, state and federal.
Asst-asn uw material sctplt fcmiahotal ix safety Xo industry has been developed in this country, with all that that means in the way of business initiative, capital and market, without there first being an assured supply of reasonably cheap raw material. However,
this country has teen so tremendously blessed with natural resources from which it secures raw materials for its industries that, in some cases, great industries have teen developed without reasonable thought as to the availability and permanency of raw materials.
The paper indnsiry is a good example `of a great industry for which there has Leen such easily available raw materials that there has been little thought for future permanent supply of raw materials. The forests from which pulpwood comes have seemed so inexhaustible, and pulp mills have had so little difficulty in getting the wood desired, that many mills have been developed as converting mills upon the assumption that there would always be an assured supply of necessary pnlp. Other industries have been built up with the same indifference as to the essen tial raw material upon which the future of the industry rests.
For much too long a time the converting paper mill, not owning forest and not producing pulp, has gone on with investment In the mill and with, development of market, feeling that somehow or another pulp reasonable enough in cost to warrant development would always be available. There has been too little consideration of the fact that our forests are being cut four times as fast as they are growing, and that we are rapidly nearing the end of the virgin supply.
The difficulties which the paper industry faced during the War in securing necessary pulpwood, in many cases gave the converting mills their first thought that interest must be taken in the forest and in the practice of forestry. The recent action of the Canadian Parliament, in. passing an Act which empowers the Canadian Government to place an embargo upon all wood from Canadian lands, comes as a very strong second reminder that the paper industry is an industry, founded on the wood pile. If the wood pile cannot be constantly restocked, and that at a reasonable cost, the very permanency of the paper industry is threatened.
Can any one of you think of an American industry that does not draw for its products upon some one of our national resources? We are at the end of free land for the settlers in the west. We are appreciating our limitations as to future supply of oil and are reaching beyond our boundaries for supplies that will take care of us in the future. We are going farther afield and deeper for minerals. All of this is developing gradually the consciousness on the part of the people, that as a nation we must practice conservation, and, if we are to continue with our industries, we must not only practice conservation but must increase tlie supply of raw materials upon which we are dependent. Can there be any question that assured supply of raw materials is a fundamental element in safety?
Paper and Pulp Section
695
SATISFACTORY MARKET A FACTOR IK THE SAFETY OF AX INDUSTRY
Why be concerned -with, a supply of raw materials, with available and satisfactory labor, and why concern ourselves with the safety of the laboring man, if the industry which we serve cannot be assured of a reasonably good market for Its products?
The desire for greater production and more business has, in many cases, trought about over-capacity; and to take care of this over capacity we have sought new uses for our products, or we have con cerned ourselves with the development of foreign markets. We are forbidden by law to restrict production or to divide territories In which we market our goods, and any reference in a group of manufacturers to the question of price is "the worst of offences." It seems very reason able to assume that with increasing competition* for the markets of the world, the time will come when anti-trust legislation must be changed so that the public good will be considered and certain mutual agree ments will be allowed as to restrictions of production, division of territories, etc.
The industry which it Is my good fortune to serve has seemed very loath to consider any aggressive or united action in promoting foreign markets for paper, yet there appears to be a decided tendency toward over-capacity in many different branches of the industry. The result of this must be an ever keener fight, with the survival of the fittest; meaning, of course, discouragement and loss to those who go down in the struggle. The paper industry could well afford to spend consider able sums of money in the next few years in developing foreign markets.
We are So blessed with natural resources, particularly with the re
sources upon which the paper industry calls, that, even with higher
labor costs it is difficult to understand why the great South American
market, for instance, should be turned over without a struggle to
Canadian and European paper manufacturers. All concerned in any
way with making this fundamental industry of ours permanent in the
country must consider this question of a satisfactory market as a funda
mental factor of safety.
-
SUPPLY OF THE RIGHT KIND OF X.ABOR SAFETY FACTOR
Of the elements making up an industry, that of a satisfactory supply of labor is the one to which the average manufacturer gives the greatest thought over a given period of years. As in the case of raw materials, labor has been abundant and of fairly satisfactory character in the past in this country.
For years we have been able to attract from European countries people similar to the original stock in this country and people easily absorbed into our industries. With the slowing down of immigration from the northern countries of Europe, and the great need of common labor, there has come into this country in the last twenty years many thousands of men and women from the eastern and the southern countries of Europe. These peopje, of a different blood, and brought up under
696 Twelfth Safety Congress
different cultural conditions, have teen much more difficult of amalga mation than the peoples from central and northeastern Europe. A certain slow amalgamation of these peoples is taking place, but there is greater need for educational activity with them. This educational need means that there is opportunity for the industries of the country to unite in efforts to make these peoples of southern European blood fit more satisfactorily into our industries.
In many cases pulp and paper mills are located in isolated sections, and have been developed with lator from the local population. Gradually, however, as other industries have developed about the mills and as the Southern Europeans have crowded into almost every section of the country, our people are faced with the protlem of dealing with two radically different groups. It is far from safe to consider the future of the pulp and paper industry without considering the necessity of using the eastern and southern European, either in groups or in mixture with the older and native labor.
One of the difficult problems which has arisen in using labor from eastern and southern Europe has been the apparent readiness of these groups to be led by agitators who are ofteh unprincipled or who have radical leanings and connections. As a matter of safety, the industries could well consider seriously this question of just how labor is organized and led. In numerous cases, where radical leaders have been forced out, the problem of satisfactory contact with labor has been a very different question from what It was with the radical leader in control.
Labor is very much in the saddle in some of the foreign countries, and it behooves the industries of this country to study the results of labor's influence in politics in foreign countries that our own industries may at least be prepared for even more difficult relations with labor than now exist.
After all. laLor is a vital element in all of our industrial activities.
Antagonisms must be broken down and efforts must be made to bring
about harmonious relations. The human factor can never be handled,
or its problems solved, in the way in which we solve problems of raw
materials. Unfortunately there are still individual plants In various
industries where lator is considered and handled as it was under the
very different conditions existing in the Seventies and Eighties in this
country and al road. Education and understanding is doubtless the so
lution of the prollem of the relationship between the employer and the
employee, as it must be the solution of the problem of raw material
and of market
.
.
HARMONIOUS RELATIONS NECESSARY TO COMPLETE SAFETY .
The necessity for harmonious relations, as between employer and em ployee, has been pointed out in the discussion of lalor as a factor of safety. Harmonious relations have been achieved and can be achieved, and, in the long run. will be fundamental to success in industry.
Paper and Pulp Section
697
In. every Industry there are essential groups -which, have often un
fortunately been antagonistic groups. In the paper industry we have one
sector of the cycle of activity occupied by the producer of pulp, another
by the paper manufacturer, a third by the merchant and a fourth by the
ultimate consumer. Too often in the past the paper manufacturer has
focussed his entire attention upon production, failing to appreciate the
necessity for harmonious cooperation with the other elements of the
circle and, as a result, has often been forced to dispose of his product
at much too small a profit. There are still too many manufacturers who
consider that the manufacturer and the merchant are in direct conflict
with each other; again, there are many manufacturers who feel that the
operator who produced wood and pulp is in another sphere, and not
necessarily vital to his welfare, providing he can secure the pulp at a figure that will let him make a profit on his paper.
The difficult economic conditions ahead, facing as we appear to be a
period of declining prices, and with a promise of tremendous competition
from a rejuvenated Europe, makes it very essential, if not a necessity,
that the various sectors of the circle of the paper industry should come
to feel that they are a part of one big industry, and not separated and antagonistic parts. It has seemed difficult for the various elements in
the paper industry to appreciate that when the paper manufacturer is
having poor business, business is poor for the manufacturer of pulp, the
manufacturer of ^machinery and supplies and the merchant. There are
common problems and common interests that, in the days ahead, must
draw ail of the groups together to work as a completed circle and to the
benefit of all.
--
For too long a time there has been indifference, and often antagonism,
between the great industries of the country. Industry has much to learn
in the way of organization from labor and agriculture. Not that industry
should be organized as labor and agriculture are organized today! Only
as the business of the country comes together effectively to insure the
protection and perpetuation of natural resources to meet the onslaught
of those who would Increase government regulation and control and
to meet competition in foreign markets, will there come results necessary
for the successful carrying on of business and industry.
Time and again in the past few years there have been almost tragic
examples of industries, and of individuals within industries, waiting until they were on the defensive or until they were under attack by the
Government, before they were brought to an appreciation of the necessity
for the Interest and support of the public for their industries or before
they were ready to meet investigation and attack to which all Industry
seems susceptible. Organized effort on the part of the industry will go
far toward preventing injurious and confiscatory legislation, and very
far toward winning the support of the public in solving of problems
confronting industry.
The public which, after all, controls the country through voting power is
reading and thinking as never before, and exercising greater independence as citizens and as voters. As a rule, and in the long run, the American
698 Twelfth Safety Congress
people are fairminded. If Industry will take Its problems to the public in a frank, sensible way, through organized' education and publicity, a long step will be taken toward preventing radical and destructive legislation.
It has been expensive for some industries to take the attitude in the past that it's none of the public's business as to how the industries are operated. In many cases this attitude ha t een continued 'until danger ous legislation is introduced and then there is a rush to the state capitals or Washington, with the expenditure of large sums,. to prevent such legislation. Aggressive cooperation must be practiced by the indus tries to keep pace with the same sort of aggressive cooperation on the part of the labor interests of the country and the agricultural interests. We must not have industrial blocs or unions, but for safety's sake we should have a common-sense working together of ail of the great in
dustries for the solution of common problems.
-. DISCUSSION
Chairman Gleason: This is rather a new phase of the subject. Dr. Baker's thought, in bringing that out, is that it we are to preserve the
permanency of the paper industry we must secure the cooperation of all the mills, not only as regards raw materials, which are necessary; but' also in connection with the labor problem, the labor supply and the
sale of our products. This thought might be borne in mind by all as we
return to our plants.
Dr. Baker also brings out the thought that in the past our industry has been slow to take action on our raw material, and then at the last moment we rush to the Legislature trying to prevent the passage of certain laws affecting it.
We have attempted here in this section the working out of a safety Code for the paper and pulp mills. Mr. Altman, the Chairman of that Committee, is here today, and I am going to ask if he will take charge
of that part of the program.
_
DISCUSSION OF CODE
Mr. R. M. Altman - (Marathon Paper Mills Co., Rothschild, Wis.) : For
the benefit of the uninitiated, let me explain that about three or'four years
ago the National Safety Council took the sponsorship of a number of
safety codes, among which the Pulp and Paper Section was one. The beginning of the work took place, as I said, about three or four years
ago. Then during the depression we had to stop working on it for a while,
and last year we came back; and finally we have come to the point
where we believe we are on the last lap. We have done everything
possible to get this work to the various mills, not only in the United
States, but Canada, and have their criticisms--both constructive and
destructive--and have the code gone over by a committee, so that when
a final draft is made it should be something that every one interested in
the paper industry has seen.
,
I believe that each one of you who is a representative of a paper mill
has had one of these copies sent to you with the request that you go over
Paper and Pulp Section
699
it thoroughly and have your criticisms ready for this open meeting. This is the last opportunity that we will have to have any constructive or destructive criticism on this draft, and we certainly would like to have this thing go out as something which is worth while rather than that
these criticisms come in after the draft has gone out. There should not
be any reason for anybody saying anything about It later on because everybody has been given an opportunity to do it before the draft was made. We have had a number of letters commenting on it. We have had a number of letters giving us different terms than the ones used; and all these terms may come up in this meeting today and change it.
It has been the custom, in taking up this draft in meetings, to take up 'the process from the very beginning, the pulp yard, through the sulphite department, etc., to the shipping and finishing; and It seemed that every time that we were near the end of the paper department we made a rather hurried exit. For that reason the latter part of the code did not get the same attention as the first part did; and for that reason I thought that we should start with the paper department today and go back to the unloading of pulp. Are there any suggestions in regard to that proposition?
CODE INCOMPLETE FROM PAPER MILL STANDPOINT
Mr. Bnsh: Perhaps, because I have not gone through this personally, I should not stand up here and try to offer any suggestions; but I turned the code over to my assistant, who looks out for the actual safety in spection around the plants, and asked him to go over it thoroughly with our manager of maintenance, who has charge of the installing of any safety appliances; and they went over it together, and the comment they made to me, just before I left home, was that while they felt .it was very good, they thought it was very incomplete "from the paper mill standpoint. The operations, such as we think of them in the paper mill-- the writing paper mills in our section--are not anywhere near covered in this code. It looked to us as though it were a code built up from the standpoint of a plant manufacturing pulp primarily" and operating a paper mill as a sideline. In Holyoke we are operating paper mills and buying the pulp as .our raw material from outside and such items as platers and finishing room operation did not seem to us to be adequately covered In this code, taking ail kinds of paper mills throughout the country.
Mr. Altman: .1 am glad you brought that out. It seems as though those who have been taking an active interest In tbe getting out of this code are those who are operating sulphite mills; and in connection with the information that we have to have for rag mills, we had to ask the various plants; and if you have ever had a job of this sort you can realize how little information you can get unless you go down and drag it from them. We had to ask them for those points because we are not familiar with the writing paper end of it. We did receive a few suggestions, but they are not enough; and that is the reason
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Twelfth Safety Congress
tor holding this open meeting today and asking those who are here to give us the information .desired, because we do not seem to be able to- get
it in any other way.
.
Mr. Bush: I would hate to offer a criticism and then not back it up with any offer of assistance. If we, in our plants, can help you any on that, I would be very glad indeed to have my assistant, who handles those matters in detail, give you some time and attention to help you out: and if you wanted him to, I would be very glad indeed to have him meet with you out of town somewheres and help you out.-
Mr. Altman: Th^nk you very much. The members of this committee
has been a very hard proposition for the entire committee to meet at one
time on account of the distance; so we had western meetings and we also had eastern meetings. Mr. Wilkinson is supposed to take carp of;the meetings down east, and did; what the easterners did was to criticise the points that the western section made, but did not add very much to the
writing paper end. That is just the thing this meeting is for, to hring
out that kind of information.
'
The Council has given us just one day for a meeting, but that was with
the understanding that if the membership wanted, they could very easily
have another session the next day; so after we get into this, if we find
it is valuable and worth while, if we want to continue tomorrow morning
and finish up the Code, we could easily arrange for another meeting
tomorrow.
'
Mr. John Lundrigan (International Paper Co., New York City.) : In
making standard codes, or whatever you call them, we have been a little
bit puzzled in studying that proposition. I am apologizing for appearing
to be in any way critical. We operate in five states, for instance, and in
the Dominion of Canada We have a different regulation regarding eleva
tors, for example, in every one of these jurisdictions.
In studying over this Code, I wrote for copies of those codes mentioned in paragraph 13 of the Paper and Pulp Mill Code. The reason for that is- that you find, through the different divisions, that some one of those codes are simply quoted. Well, we did not know whether, that particular code would be a question of criticism or whether -it would be satisfactory to us as it stood. Now, of course, I do not know .what the plans of the committee are for the future disposition of this thing, hut I do know this; that from experience--and sometimes a sorrowful one--when an associa tion of this kind makes a suggestion the legislature is very apt to enact it Into a law: therefore, you are practically writing the law. What our company intended to do was to make an extensive study of the different divisions that you gentlemen have worked out here, because we feel that
the people who are doing that'work should be cooperated with and en couraged. We do not want, of course, to unduly extend that period of work; but I do not hardly feel that we would be doing that in holding
another session before we conclude this. I would like to have some arrangement whereby we would all agree to work pretty hard for the next year and then try to adopt a code for presentation at the next meeting. I believe that we can keep a lot of people pretty busy on some
Payer and Pulp Section
701
of those very important provisions. I had some sessions with some men whom we believed to be splendid authorities, and they disagreed point blank with some of the minor provisions. We also intend to make some suggestions which will be helpful; but 1 will say very frankly that we cannot do it today or tomorrow. It is a case of continuing this work over a long period of time; and I will take the chance, if it is in order at any time, to make a motion that the activities of this committee be continued, with the idea of making a final report on this Code at the next annual meeting. I do not want to interject that at this time, but I am perfectly willing to take the responsibility for making such a motion.
CODE COMMITTEE IS COMMENDED
.
Mr. Robert MeConnell (Defiance Paper Co.) : I am from Niagara Falls. I feel largely the same as the gentleman across the room. I received this paper and went through it briefly, and I had some of the boys around the mill go over it. We manufacture the raw sheet and convert it into wall paper; but I believe this committee should be congratulated for blazing a trail and going on this far. it is a tremendous task. You re
ceive all the criticisms. Y.ou are never given credit for the things you have attempted to do. I believe it would be a good thing if we would accept this as it stands and then have this matter go on into working operation, as the gentleman has proposed there; and we will absorb all these things and have a real Code in a year or two. Fellows, you have a ten-year proposition on this thing to get it right, and I do not want these young men to feel discouraged, about any letters that have not been answered. It is not because we are not with you. It is because we bave not had the time to reach it.
Mr. Altman: That is a very good suggestion. At last I am getting some encouragement on account of criticism,' I am feeling encouraged.
I would keep on ten years longer to work this thing out.
Mr. Sandel (National Safety Council Headquarters): Any fellow who has been in association work is not a bit ruffled by any criticism. You cannot phase us a bit. We are hard-boiled when it comes to criticism. My work.has been slashed, right and left; and as secretary of the Code Committee I do not feel discouraged; in fact, I am glad to see an expres sion in regard to it.
Now, as to Mr. Lundrigan's question: The Code Committee is more or less a permanent organization. Even though we publish a code we would still retain our status as an organization, receiving criticisms, and retaining them until such time as a second edition was published. The
Boiler Code Committee of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers is a permanent committee, and this Code Committee is likewise.
I do not think, that our work is quite done yet. We would be glad to
continue this for another year. As secretary, the bulk of the work of the committee falls on me; but we should be glad to continue it because we want a real honest-to-goodness job covering mills of all kinds-in the United States and Canada.
702 Twelfth Safety Congress
Mr. J. A. Dickenson (U. S. Bureau o Standards): I have been in pretty close touch with Mr. Sandel on this work. I have probably been
one of his hardest critics. I hope I have done some constructive work on it, though. The two points that have been brought in--the point I myself had intended to bring out--was the need of considerably more work on the paper mill end of the job. The work is fairly well divided. There are, as the gentleman from Holyoke said, hundreds of mills that buy their raw pulp and start to manufacture paper, or else make their paper direct from waste. The section out around Kalamazoo', Michigan, is a fine ex ample of that. I have done a lot of work for the insurance companies in that section. Those fellows pick up the Code and find their work is covered in half a dozen paragraphs; and as they glance over the section covering the manufacture of pulp, the disparity in the amount of material in the two branches is very striking. They quite naturally feel that their particular phase of the work has been slighted in favor of the pulp making, and it would seem as though a couple of meetings primarily on paper making -would be a good thing, dropping your pulp, because I think the pulp is in fairly good shape now, with possibly a few minor changes; b.ut if we could hold one meeting in Kalamazoo and another around Holyoke, in the east, to cover the book and writing paper mills, in the course of the next four or five months, I believe we would, by spring possibly, be ready for the job; certainly well before the next annual meeting. But I think the main problem so far has been to get the interest of the mill owners in the thing. As soon as they get printed copies out and get them out into the mills, they will have a lot of suggestions. I have been through the same thing in the saw mill code. For two years we could not get a bit of criticism, and then we got out the printed mimeo graphed copies and we got a lot of criticism. Until you get that criticism you are not going to have a finished code. It seems to me that now ar rangements could he made for a couple of meetings with the paper manu facturers and .you could pretty quickly clean that up.
I'Lii'S FOB COan?r.EXITTO CODE
Mr. A. S. Wilson (American Writing Paper Co., Holyoke, Mass.) : Un fortunately this is the first time I have seen any of these, but I can easily see there is very little mentioned on the finishing end -of it. A lot of our accidents come through the machine room and he platers and finishing room; and I feel that we might have a session on this latter end of it, and I think perhaps it might be a good idea. I just offer it as a suggestion.
Mr. Rosebush: Would it be irossible for this code, as it Is now made up, to be printed in a little booklet, embodying the suggestions made here today, and we in turn send it to all the mills, with places in this little booklet for addenda, so those who get them could write in their criticisms and send it to this committee; and after all the information is gotten together, put it into the hands of the various mills and ask them to send in their criticisms; but not close the thing up until another year has gone by?
Paper and Pulp Section
703
Mr. Altman: There is one objection to that suggestion and that is the
expense of getting it out. The National Safety Council is standing all
of these expenses, and I do not think they would care to put this out in
booklet form and still not have a complete- code.
Perhaps we have not been getting these things from the right people.
Mr. Wilkinson had two or three of these copies and we asked him for
criticism, and he has written us a nice letter saying that the code seemed
to be very good and complete. If we are getting the code into the wrong
hands we want to find that out, so we, will get it into the hands of those who will get it right. If we have a meeting at Holyoke and have a
combination, of the findings of the two meetings brought together, we
might be able to come to some conclusion.
Now then, what is the consensus of opinion as to having a meeting
tomorrow and going over this paper department and getting sort of a
skeleton idea and then sending that skeleton idea to these people who are
going to the meeting; or would you drop the matter again, the way it
has been done before, and as it has been dragging along for four years?
Mr. Dickenson: I have a concrete suggestion, and that is that a number
of the men here, who have volunteered to give information, but who state
very frankly that they are not in position to do it now, get in touch with
some of the committee today or tomorrow and outline the machine proces
ses which they believe should be covered, and which they say are not
covered; and then also get from them a list of the mills in their vicinity,
with which they are working, that would be interested in such a code, and
send out this skeletonized outline with a call for help, and say "We want
material on these processes--the names of the machines or processes
that have been outlined--and we want a set of rules." Then if you call
a meeting in three or four or five months, the man can come with a
definite list made up for that department.
'
Mr. Altman: Then if that is the case the proposition would be to hold
a meeting of only those who have offered aid and who can aid us, even
though they have not offered it as yet, for say tomorrow morning at
10 o'clock. If anybody as not spoken, and can give-ns aid, let him be
around tomorrow morning at 10 o'clock in Parlor D. Let us take advan
tage of this wonderful enthusiasm. If you can get anybody else to come,
who can give us some suggestions, please bring him along.
Mr. Sandel: We want everybody who is interested in this Code to
come in and meet with us to morrow in Parlor D, so we can whip this
into shape. The more criticisms we have, the better. If we can get down
there tomorrow morning at 10 o'clock, we can accomplish something.
Mr. Rosebush: I make a motion that the paper and pulp section ex
press its appreciation to this committee for the work they have done and
ask them to continue in this work.
,
The motion was seconded and unanimously carried.
Mr. Costigane: I would like to offer thanks for the support given these
gentlemen here this morning. This is the first time I have ever seen
such support given, and I think they should be thanked.
-
The motion was seconded and unanimously carried.
704 Twelfth Safety Congress
PAPER AND PULP MILL HAZARDS
Rousd Table Discussion
Chairman Gleason: We have one more subject on our program this morning, and that is "A Hound Table on P'aper and Pulp Mill Hazards, Including Prevention of Slipping on Wet Floors and Safe Handling of Material." Now, we would like to have a discussion from anybody present on the first subject. Has any one something to offer?
Mr. Bush: I would like to find either a non-slippable floor, after you soak it, that is within the ordinary paper mill purse to install, and -reason ably economical to maintain; or, failing in that, I would like to know what you can put on the bottom of the soles of your shoes to attain the same result without undue expense to the worker. I have not been able "to find anything that covers that question yet, and I would like to find it somewheres.
Mr. Rosebush: In our mills we have a combination floor that does very well. I do not know as I can describe it very accurately to you. A diagram of it would look like a two-inch mesh wire. It is made of cast iron and in sections 2% x4 feet, propably 1% or 1% cast iron. That is laid in the floor and cement poured over that. When first finished the floor is perfectly level, but in time the cement wears away, leaving this cast" iron matting and leaving the floor rough. We have found that "to be a very good floor. It does not absolutely prevent slipping, but we have found it to be a very good floor for a paper mill.
Mr. Coffey (Hanunermill Paper Co., Erie, Pa.) : Do you lay iron plates over the old wooden floor and fill them with cement?
Mr. Rosebush: The plates ai-e put in first and the cement poured over. The cement will wear faster than the steel, leaving it a little bit rough, but still in shape so that it can be walked over.
Mr. Coffey: Some of the mills have a heavy wooden floor laid, and they lay the iron plates over the wooden floor.
Mr. Bush: This gentleman wants to know when you lay that kind of a floor do you take these iron plates and lay them on top ,o the wooden plank and fill in between with cement?
Mr. Rosebush: Yes, it can be done that way; or it can be laid just as you would lay cement; but the iron or the steel, of course, is at the top of your cement floor. It can be laid as you suggest.
Mr. Shepherd: At the Eastman Kodak Company we furnish the men with wooden shoes, and the men must keep a piece of belt at the bottom
of it.
Mr. Wilson: Might I ask this gentleman in just what department you
wear these wooden shoes?
'
Mr. Shepherd: In the beater rooms and in other rooms where they are washing up. In the beater rooms they wear them all the time, and in the boiler room. I am finding now they are commencing to wear the wooden shoes nearly all the time, and they like them better than their own shoes.
Mr. Wilson: They do not cause the feet to blister?
Paper and Pulp Section
705
Mr. Shepherd: No. They go up to the rag room and select a nice rag,
and instead of wearing a stocking, they put a rag around their feet and do not put on their stockings until they get home* at night. We have
had several accidents on account of slippery floors, especially in the beater
rooms; and they have helped us wonderfully.
Mr. Wilson: Do they wear them around dry rooms? Mr. Shepherd: They are not supposed to, but we find that they like them
and wear themJ We do not want them to wear them in the dry rooms
because they are expensive.
'.
.
Mr. Bush: Where do you get them?
Mr. Shepherd: I do not know, but we have them in stock, and when
a man comes in we give him- these shoes along with the job, and when the
uppers wear out we give him another pair.
THE WEARING OF SFECIAI.T.Y MADE SHOES
Mr. Wilson: We find difficulty in getting the men to wear shoes. They are used to working in their bare feet. We asked them if they would wear shoes, and some of them would and some of them would not. With
their bare feet they tell me they have a chance to grip and hold on, and
do not slip. One of the men had his first accident since he has been wear ing shoes. I have hesitated, for that reason, in insisting that they wear
shoes. That may be a condition of a fine mill.
Mr. Shepherd: I do not think there is any finer work than making
photographic paper. Those days are gone by to a certain extent, and with slower-running machines it seems to me the boys like to wear the wooden shoes.
Mr. Bush: If that belt does any good on a wooden shoe, why couldn't
you put it on an ordinary shoe and get away with it?
Mr. Shepherd: The wooden shoe is pretty light. If you put.that on an ordinary shoe he has a load to drag around with him all day.
Chairpnan Gleason: Is there not a plan followed out of leaving the concrete floor in a roughened state and not finishing it off?
Mr. Coffey: We put some iron chippings in.
_
'
Chairman Gleason: The iron chippings are sprinkled in the cement when it is laid.
Mr. Miller: We have a mill of 265 employees, and in the reconstruction
of the mill we are putting in all concrete floors. In the finishings we use
a very fine grade of gravel. That is at all times smooth; but in the beater rooms and machine rooms we have those cast iron plates, with those
drilled boles in them, and I daresay we have not had one accident of any
body slipping and falling and hurting themselves on that floor in the last five years. It has really proven a success. In our machine rooms the
floors are all cement, the wet ends and all. The drainage there is very
slow. There Is a slope to the floor and it does not' remain moist and
wet very long at one time. We have not had any accidents within the last five years from anybody falling. The men all wear wooden shoes.
Mr. Coffey: The floor is sloped towards the machine? Mr. Miller: Yes.
.. '
706
Twelfth Safety Congress
Mr. Shepherd: I would like to ask that gentleman if he uses any ani
mal size?
Mr. Miller: No.
Chairman Gleason: The next is "Safe Handling of Material." Surely
some of us have trouble on that score.
-
Mr. Bush: -The biggest thing we have found in connection with acci
dents in the handling of material is the educational feature. When it comes to mechanical protection and mechanical devices to protect against hazards in the handling of material, we have not been able to get very far. The chief thing in regard to that is the care of the individual, and we feel that the one great step that we have made in trying to counter
act that hazard was that same question I spoke of in my paper: physical examination. If you are going to put a man into that kind of work, of handling material--and especially heavy materials, such as bales of rags
and pulp--that factor of knowing that the man you put on that job is
not physically handicapped in some way before he tackles the job is a very great preventative. Even then, of course, things do happen; but not so much as is the case when you just pick up anybody and send them
to work on that job, and in half a day you have a serious hernia case on
your hands, or something of that kind.
*
1
Mr. Wilson: I think one success we have had--we have not gone very deeply into the safety work; we have always had our organization there, but it has been rather a matter of form, to comply with the insurance companies' regulations--but I find we have a lot of accidents on our plat
form. and I find that a good level-headed foreman, who will not let the willing fellow do more than his share, and not have a lot of shouting "Come on and let's get it done!" will help the situation. A little too much hurry will sometimes cost us more than half the profit that we are going to get out of the job. It takes time, and time well spent--busy, but not overrushed--will pay well in the end. As Mr. Bush said, I think educa
tion will help a lot. In our finishing room, instead of a man taking hold of a large sheet and trying to swing it onto a case, let two of them do it.
ATTRACTING THE ATTENTION OF THE WORKER
Mr. McConnell: Over at the Kalis we have quite a large foreign immi gration. We have about 58..000 people, and when we took the census in 1918 we found there were twenty-seven thousand and some odd hun dreds of English-speaking folks and the remainder of that population was foreign born; so there were a great many things to be considered.
Now, I found out from my own experience, after fighting for two years to get a bulletin board in. the mill--I started in with the baseball score, in the fall of the year, when everybody's attention was called to the big league game, and we got some attention; and in a year's time we were able to convince the people that one should be placed in each department. We now have eight bulletin boards. I found it was quite a task to get their attention drawn to reading them. We have lots of boys up to 18 and 19 years of age, and I found, in investigations among those boys--and sometimes the girls--that the average youngster has not reached, in school.
jPaper and Pulp Section
707
farther than the sixth grade; and you have to use methods of approach
along the line of the fellows in the newspapers--the fannies--and I began
to select these funny pictures and the movie stars. I selected Douglas
Fairbanks, for instance; and I would put it alongside of the message and
put that message over. After a year's time we ventured with one letter
sheet and tried to hold their attention that way. Finally, one day, I got
out a letter "How many successive days can we go without an accident?"
and we sent them around and found a percentage of the fellows would
read them. Then I got thinking along those lines more deeply, that where
a man's pocketbook is, his heart is. Then I got talking to one of our men
and he said: "Why don't you make use of the time card?"; and it struck
me that the time card was the next thing to a man's pay envelope. So we
have a different message on those time cards. We place them on the time
cards with a clip, and every individual will get a message; and I have
found out from experience that they will read them. Now, in 13 out of 16
ventures I have never found these papers lying around outside of the door
of the mill, and it shows you that these folks will read those messages
if you will take the time to reach them in that ,method, through the time
card, by clipping the message on with a clip. One of our messages on
safety is: "How many successive days can we go without an accident?"
Here is another: "To be safe, think safely."
There are a lot of fellows who are always broke. Here is one for them:
"I am a bank book." We got 18 fellows to come in and open an account
through a building and loan association, which we run through the time
office.
Along ab'out May we.had a Boy Scout movement. We went out to get
$15,000.00 through the citizens. So we had on at that time this note:
"Everybody likes a good scout." It appealed to the average man, who
has been a boy some time. That drew $100.00.
Here is another, "Good rules tor 'employees." I picked out what I could
and put it all together. Then we got around to this situation of finance again, where I found
a fellow touching a neighbor for a five or ten spot and failing to pay
it back, and it came back to me. So I got out this one: "Broke."
Then here is one: "The work game is more interesting than any other
game once you learn to give it your interest."
This little piece of paper (indicating) brought 21 people into the pay
office, who gave us permission to deduct from one to five dollars from
their pay every week. It reads like this: "Pay day! That sound goods.
When you come out of the barber shop with a peachy haircut and shave,
and you go home for a bath, ain't it a swell feeling? What made this
change in your appearance and feeling? A little work on the part of the
barber. He was Interested in a clean-up job and he did it. It pays. Try
it with your work and see how much easier things go when your machine
is clean. Clean out your locker and your machine and start the habit of
wearing clean, fresh overalls on Monday morning. Gee! what a change
will come over the mill." We cleaned two carloads of dirt out of the mill
on that day as the result of this note.
708 Twelfth Safety Congress
I found out from studying the matter that you never could put those
things on the time card going out because the fellow is thinking about
getting his dinner or catching his car outside. I found also that you can
not put them on Monday morning. On Monday morning he is blue.
But Tuesday is a good day. You cannot reach him on Thursday because
he is thinking of Friday and Saturday. You cannot- reach him on Satur
day because he is a millionaire; but he will read it on the company's
time and it will help you. It has helped us. After the second letter
we cleaned up six carloads of dirt and it cost us $800.00 to get rid of that
mess.
Mr. George V. Cooper (York Haven Paper Co., York.Haven, Pa.): We
have pamphlets, signs and so forth, where every man can see them; and
then "Dollar Safety Meetings" are held and various matters discussed.
These signs are printed on a green background, with yellow letters, and
it makes a good advertisement.
.
EIGHTY PER CENT OP ACCIBESTS DUE TO HANDLING HATEBIAX.
Mr. George E. Ames (Falulah Paper Co., Fitching, Mass.) : X want to say that this question of the handling of material is a great question. Hast year we found that 20 per cent of our accidents were traceable to the machines and so forth, and the other 80 per cent were due to the handling of material. I think that is largely due to the foreman not properly explaining to the men the dangerous parts of the job; and I have worked out with the foreman some things that he is to tell them, and also go with him and not pass the buck to some sub-foreman, with the result that in the last five months of last year we had 17 lost-time accidents, and in the first five months of this year we had 8. I- think it is working out.
Another great benefit to us has been an accident clock, made something
like five feet in diameter, and with numerals running from 1 to 20. When a man has a lost-time accident the hands move; and it is perfectly amazing what an interest the men take in that clock. 'When the hands move, the fellows go out and say "Who is hurt?" It is set out with electric lights on it, so it can be plainly seen; and as they come out through the finishing room, that is before them continually. I think that accident clock has
done wonderfully well. Mr. F. A. Robinson (Kimberly Clark Co., Niagara Falls, N. Y.) : We
have installed a system whereby if the department goes'100 years without an accident--counting up the aggregate time of the men in arriving at the hundred years--if it goes that length of time without an accident, each
man gets ?5.00.
.
Mr. Wilson: I find we very rarely get any good bulletins on the pulp and paper industry. Now, is it possible that amongst our paper mills we cannot get something original, or is it because they do not go after it hard enough? We want something applying to the pulp and paper indus try. Those we put up have not the slightest bearing on our industry.
Mr. Bush: We are to blame because we do not get after them. Mr. M. G. Hoyman (Kimberly Clark Co., Neenah, Wis.): We sent possibly 170 letters, to every paper mill we could get the name of, to ask
Paper and Pulp Section
709
them for help In getting out these bulletins; and I have the honor to report that about sir out of that number answered. That is the reason
you cannot get any bulletins.
Mr. McConnell: Having bulletin boards, I have taken care of a lot of
material, and I have discovered that the International Paper Company has
some one connected with their Maine plant, and that fellow has the knack
of sketching, for example, a man just overstepping the boundary, like
a man reaching over a tank and about to take an everlasting swim. If
you could get such a man I think it would have a good result.
*
I think the bulletin service that is provided for in the National Safety
News is splendid, and it applies pretty nearly 100 per cent to the paper
and pulp mills.
.'
On this handling of material proposition--I do not want to make too
much of a nuisance of myself on the first visit--but I think one of our
important weaknesses is our failure to get the whole business of properly
looking after this matter before our foremen, our supervising man in
charge of that particular department. I do not think he has been fully
and thoroughly imbued and educated up to the proposition. I think that
one of our vital and important duties is to see that a new man under
stands the character of the work he is to do, or that somebody is
provided who can teach him. Men will often practise self deceit in order
to secure a position or a transfer to a more desirable position; therefore,
you cannot trust to the judgment of an individual employee that he can do that job. If you simply take his word you may be mistaken. The
Inexperienced man is usually the contributing cause of injuring some one else. He does not know how to use some mechanical appliance or he does
not understand the exact operation of an automatic machine, or something
of that sort. Then there is another very important element that you
ordinarily cannot, and should not, depend on the individual workman to
perform--at times it is perhaps beyond the real responsibilities of the
supervising foreman--and that is a careful and frequent inspection of tools
and equipment and all kinds of mechanical appliances that are utilized in
the handling of material. It is almost beyond belief, the number of
serious accidents that are caused in an industry like the business of manu
facturing paper, on account of tbe use of defective hand tools, such as hammers and chisels with mushroom heads and that sort of thing, empha
sized by the failure to use goggles.
'
BUNWATS AND PLATFORMS
Another cause of accidents that might be clashed with maintenance is the failure to provide overhead working places--runways and platforms-- and particularly temporary staging where replacements and repairs are going on, where men are not usually at work. "We keep a detailed history of all of our losses from accidents, and we can trace almost to a certainty the cause of some of them. When we check up these figures we are astonished at the number and percentage of serious losses from accidents that occur entirely aside from, and separated from, any such thing as the operation of a machine. I think that out of some 230 accidents during
710 Twelfth Safety Congress
the last Quarterly period we had 128 that could not, by the widest stretch
of the Imagination, be tied up with the moving part of the machinery.
I have not the exact figures, but I think there were upward of 40 caused
by dropping material; and we all know, as we pass back and forth
through paper and pulp mills, that there is so much material dropped
when, thanks to Providence or good luck, no one is passing beneath. If
we included in there all the cases where a person was not hit when
anything was dropped, it would bring that total up.
Chairman Gleason: I would like to announce that the Nominating Com
mittee have suggested the following:
Mr. G. W. Phillips, Chairman.
Mr. P. H. Rosebush, Vice-Chairman.
Mr. S. L. Bush, Secretary.
Mr. Bush: Mr. Chairman, I very much appreciate that honor, but I
would greatly prefer to have my name left off and the name of some one
else put on. I am tied up so much with so many outside things that I am
afraid I would not give the proper attention to the duties of the office.
I appreciate the honor, but you do not want me on rfihere for Secretary.
I would not do anything.
Chairman Gleason: Do I hear a motion that the nominations be closed?
Mr. Lundrigan: I make that motion.
The motion was seconded.
The motion was unanimously carried.
ROLLCALL
Mr. W. A.' Gleason, Hanmiermill Paper Company, Erie, Pa.
Mr. W. J. O'Reilly, Canada Paper Company, Quebec, Canada.
Mr. David S. Miller, York Haven Paper Company, York Haven, Pa.
Mrs. David S. Miller.
`
Mr. George V. Cooper, York Haven Paper Company, York Haven, Pa.
Mr. Robert M. Altman, Marathon Paper Mills Company, Rothschild, "Wis.
Mr. Hugh P. Baker, American Paper & Pulp Association, New York.
Mr. Robert G- McConnell, Defiance Paper Company, Niagara Falls, N. Y.
Mr. M. C. Michael, F. N. Burt Company, Ltd. (Drake Process, Buffalo,
New York).
-'
Mr. C. L. Neurmberger, F. N. Burt Company, Ltd. (Drake Process, Buf falo, New York).
Mr. A. P. Costigane, Ontario Pulp & Paper Makers Safety Association,
Toronto, Ont., Canada.
'
Mr. F. A. Robinson, Kimberly Clark Company, Niagara Falls, N. Y.
Mr. Jim Myers, Kimberly Clark Company, Niagara Falls, N. Y.
Mr. Oscar Nelson, Kimberly Clark Company, Niagara Falls, N. Y.
Mr. Frank Derks, Kimberly Clark Company, Niagara Falls, N. Y.
Mr. Herbert Stark, Kimberly Clark Company, Niagara Falls, N. Y.
Mr. Frank Kerwin, Kimberly Clark Company, Niagara Falls. N. Y.
Paper and Pulp Section
711
Mr. F. H. Rosebush, Neboosa-Edwards Paper Company, Port Edwards,
Wia.
Mr. F- A. Hasse, Corn Products Refining Company, Chicago, III.
Mr. John W. Shepherd, Eastman Kodak Company, Rochester, N. Y.
Mr. Earl M. Cugler, De Graase Paper Company, Pyrites, N. Y.
Mr. W. H. McDonald, Sears Roebuck & Company, Chicago, 111.
Mr. F. M. Webster, Canada Paper Company, Ltd., Windsor Mills, Ind.
Mr. R. H. Cochran, Champion Coated Paper Company, Hamilton, Ohio.
Mr. T. F. McNutt. Ocean Accident & Guarantee Corporation, Syracuse, New York.
Mr. T. R.. Stilp, Kimberly Clark Company, Inc., Niagara Falls, N. Y.
Mr. M. G. Hoyman, Kimterly Clark Company, Inc., Neenah, Wisconsin.
MrJ J. C. Youmans, Employers' Mutual Liability Insurance Company,
Wausau, Wisconsin.
"
Mr. Al. Kroes, Employers' Mutual Liability Insurance Company, Wau
sau, Wisconsin.
"
Mr. Dan Stacy, United States Gypsum Company.
Mr. F. M. Singer, United States Gypsum Company.
Mr. A- S. Wilson, American Writing Paper Company, Holyoke, Mass.
Mr. Jas. H. H. Balian, Ontario Department of Labor.
Mr. J. Robertson, A. S. L. of A., Westerville, Ohio. Mr. H. B. Sowers, American Issue Publishing Company, Westerville, O. Mr. E. J. Lawlor, International Paper Company, Niagara Falls, N. Y.
Mr. W. Farr, Paper Converting Corporation, Niagara Falls, N. Y.
Mr. C. E. Sterner, Paper Converting Corporation, Niagara Falls, N. Y.
Mr. E. G. Crissery, Paper Converting Corporation, Niagara Falls, N. Y-
Mr. C- T. Buss, Provincial Paper Mills, Thorold, Ont.
Mr. P. M. II. Cushing, Provincial Paper Mills, Thorold, Ont.
.
Mr. R. D. Staumpre, Aetna Life Insurance Company, 211 Union Build ing, Syracuse, N. Y.
Mr. John Lundrigan, International Paper Company, Pershing Square,
New York City.
.
Mr. Samuel Pruyn, Finch Pruyn Company, Inc., Glens Falls, N. Y. Mr. Wilson W. Ritter, State Workmen's Ins. Fund, Harrisburg, Pa.
Mr. Charles E. Lynch, International Paper Company, Pershing Square.
New York City.
Mr. John -F. Gibson, Esleeck Manufacturing Co., Turners Falls, Mass.
Mr. George E. .Ames, Falulah Paper Company, Fitchburg, Mass.
Mr. Thomas C. Eipper, State Department of Labor, New York City.
Mr. G. C. Daniels, State Labor Department, Albany, New York.
Mr. W. P. Coffey, Hammermill Paper Company, Erie, Pa. .
712
Twelfth Safety Congress
Mr. G. W. Phillips, The Champion Fibre Company, Canton, NT. C.
Mr. R. W. Hale, Michigan Mutual Liability Company, Detroit, Mich.
Mrs. R. W. Hale, Michigan Mutual Liability Company, Detroit, Mich.
Mr. E. D. Vattiere, Michigan Mutual Liability Company, Grand. Rapids, Michigan.
Mrs. E. D. Vattiere, Michigan Mutual Liability Company, Grand Rapids,
Michigan.
'
Mr. Seth L. Bush, Manager of Research, Crocker McElwain Company
and Chemical Paper Manufacturing Company, Holyoke, Mass.
Mr. M. W. Reynolds, Plant Nurse, International Paper Company, Niag
ara Falls, N. Y.
.
Mrs. P. I. Ostrander, Supervising Nurse, International Paper Company, Park Avenue and 42nd Street, New York City.
ADJOURNMENT
Petroleum Section
October 2 and 5, 1923
BOX S. BOXSIB, Chairman Standard Oil Company (Mew Jersey), New York City
D. J. 1VAIXACE, 'Vice-Chairman, Producing Division Humble Oil and Refining Company, Houston, Texas
B. O. VOX THUJfcST, Vice-Cliairmanj Pipe Dines Division Cosden Company, Tulsa, Okla.
E. 3. SENNE, Vice-Chairman, Manufacturing Division Vacuum Oil Company, New York City
E. S. ESTEBII, Vice-Chairman, Marketing Division Atlantic Refining Company, Philadelphia, Pa.
V- R- CUKIlfE, Secretary The Texas Company, Houston, Texas
TUESDAY MORNING SESSION
HAIRMAN BONSIB: The Petroleum Section is three years old today
C and it is getting to be quite a healthy child. The work has pro
gressed very nicely under the efficient efforts of the various chair men, and I think that the best way of letting you know what has been done is to let the vice-chairmen themselves tell you- -
REPORT OF MANUFACTURING DIVISION
E. J. Sexne, Vice-Chairman
Your vice-chairmen have been ready at all times to take up whatever questions were presented and to give the benefit of their experience and advice in any safety matters referred to them. Their principal object has always been the maintenance of such standards which would prevent accidents and to devise such plans as would at least minimize accidents, thereby saving to the individual suffering, loss of time and consequent misfortune to his family and saving to industry a competent worker, who can in these days hardly be spared.
I have tried to do my full share in the work assigned to me and was ever ready to render the best service possible and I can only reiterate
713
714
Twelfth Safety Congress
that seemingly the Petroleum Section is fortunately endowed with com petent and efficient safety men, who have helped themselves and found their own relief for the problems which may have confronted them with out invoking the aid of your committee.
X congratulate the memters of our section for so fine a spirit of deter mination and self reliance and hope for the continuance of a record of which we can all be proud.
REPORT OF SECRETARY
V. R. Currie
.
,
I am glad to report that during the last twelve months you have shown
a gradual increase in the membership of both the Petroleum Section and
of the National Safety Council. During the year three oil companies
dropped their membership and we took on eleven new members. We
today have 52 memberships in the section.
The secretary undertook at the last meeting to endeavor to improve
the bulletin service. X immediately sent out letters and some of the
memters were very prompt in sending in material, but evidently the
matter fell down and I think that on the bulletin service, so far as the
Petroleum Section is concerned, the past year has been almost an utter
failure, and it would be my recommendation at this time, to the new
officers, that a good lively bulletin committee consisting of at least three
members be appointed to look to that particular service.
.
REPORT OF PRODUCING DIVISION
D. J. Wallace, Vice-Chairman' The activities of the producing division have been very limited, ,but nevertheless much good has been accomplished and the effect of the
safety thought is becoming very marked in many fields. Guards around
engines, clutches, gears, and belts have become the rule rather than the exception in the Gulf Coast fields, and safety is becoming a more vital part of the field operations.
The use of safety hooks and elevators is becoming common and it is encouraging to find the manufacturers of oil field equipment ready to co-operate in the safety movement as evidenced by the new block, draw
works, etc., put out and the guards which many manufacturers are includ
ing with their equipment.
The elimination of the fly-by-night operator will make our work much
easier, because it is never possible to interest this type of man in safety,
while on the other hand, the executives of the legitimate companies
almost without exception show a very real interest in the safety and
welfare of their employees.
X feel that a real effort on the part of those of us who are members of the National Council toward getting others to join with us, would result in greater good to the industry than could be obtained in any other way and would incidentally make the National Council of much more value to us all. We certainly owe this to ourselves as well as to the
Industry at large. (The foregoing reports were accepted on vote of those present.)
Petroleum Section
715
APPOINTMENT OF NOMINATING COMMITTEE
Chairman Bonsib: The next thing on the program is the appointment o the nominating committee. The success of the Petroleum Section depends upon your officers as well as the cooperation of everytody in it, and I want to appoint on that committee.
Mr. E. A. Timm, of the Standard Oil Company of New Jersey.
Mr. F. S. Evans, Atlantic Refining Company. Mr. Wm. V. Winslow, of the Texas Company, New York City.
Mr. J. M. Steffen, of the Standard Oil Company of Kansas.
SAFE PRACTICE OF ACETYLENE WELDING AND J BURNING IN AN OIL PLANT
E. A. Timm, Safety Inspector, Standard Oik Company, Bayonne, N. J.
Acetylene welding has proven superior to electric welding in that the electric arc has a tendency to crystallize the weld, but for cutting, Bu-Tane will eventually replace acetylene.
Bu-Tane is a clear colorless mobile liquid with a specific gravity of
100 to 115 Baume at 32F. Its heating value is approximately 3000
B. T. U.'s per cubic foot and the theoretical ratio of combustion is four
parts oxygen to one of Bu-Tane. This gas is a product of the gasoline
absorption plants and one gallon of the liquid yields 814 feet of vapor
per pound. The liquid weighs approximately five pounds to the gallon
and there are eight and a fraction gallons in each cylinder, giving 330
cubic feet per tank.
With this ratio of combustion approximately seven cylinders of oxygen
would be used in consuming one tank of Bu-Tane, but actual practice has
demonstrated that from 25 to 32 tanks of oxygen were used before one
tank of Bu-Tane was consumed, giving a combustion ratio of 20 to 1.
Therefore this gas in comparison with acetylene as regards cutting
operations is more economical. From five to eight times more cutting can be accomplished by using Bu-Tane and the relative cost per cubic
foot is about equal to that of acetylene.
'
Under the rules of the Interstate Commerce Commission Bu-Tane is
marketed in seamless steel cylinders similar in all respects to oxygen
cylinders having a fusible safety plug on top of the tanks.
GENERATION OF GAS
The interaction of carbide and water produces acetylene and the func tion of a generator Is to bring these two substances together in such a way as to produce a cool clean gas and if this is accomplished the proba bilities are that the machine is safe.
There are three general types of generators which may be classified as follows: (1) water to carbide, (2) carbide to water, and (3) the recession type.
There is a considerable element of danger in the water to carbide and the recession types of generators due to an accumulation or sludge.
Petroleum Section
717
Acetylene cylinders are manufactured to comply with the rigid specifi cations of the Interstate Commerce Commission and there is hardly any probability of danger from this source as long as they are handled cor rectly and not subjected to abuse.
Oxygen cylinders present a more serious problem as they contain gas under a pressure of 1,800 lbs. per sq. in. Ordinarily they are thrown around the same as a piece of junk, but it is taking a long chance and is anything but safe practice.
The use of oil on cylinder connections should be prohibited it being unnecessary as they are of ball and socket type and require no further lubrications than soap and water. Allowing the men to use oil on acety lene connections has a tendency to breed contempt for the oxygen or the men may forget and place some oil on the oxygen connections with disas trous results. As you know, oil coming in contact with oxygen is a dangerous proposition and will cause an explosion of the regulator. An accident of this type occurred recently when a welder, doing some work in the tax plant, while changing cylinders removed his regulators and placed them on a board covered with wax. Some remained on the con nections and when he opened up on the cylinder valve the oxygen coming in contact with the wax caused an explosion, bursting off the regulator.Fortunately no one was injured.
JSxtreme care also should be exercised by the operators to keep their tanks away from leaking oil lines and the necessity of this should be continually impressed upon their minds. In some instance, after the cylinders have been used, they are thrown down on the ground, regard less of its oily nature. Very often the cylinders are shipped back to the charging station covered with oil, making it necessary to remove the valve and thoroughly steam-clean it before recharging.
PIPES UTTES
The size of pipe required for an oxygen pipe line depends upon the
number of stations and the length of the line. When the line does not
exceed 300 feet and the hourly consumption does not exceed 500 cubic
feet, a
pipe will- prove satisfactory. The extensions to the welding
station should be of
pipe and the turns should he made of bent pipe
rather than screwed joints.
A safety device should be connected to the oxygen line to guard against
over-pressure in case of a faulty regulator. A thin brass disc can be
clamped between two flanges, one of which is screwed to the end of the
pipe line and the other flange bolted to the first having a capped nipple
screwed into it that contains a number of drilled holes to act as a relief
and also'to guard against flying pieces of disc in case of rupture due to
a defective regulator.
'
Acetylene Pipe lines are necessarily larger than those required for
oxygen as the pressure of free acetylene should never exceed 15 pounds to
the square inch. A one-inch line will service approximately 20 welding
stations.
''
718 Twelfth Safety Congress
Black Iron or galvanized pipe with welded joints can be used but copper tubing, pipe or fittings should never be used as acetylene in contact with
copper forms copper acetylide, a dangerous substance which may explode
with resultant disaster.
Between the line regulator and the line, stop valves should be placed making it possible to remove the regulators. Additional stop valves should be inserted in the line so that any unit may be cut off when nec essary without interfering with the operations of other welding units
on the same line.
-
It is absolutely necessary to protect acetylene pipe lines from back
fire by means of water seals installed at each main and branch line. The gas bubbling readily through the water stops a back fire from entering the main line or generator and these seals should be regularly inspected and kept full of water.
EQUIP3IEKT
Hose--A poor grade of hose is ah expensive investment and it is need
less to say that the best grade obtainable is required to resist the han
dling and twisting incidental to the work and the resistance required to
withstand the pressure of the gases. An inferior grade will disintegrate
on the inside, clogging the needle valve and introduce irapurites into
the fused metal.
Metal covered hose is not recommended, first because of its weight and
secondly that leaks are not easily detected or repaired.
.
Hose connections should be checked and a good grade of clamp used.
It is also good practice to use a rubber cement or to shellac the torch
and regulator connection nipples before attaching the hose.
Both acetylene and oxygen hose must be blown out occasionally to
remove any dust or dirt that may be in the hose, which would clog the
needle valves of the torch or cause a .poor weld.
Torches--These are another part- of a welder's equipment that require
the test of care especially the threaded section of the head and the
needle valve packing nuts. The latter should be screwed up tight enough
to prevent leaking and care exercised not to burr the threaded part of
the head or the tip seat.
The safety of operation is dependent upon the construction of the
torches and the disadvantages of some torches are their flimsy construc
tion, excessive weight and their tendency to flash back, but even the best torches obtainable wilL not last long unless they are given reasonable
care.
'
The holes in the mixing- chambers and tips are drilled to exact sizes and changing the size of these holes invariably leads to trouble.
If it is necessary to clean out these holes use a soft wire. The tips should tie protected from injury as any irregularities in the discharge holes of the tips will effect the flame formation.
Back firing is caused by incorrect mixture and can be prevented bymaintaining the gas pressure suitable to the. size of tip nsed. A aactatl flame will not back fire unless the gas is dirty or the job is a large <m*
Petroleum Section
719
causing an overheating o the torch. The latter can be taken care of by cooling the .torch in a pail of water. Turn off the acetylene valve on the torch before plunging into the water allowing the oxygen to blow through to keep water out of the mixing chamber.
If a hack fire occurs shut off the oxygen and then the acetylene. Before
relighting, turn on the oxygen and blow out any carbon that may have
accumulated.
.
Regardless of the fact that safety matches are used, it is more eco
nomical and safer to use gas lighters. If matches are used they should
be placed on the ground or on some object instead of being held with
the fingers. Serious burns have resulted from the use of matches and
if the operator should turn on his acetylene too much, a long tongue of
flame will result that may burn those standing nearby. The operators
should be cautioned to keep their lighted torches away from their fellow
workers, especially when shifting from one position to another and to.'
keep their hose lines free from material that may fall on or be piled on
top of the hose.
.
Regulators--A mechanic is known by the manner in which he keeps his tools. If an, inspection is made of the bench drawers, in the majority of cases, you will find an accumulation of junk, wrenches, hammers, chisels and what not, thrown on top of tips and regulators. The regu lator is a delicate piece of apparatus and requires careful handling. It should not be dropped or thrown around and care must be taken to keep the connections from coming in contact with oil or grease. Invariably the regulators are the most abused part of the equipment and generally the guages fail to register correctly, being from 10 to 15 lbs. off. These conditions should not be tolerated and the head of the department should insist upon having the equipment maintained in good condition.
To prevent the oxygen regulator from being used on the acetylene or Bu-Tane cylinders, the oxygen tank connections are made larger with a male right-hand thread whereas the acetylene connections are smaller with a female left-handed thread and that on Bu-Tane is the same as the acetylene differing only in being a male right-handed, thread making the use of an adapter unnecessary as the regulators can be screwed directly onto the Bu-Tane cylinder. This combination eliminates the possibility of connecting a regulator to the wrong cylinder.
In coupling the regulators to their respective cylinders, care should be taken to prevent the crossing of threads and if the nut fits too tight, a little soap and water should be applied to prevent freezing of the threads.
As there are no gaskets -used in these connections, which depend on a ground tall and socket joint, it is necessary to keep these connections dean and before attaching to the cylinders, the joint should he wiped off with a clean cloth and not with dirty, oily gloves.
Detail procedure which should be followed when attaching regulators to either cylinder can be obtained from the National Safety Council Pamphlet No. 23 "Safe Practices, Gas and Electric Welding." '
720 Twelfth Safety Congress
In the transportation of cylinders from one section to another it is good practice to provide a two-wheel carriage in .which both cylinders can be strapped and the entire equipment conveyed from place to place. This truck is illustrated in the above pamphlet, hut the wheels should be large enough to bring the axle above the center of gravity. In the less congested sections of the plant they can be used to advantage, but we find that it is more convenient to transport the cylinders by motor truck as near to the job as possible. Each operator carries his outfit which includes a one-quart lire extinqulsher, to and from the job. His hand tools are periodically. Inspected by the plant inspector.
The cost of having this inspector on full time has more than paid for itself as the accidents due to hand tools have been reduced 90 per cent and the increased production due to tools in first-class condition can not be estimated.
. PROTECTION' FOR WELDERS
Eye Protection--In discussing the protection of the eyes from the various visible and invisible rays it may be of interest to know that from investigations of Aschinass, the' transmission cure of the eye media is the same as that of a corresponding layer of water and due to the pressure 'of this water which is very opaque, to infra-red rays but little radiations of wave lengths greater than 1.5 microns passes through the cornea.
It has been estimated that most of the energy (about 97 per cent) radiated from a furnace at 1006 to 1200" C. is absorbed in the outer por tions of the eye. Injury caused by the infra-red rays therefore occur in the outer portions of the eye and appear to produce a thermal effect burn. When the infra-red rays encounter any material which they can not penetrate or when it is opaque to them, they are absorbed and are changed into heat and are frequently but incorrectly referred to as heat rays.
Those of us who are responsible for the protection of the workers against the infra-red and ultra-violet rays should have a spectrum analysis made of the lenses used by the welders or to standardize on a lense whose spectral transmission curve has been determined.
The ultra-violet ray are not within the scope of this paper and there fore will not be considered except to state that they are principally to be feared, not only because they are invisible, but because we have no organ or sense for detecting them and can only trace their existence by their effects. Knowing of the existence of these rays It is not a difficult matter to provide proper protection as there are only a few substances which are transparent both 'to visible light and to ultra-violet radiations, such as clear natural quartz or rock crystal, Fluroite and Selenite, the latter two being rare and not In common use. A moderate thickness of ordinary clear glass, sheets of clear or amber mica and of clear or colored celluoid or gelatine are opaque to these dangerous rays. There fore, it is not a difficult matter to protect the eyes from them.
Clothing--On all heavy work the operator should be protected from the heat radiations by the use of asbestos sheeting and his clothing should
Petroleum Section
723
consist of, in addition to regulation overalls or unionalls, a pair of fire and heat resisting gauntlet gloves and a split canvas or leather apron. Further he should securely fasten the bottoms of his trouser legs around the tops of his shoes by using bicycle clips and shoes having bello-w tongue would prevent molten metal from entering through the lacings.
Woolen clothing is preferable to cotton because it is not so easily ignited and protects the workman from extreme changes of temperature.
Ventilation--Adequate shop ventilation, is required by law in some of
the states and care must he exercised when working on large jobs to protect the operator from carbon monoxide fumes especially when pre heating within confined quarters. If it is impossible to do this work where proper ventilation can be had and the nature of the work is Buch that the preheating, welding or cutting must be accomplished within con fined quarters, such as a condenser box, it is good practice to provide a fresh air type of hose mask for use of the operator, having the proper colored lenses in the face piece.
PBECATJTIONAIty MEASURES
Chemical fire extinguishers and sand pails should be placed in con
venient and easily accessible places in the welding shop.
When neeessary to do any welding in the vicinity of an automobile
gasoline tank, it is good practice to remove the tank before attempting
to weld. N
*
No matter how careful a welder may be there is a possibility of danger attempting to use a torch in a place where gasoline vapor is present
especially when turning out carbon of automobile cylinders and the
operator should use sheet asbestos to cover all oil soaked parts, gasoline
supply line, vacuum tank and carburetor, and a fire extinguisher handy for instant use before attempting to do this work.
Gasoline TanJcs. Drums and Steel Barrels--Before allowing any cutting
or welding on containers, it should be definitely ascertained the uses to
which such containers have been subjected. If they held combustible gases or liquids they constitute a serious source of danger.
There is only one perfectly safe and satisfactory 'method of removing
combustible gas or oil vapor and that is to fill the container to over
flowing with water thereby displacing any accumulation of gas or vapor
and to steam out with live steam (60 to 70 lbs. pressure)' for at least
30 minutes.
Gasoline steel barrels after being in service are sooner or later returned to the manufacturer for repairs. In all such cases regardless
of the nature of the repair job it is absolutely necessary, for the pro
tection of the repair man, to thoroughly flush with water and steam out
with live steam before allowing the welding flame to be brought near
the tank or barrel.
Formerly at one of our works the steel barrels were steamed and stacked in order to save time. It happened that a new employee not familiar with the procedure placed an unsteamed barrel on the pile and as' the welder tested for sweetness by the sense of smell (this being
722 Twelfth Safety Congress
another precaution taken by the men) he detected the odor of gas and to te on the safe side he stood behind a heavy door and passed the lighted torch across the bung. Of course an explosion took place which blew the head forty feet into the air. In order to prevent .a recurrence of a similar event the barrels are flushed out, stenciled and stacked, leaving the operation of steaming- go until the welder is ready to repair them. They are then placed on the steaming manifold, to be taken off by the welder and repaired immediately after the steaming operation.
TYPES OE ACCIDENTS
Having access to the accidents reports of five oil refineries that cover a period of three years, certain conditions that existed at the time caus ing these accidents will be of interest to those in the oil producing industry. Following is a description of the accidents with the precau tions necessary for the elimination of similar cases.
1. The stem of a non-return stop valve was bent and the acetylene operator was heating it for straightening by the machinists. This valve stem was made of cast brass and had been cored out having the cored hole plugged. During the process of preheating with' the torch, the moisture in the hollow part of the stem expanded and the pressure even
tually became so great that a weak section of the stem ruptured. . Some of the flying particles of metal struck the operator in the face resulting in the loss of an eye. All mechanical parts that contain air or moisture
within a confined space should have such spaces, vented by drilling before
applying heat regardless of the heating medium.
2. On a new tank construction Job the burner was instructed to burn an angle iron hand rail for a stairway. All of our new tanks 30 feet in height and over have a break in the stairway and a landing is constructed
at this break. The burner was working on this platform which was directly over a sewer catch basin. Some of the sparks during the course of burning fell Into the catch basin and ignited the gas in the sewer causing an explosion. Fortunately no one was injured although the sewer was considerably damaged necessitating extensive repairs.
3. A case somewhat similar to the above but with more serious results took place at another of our works. Five men were detailed to disconnect a light oil line in a pump room under a condenser box. This line was at the rear of the pump room and the room had only one means of egress. Upon breaking the line, the light oil remaining in the line flowed on the floor of the pump room and out through the door, then down the road to a sewer catch basin that was approximately 50 ft. away. Just above and near this basin an acetylene burner was cutting
and some of the sparks fell into the catch basin and ignited the oil. The
flame followed the stream of oil back and into the pump room, trapping
the five men in same. As the only means of egress was through the one
doorway, it was necessary for them to run through the flames. This
resulted in the death of two of the men. For the safety of employees all
pump rooms constructed under condenser boxes should have two means
of egress placed at opposite ends of the rooms.
.
Petroleum Section
723
Strict supervision should be made by the department head and proper precautions taken before allowing any welding, burning or hot work to be done and electric welding or oxy-acetylene cutting should never he permitted within a gaseous area. "Work of this nature should be done a sufficient distance away from the source of the gas production and the direction of the wind must also he considered.
Sewer catch basins should be covered and ventilated. Unless this is done a gas pocket will be formed under the blanket making' a tightly sealed catch basin an explosive hazard.
4. In another case while the operator was burning holes In the dome of a still, the pipefitters removed a gate valve allowing the gas to get into the still. The still flashed and the burner, in jumping from the scaffold, was slightly injured.
Before allowing any cutting or welding to be done on a still it is abso lutely necessary to blank the light oil and gas lines off, and to flush and steam out the still.
. Most of the accidents that are charged against and incorrectly termed acetylene explosions' are caused, in the majority of cases, either by the lack of knowledge or thought in the handling or use of this gas or due to conditions arising. out of extreme temperature of the flame acting upon certain confined elements, the expansion of which results in an explosion of the containers.
Minor injuries are in most cases the direct result of poor supervision or negligence of the operators failing to keep their equipment in good condition.
An accident was brought to my attention some time ago of a burner being killed while attempting to cut a steel plate that was resting on an oxygen cylinder under 1,800 lbs. pressure. In burning a hole in this plate he punctured the cylinder and an explosion resulted, - instantly killing the burner. Just a lack of thought on the part of the operator who failed to observe what he was doing.
The majority of all accidents are caused by this lack of thought and lack of ability to sense the probabilities of being injured when perform ing their duties in an unsafe way.
There are' very few thoroughly trained mechanics who are seriously injured because they have this sixth sense or ability to foresee the pos sibilities of being injured which is unconsciously developed during their training and oxy-acetylene operators are no exception to this rule. Therefore to decrease accidents among any body of men it is most essen tial that they be trained making them thoroughly familiar with their equipment and its operation.
Education and training, to my mind, is the only solution to this as well as to all other problems of accident prevention.
DISCUSSION
J. I. Banash (Consulting Engineer, Chicago) : When I first handled regulators, I wiped out the oxygen connection with my fingers, until I
724
Twelfth Safety Congress
knew a little more about it, because when, you are working in a shop you always have oil on your hands. A clean rag should be used; blow on the opening and wipe it out with a clean rag.
As far as using matches is concerned--most of the companies selling apparatus provide a pyrolighter, with a friction igniter such as you can buy in most department stores for lighting gas at home, and usually every equipment has one or two of those when you buy it. If they wear out you can get new tips. Where you are welding continuously at a bench, workmen usually use a small kerosene torch, and that sometimes saves a good deal of time or a little gas Jet if your shop is provided with gas.
If you are preheating a casting, it you use charcoal instead of coke, yo.u will find that the noxious gases will be very considerably reduced and you very probably will not have anywhere near the percentage of danger even in the same room.
The matter of storing oxygen and acetylene cylinders together is one that is well worth attention. In large shops where considerable volumes
of material are used and storage facilities are provided, I think It is good practice to store your carbide and acetylene cylinders in the same room and have a separate room for your oxygen cylinders. Then you will have your combustible gas and the generator of combustible gas stored in one room, and your proper hazards concentrated there, and the oxygen in another room, and that will leave your third compartment, if you have that sort of an arrangement, for your generator.
Mr. Franklin L. Newcomb (Standard Oil Company of New Jersey): My experience has been with hammer welds and high pressure stills. We have a good deal of work that has to be done, especially in dis mantling worn out stills, and we have had a great deal of trouble, but no serious accidents, due to coke which could not be removed from pipes and things inside of our stills. In burning out those pipes there have been very obnoxious fumes which bother the men considerably. A fresh air mask with the proper kind of lens in the thing so as to give these burners something to work with was furnished us for trial at one of our refineries. It was supplied with a light hose, about 25 feet in length which didn't inconvenience a" man or hamper him in any way. The men were very much pleased with it, and in that case they welcomed a mask, whereas before we had had a great deal of trouble with the men to get them to use a mask on some of the other work. I believe that we cut down burning operations to about one-third of the time it took formerly.
IMPUBE OXYGEN
Mr. Wallace; We had an experience down in Houston about two years ago, that was attributed to impure oxygen, and I would like to ask the
gentlemen present if anyone lias had. a similar experience. There was
hydrogen in the oxygen through faulty manufacture and that is what the explosion came from.
Petroleum Section
725
Mr. Banash: My recommendation and, I think, the recommendation of , the Council's Safe Practices No. 23 is that all materials be purchased from firms known to be reliable and permanently and satisfactorily able to make that product.
Mr. Esterly: Some years ago we had one or more accidents wherein the oxygen or acetylene line, I don't know which, leaked inside the still while the men were working in there, with a resultant explosion. I don't think it was a serious accident at that time, but I have in mind that there was an accident which occurred either in a tank or in a still at one of the other refineries which was fatal, due to the fact that the hose leaked and caused a combustible atmosphere inside of the tank.
We use hand tools and, of course, machine tools, but we do not use oxy-acetylene cutting inside a still or inside a shiptank, or a storage tank in any confined space.
GAS MASKS
,
Mr. Senne: Mr. Chairman, our company has been very much inter ested in the proper type of gas mask to use. We have experimented for several years in endeavoring to find a suitable mask. It appears now that we have come across one we are satisfied is safe. It interested me so much that we practically adopted that mask.
Incidentally I want to call the attention of the members to a paper
that was just published by the Government Serial No. 24S9, June Reports
of Investigations by the Department of the Interior, Department of Mines, making a comparison of gas masks, hose masks, and oxygen breathing
apparatus. It is one of the most comprehensive papers I have ever read
on gas masks.
.
Mr. Newcomb (Standard Oil Company of New Jersey) : We had tried
a great many hose and found that every hose on the market, after about
five or ten minutes service, when lying in an oil, allowed gas. to come
through. They were impervious to the gases as long as they were not
in the liquid but when they lay in the liquid a man started to breath
gas. We have, however, found one spiral hose that Is impervious.
Chairman Bonsib: I want to say that in the repair of condenser
boxes it has been found that if you have a manhole at the bottom and
also start circulation with a fan, it reduces greatly the danger of gasing
in case of leaks in. the line. There have bedn several accidents due to
that and I think that that is something worthy of consideration.
Mr. Newcomb: We have been working up an emergency case to he
set on top of condenser boxes for rescue purposes. We are using for
that purpose at the present time a box fixed up for demonstration pur poses. It contains a small fresh, air respirator which simply covers the
nose and mouth, with an aluminum nose and mouthpiece, with a rubber
flutter valve and a light belt, also twenty-five-foot length of hose, all of which we have hung up in this box ready for use. The respirator fastens on with a very simple headpiece that no man can miss. In addition we have a blanket and about a hundred feet of rope in that box so that we have this material on top of the box to take care of any emergency. We don't recommend that small respirator for any work
TIG Twelfth Safety Congress
at all except to rescue a man, or other emergency "work. If you want to get something in a hurry, it is very easy, simple to apply and anyone without instructions can use it. It is there as an emergency box and we are planning to put them on all of our condenser boxes at regular
intervals. Chairman Bonsib: Mr. Esterly, will you please tell us what you know
about the Prone Pressure Method of resuscitation?
PHOXE PRESSURE RESUSCITATION
Mr. Esterly: Several years ago we had several men axphyxiated in a tank. As a result of that the management of our company asked me to see what we could do about it. We got in touch with the Bureau of Mines and found the Schaeffer Prone Method was the proper thing. Of course the prevention is the proper thing in all cases, but where the men have been overcome by gas or noxious fumes, 'we use the Schaeffer Prone Pressure Method. In our plant at Philadelphia we have about 400 men who have been taught the Schaeffer Prone Pressure Method and those men are scattered among the shifts and are taught at,least every three months. That is to say, they are given a two-hour session in classes of five to six men by our safety instructor, Mr. Brown, and those men are practically letter perfect in the Schaeffer Method.
In the last three years we have resusticated 23 men who were over come under various conditions, and who would undoubtedly have died if they would not have been resusticated in the proper manner.
Dr. Stein (The Philadelphia Gas* & Oil Company, Pittsburgh) : The Schaeffer Prone Pressure Method is a method for artificial respiration. That is all. It is not to be used except when a person has stopped breathing. When a person has stopped breathing he is dead. Regard less of whether he has abdominal injuries or not, or whether he has broken ribs or not. I have a case on record where a man had three broken ribs. Electric shock had taken place, and he was resusticated after 23 minutes without breathing. My opinion was that the man would die of chromatic pneumonia, but he didn't, and if the Schaeffer Prone Pressure Method, or some other method of artificial respiration had not been used he was already dead, therefore I would use artificial respira tion when a person is not breathing, and under no other circumstances, and I would consider that if"I don't make him breath, he is dead anyway.
Another thing, in the control of the tongue--the proper teaching of the Schaeffer Prone Method, or any other method the manual or artificial respiration includes the control of the tongue absolutely. The tongue must be controlled. The whole method of artificial respiration, depends on one thing: suction. And the forward motion in the Schaeffer Prone Pressure Method is the essential motion because you cannot get any air into that man's chest unless you suck it in, and you cannot suck air in unless you compress the diaphragm, especially the ribs, and allow them to contract and suck the air in.
(Mr. Wallace presented his motion picture film "Bringing Safety to the Producing Field.*')
Petroleum Section
Til
FRIDAY MORNING SESSION
Chairman Bonsib: Before we start, I have a report In my hands
that we didn't have a chance to read at the previous session. Inasmuch
as Mr. Senne isn't here, I will have to read it myself.
"As chairman of the Membership Committee for 1923, I would respect
fully submit the following report:
"According to my records, there are now enrolled as active members of the Petroleum Section 49 companies,'representing the leading produc
tion, pipe line and manufacturing oil industries of the United States.
We have made a gain of 10 per cent in membership during the past year
and while numerically this seems insignificant, it should be remembered
that our solicitations were all by correspondence and therefore the im
pression as regards the real value of our section could obviously not be
properly conveyed.
"We have sent out at various times several hundred circulars and many
pamphlets together with sample copies of the National Safety News.
These were forwarded to a selected group qf petroleum companies, whom
we judged by their comparative size and activities would probably be
interested in safety work.
"We believe from present Indications there is a tendency to more
closely observe the Safety Movement and have no doubt that in the
approaching year we will be favored by a considerably increased mem
bership. It Is indeed reassuring to note the impetus and, more impor
tant, the steady decrease of accidents among those who are steadily and
consistently practicing the safety code. This in itself, regardless of a
rapidly increasing membership, should be an encouragement not alone
to the individual companies now in membership but also to prospective
members. The casualty records of all concerned we are quite sure show
a considers!: le decline both in the number of accidents as well as severity and we think that this alone should be a sufficient incentive for a greater cooperation which we hope may result.
"I desire at this time to express my thanks to all of those safety men
who have so freely given their time and assistance in the accomplish
ment of the work of this committee as well as the time and advice they
have given in service on the manufacturing committee during the year
just ended.
Yours very truly,
"E. J. SENNE,
. "Chairman Membership Committee."
(It was voted, on motion duly made and seconded, that the report be
received and filed.)
.
REPORT OF NOMINATING COMMITTEE
*
Chairman Bonsib: We are now ready to hear the report of the Nom
inating Committee.
_
,
The report of the Nominating Committee follows:
For chairman: D. J. Wallace, Humble Oil and Refining Company.
Houston. Texas.
728 Twelfth Safety Congress
For secretary : E. J. Senne, Vacuum Oil Company, New "Fork.
For vice-chairman, pipe line division: E. D. Murphey, Safety Engineer,
Cosden & Company, Tulsa, Oklahoma.
.
For vice-chairman, manufacturing division: E. A. Timm. Standard
Oil Company, Bayonne, N. J.
For vice-chairman, producing division: V. R. Currie, Texas Company,
Houston, Texas.
For vice-chairman, marketing division: R. S. Bonsib, Standard Oil
Company of New Jersey.
.
(Upon motion duly made and seconded, it was voted that the report
be accepted as read.)
(Mr. Bonsib invited the newly elected Chairman, Mr. Wallace, to
take the Chair, which he did.)
.
GETTING SAFETY TO "BELONG"
Elmo D. Mlepiiey, Safety Engineer. Cosdex & Company, Tulsa. Okla.
Recently we heard of a conversation that a staff officer had with an employee about safety work/ The workman's expression of appreciation of the work compared to that of previous administrations, led the officer to ask just where there was a difference and why people were so willing to co-operate with this safety man. The workman replied, in a surprised voice, indicating that the reason was very evident:
"Why, it's because he belongs around here". I have thought about that answer many times and have asked myself "Do my methods warrant such a statement from the men in my own field?"
Why do we find organized safety work an industry? Is it not because the owners and executives understand that every Industry is two-fold in nature; the material and the human. If the human phase is neglected, their business must suffer in terms of profit. Realizing that it Is a paying business policy to give this phase consideration, they plant the safety policy, with confidence of a harvest of increased production, lowered costs, goodwill, stability.
The real mission of -the Safety Department is to cultivate and bring about a growth so that it shall bring forth the fruits expected.
Carnegie hired experts, men of high calibre, to teach him what he knew about making steel and to help him build up that great industry. He may not be told in so many words, but a safety man Is expected to do the projective, constructive thinking on the subject of safety, and put it in shape to throw on the screen before the owners, executives and others interested in the growth of the safety gern.
The safety man must keep in touch with all new ideas, methods and information. That is why several hundreds of us are gathered here in Buffalo.
In big business there is a growing regard for the value of human life. From this, we are warranted in believing that the industrial world is growing better. Where there is little regard for human life there will be a
Petroleum Section
729
lack of respect for government, religion and the higher ideals which make
for stability and progress. Compare American industrial and social
standards with the industrial and social standards and the cheapness of
life in Mexico or Russia. The stability of American industry, where life,'
liberty anad the pursuit of happiness are guaranteed and fostered by the
American spirit of democracy, is a direct contrast to the uncertainty
in Mexico or Russia, where such standards are lacking or have been
perverted.
.
Safety work appeals to owners and executives because man has an instinctive feeling of revulsion against suffering and human waste. "The voice of thy brother's blood calls to me from the ground," cries Conscience. Every accident means a wasting of the company's money as well as the resources of the men injured. Few men in business want to carry the burden of a realization that they have been remiss in duty toward the spirit of the Golden Rule.
Owners or executives plant safety because they have a pride of owner ship or management; they prize up-to-date methods; they do not want to overlook any good thing for their business if it is practical and will produce good results.
For the purpose of discussion we are assuming that the Safety Depart ment head is a line officer responsible to a staff officer, with authority to supervise all safety matters in the organization.
First let us consider the relation of the Safety Department to the
Department heads or sub-heads, or as they will hereafter be'termed, "The
Foremen":
'
' GET ACQUAINTED WITH THE FOREMAN
Get acquainted with the foremen! If we are to get safety work to "belong" to the foremen as much as the habits of eating and drinking, we must learn his viewpoint,, his problems, his relation to the rest of
the institution; the family and community influences which affect his
disposition and attitude. Then we can adapt our plans to suit.
"We should take into consideration the essential things expected of every foreman, viz:
1. To improve shop of department morale.
2. To increase production.
.
3. To decrease costs.
We should shape our methods to help him in obtaining these results.
The foremen should understand the relation of accident prevention to production and costs. He must be shown how accidents run up costs through lost-time, increased labor turn-over and the general effect on department production often noticeable after a workman is injured.
If a foreman should be of foreign birth and rearing, he must be educated in American ideals and industrial methods, particularly in the spirit of safety.
Every foreman should be kept in touch with new developments in the
safety realm pertinent to the different departments.
.
.
730 Ttvelfth Safety Congress
Frequently a feeling of jealously towards Safety on the part of a
foreman has to be overcome because he fears it "may show him up".
If his men know he has this attitude they will hesitate to report bad con
ditions for fear of "getting in bad with the boss." Such a condition calls
for careful and patient handling. To eradicate this fear of criticism we
should try to make the right appeal to the very thing that is Its basis:
his pride. Persuade him of the wisdom of eliminating unsafe practices or
conditions which may cause criticism. Reach him through the instinct
of leadership. Show him that the safety program cannot fully succeed
without his co-operation. Demonstrate to him how he may gain from
co-operation in increased production and lowering costs. Soon he will
court constructive criticism.
'
The methods used with the foremen must be so formulated that the
workmen will not get the idea that the Safety Department dominates
their leader, and thus injure the foreman's pride and the morale of his
department. Never dictate to him. "Laying down the law" is generally
disastrous. Safety, to accomplish its end with the foremen, as well as
the men, must become a controlling motive rather than a set of laws
and rules.
Men will put forth greater efforts if the competitive spirit is appealed
to. Keep his accident record before him, show him what other depart
ments have accomplished. Lead him to try to excel.
Sometimes foremen who appear indifferent, the so-called "hard boiled"
foremen, can be appealed to through their emotions. Ton all know about
the Detroit Police Judge who has compelled traffic offenders to view the
remains of their victims at the morgue. In some cases, it takes such a measure to wake a man up to his duty to eliminate needless suffering of
the injured and the hardships placed on the family. After a serious
accident, get the indifferent foreman to accompany you and the injured
party to the hospital and afterwards visit the man's family. If be is
not a convert before that, he will be afterwards!
THE WOKKMAN
We have heard a great deal in Safety gatherings and itfcessxatre eC the need of "securing the backing of the management**. Sly OMboepCSeo Of this is that the safety man need not worry about the borking of the management if he makes good with the workmen. They prwteoe the profitable results expected. The management gave it's Hurktam when they planted the safety policy. It is Up to the safety mm.it to 4o the ^wmauting, if you please.
We must have the confidence of the workmen. This is Che largest, group with which the safety man deals. It is potent is pOOffhPities. To get their confidence is a prime requisite. Can the safety mas ia>> good with the workmen, so they will say of his work that it has made safety "belong", if he has a superior air? His attitude should be --cb That so distinction is visible.
Men react favorably to a genuine Interest In them, ft causes them to feel that they are more than a cog in the machine. Tbe safety sum
Petroleum Section
731
who knows the workmen, who has acquainted himself with, the problems
they meet in doing their daily stint, as well as the influences surround ing their lives, will have many loyal allies. Maintaining a close touch with the workmen means the battle half won.
Through personal contact with the workmen we may have fruitful
source of first-hand information as well as an avenue of dispensing first
hand information on safety practices and methods. Boyd Fisher has
said, "Safety Instruction has. to be specific and personal--it has to be
talked". Politicians know the value of personal contact in their cam
paigns. After the campaign is over they may cease to kiss the babies
and no longer ask Hiram how his corn crop is coming along. The
safety man's campaign is never over. He must always be on the alert
to elect the safety ticket. The modern bank cashier's office is not hidden
at the back of the banking rooms and behind a door marked "Private", but is out in the main room and easy of access to every customer. The workman is one of the customers of safety. We cannot afford to lose
contact with anyone who buys in the safety market.
..
'
'
SAFETY EEPBESENTATIVES
'
`
If a safety man interests himself in the workmen, they will respond with an interest in safety work. He can cultivate this interest and cause it to have a steady growth by giving the men definite work and responsibilities.
~ We have found it profitable to bave each department in the plant elect from one to three Workmen Safety Representatives. These men report direct to the Safety Department any unsafe practices or conditions any where in the plant. Each representative is expected not only to be on the alert for such items, hut to keep in touch "with his fellow workmen and encourage them to do the same through these representatives. They are elected for six months and cannot succeed, themselves. They .make written reports which go to the Safety Department head, and he is the only man who knows the source of any item. We have found this confidential feature is sometimes an important consideration in dealing with certain reports.
Through this Safety Representative system we discover the men who are alert and vitally interested in Safety. We cultivate that part of the field very carefully. Our experience with this plan has demonstrated that the best way to corral a man's interest in a thing is to give bim a definite responsibility for its success.
Our Plant Safety Committee of mixed membership, foremen and work men, meets once a month at the company cafeteria during the lunch hour. The members meet in a room shut off from the main dining room and transact the business of the committee between 12:50 and 12:55 o'clock after lunch is eaten. There are five regular members and to each meeting we invite a couple of workmen from one of the mechanical departments and the same number from one of the operating departments..
732
. Ttoelfth Safety Congress
These are selected from a different department each meeting. Thus, in the course of a year we give a large number of the -workmen an insight into the work of the committee
EDUCATIONAL. METHODS
One of the most important means which may be used to get safety work to "belong" is through the educational methods.
Accidents are more likely to occur to inexperienced or uninformed men than to older men who are better acquainted with the working conditions. Safety educational work has an important bearing on the end to be achieved. When we deal with men who are illiterate or of foreign birth and training, the need for educational work to overcome these obstacles in the path of accident prevention is even more pressing. These men must become acquainted with American standards, language, and the spirit of the safety idea. Safety instruction given to new men must be driven home by repetition until they really know it.
Sometimes, in order to convert men to certain safety ideals. It is necessary to demonstrate the safe ways in actual practice.
The good to be gained from posting bulletins giving safety ideas should not be underestimated, particularly the frequent use of home-made bulle tins. We believe these should be used as often as possible in connection with the excellent bulletins issued by the National Safety Council and ,, others. Illustrations of local conditions and practices on safety catch a man's interest as a photograph of his wife or a personal mention in the society column stirs up sudden and unusual interest in the paper.
We should not overlook the good that may be accomplished in spread ing the safety idea by way of the eye-gate; by means of the moving picture, warning signs and the like. The National Safety Council has recognized the importance of this means of propagation, and has been very active in producing and making available some very good safety films.
THE INSTINCTS AND EMOTIONS
Safety makes appeals to the workmen through certain instincts and emotions. Consider the instinct of self preservation, often described as the primary instinct. Most every man clings to and loves his life, has a prompting to protect it at any cost. Some may, at times, seen to think that they haven't much use for "this safety stuff", yet when it comes to a show-down they will not surrender one iota of their right of full protection. Why is it then, if the instinct of self-preservation is so deep-seated, so primary in a man's nature, that a man will take chances, gamble with the cards of fate? Is it not because of the sporting element in his make-up? It isn't because he doesn't know the odds against him when he sits in a game with Carelessness, Thoughtlessness and Inattention. As Dr. Risteen has so aptly expressed it. he has un consciously allowed room in his mental background for the attitude "That has happened to others but it can never happen to ME". He
doesn't sajf that, no, he doesn't even think it, but because he has allowed
Petroleum, Section
733
it to creep into his attitude he rushes across the track in front of a
speeding train, or takes a chance in his work because "By golly, I've
done it that way for years and have never been hurt yet" I
It is the problem of the Safety man to turn the sporting element into
another and profitable channel. Appeal to the competitive spirit in
sportsmanship. Every runner in the race of life should run with a prize
in mind. If we run not for a prize, our efforts- are wasted. Show men
the foolishness of assuming that anyone is given a special immunity
against accidents and set them out on a run for a "No Accident" record.
Persuade them to stop gambling with fate and invest in safety which
pays sure profits.
Safety makes appeals by way of department or gang spirit. We have
all noted the influence of the crowd, upon men's actions. We often
imitate the customs, fashions and habits of our associates. If the gang
spirit is such that it encourages the spirit of bravado or recklessness, the safety man who maintains close contact with and knows the men,
will soon recognize the situation. He will institute suggestive, educa
tional or disciplinary methods to remove this spirit; the weed found
growing among the wheat in the field of Safety. Disciplinary measures.
should be used as a last resort.
This brings us to consider the instinct of subordination. Few men
expand under compulsion, but most of us, in the stress of life's struggles
turn instinctively to follow a leader who commands respect. Men ordi
narily do not like to be "ordered around." Soldiers swear by the captain
who is strong on discipline if he is at the same time just in his dealings. Leaders of men in industry should l>e just and impartial before they are generous. Men thresh around under an inefficient, though it may be
an indulgent leadership. Those placed in positions of responsibility and
leadership may be so indulgent, so thoroughly a "good fellow" that their
command of respect becomes practically nil.
There must be certain rules and regulations established to govern
everyone. These should be stated so they will be easily understood.
DISCtPI-TNE
.
In dealing with men in our company we have had few cases where it has been necessary to use disciplinary measures. We have found that a reprimand is generally sufficient to correct cases of infraction of Safety rules. If a boilermaker is found to be violating our goggle rules' his record is charged with a reprimand from the safety man. If he is guilty of a second offense he is taken before the employment manager in a Kangaroo Court. The employment manager generally asks the safety man, department foreman, and sometimes the first aid supt. to sit with him. They hear the evidence, review his record and pass upon the form of discipline. Usually if the man is temporarily demoted to the general labor gang from three to ten days at the rate paid to laborers, the discipline results in lasting good, and reacts favorably through the department and the plant. Rarely has it been necessary for - us to
discharge men for infraction of the safety regulations.
734
Twelfth Safety Congress
Disciplinary measures must be handled without malice but with good will to all. If based on that spirit and with the ultimate 'good and pro tection of the men in view, and not predicated upon the spirit of authority and power alone, they may be employed as a helpful means of getting Safety to "belong".
By including the methods we have discussed, we may be instrumental in bringing about the maximum of Safety when all men shall acknowlegde its reign in their hearts and lives, when disciplinary measures are no longer required, when all shall have entered into a full appreciation of the fruits of careful habits, when Safety really "belongs around here" and Is the first consideration In every action.
STATIC HAZARDS IN GASOLINE HANDLING
C. L. Naylob .and Hakold " E. Ramsey, Atlantic Refitting Company,
Philadelphia
"Static" or "static electricity" as used In this article refers to the elec tric charges such as those generated or induced by the contact and sepa ration of various materials, which charges may discharge by means of a spark. These are the charges generally `spoken of as "frictional elec
tricity."
"Gasoline"' is used as a general term, to include not only motor fuel, but the whole class of light petroleum products above kerosene whose volatility makes their storage, handling and transportation hazardous.
"Frictional electricity," so called, has been a phenomenon of common knowledge for centuries. It was observed, in ancient times that certain
kinds of materials when rubbed acquired the power to attract light bodies.
Since the experiments of Franklin and others of his period much more
has been learned of the nature and manifestations of this electricity, so
that no comment is now excited by sparks from walking across a carpet,
stroking a cat's back, combing the hair with a rubber comb, etc. Like
wise. every high school boy is today familiar with the Holtz influence
machine. In all of these cases the building up of a charge has been the
accompaniment of friction, and therefore believed to be due to friction
between certain materials.,
Modern research and experience, however, have found instances of the production of static charges under circumstances where no friction was involved, requiring explanation on some other basis. Study of the sub ject has resulted In the advancing of the theory that static charges are the result of intimate contact between different materials, with or with out friction. For some ten years or more this theory has been applied, and has explained both old and new phenomena. Insofar as the "fric tional electricity" is concerned, it is readily evident that on this basis the friction has been merely the means of securing intimate contact, which has been immediately followed by separation, causing such an in crease in potential as made the charge readily evident: this phase will be referred to later. As an example of the formation of static charges
Petrolexim Section
735
without friction, we have the well-known sparking from belts on machineery- This was formerly classed as an example of frictional electricity; but it is found that the charge is-still produced when the loose pulley is the only mechanical load on the belt, and there is no likelihood of anyslipping. Moreover, increasing the load to the slipping point does not materially affect the formation of charge. Refer to the extremely clear and non-technical article-on this subject by Prof. Elihu Thomson, from which the following is Quoted: "If we take a turpentine varnish as a film and dry it upon metal or glass, and use enough varnish so that it becomes of such thickness as to be stripped off when nearly dry, it will be found that such a film comes away from the metal or glass in a high state of charge, so that It will stick to any surface nearby by electrostatic attrac tion. The same is true when a collodion film is dried against a glass surface and stripped off. Here, the pyroxiline comes away In a high state of charge. Such actions do not involve friction."1 -The entire phenome non, then, can be explained by the basic principle discovered 150 years ago by Volta, "contact between heterogenous materials Is attended by separation of the electricities."
If the materials in contact are separated, and are conductors, the charges will flow to the points last in contact and there neutralize each other. If one of them is a non-conductor, it will carry most of its charge with it, since the charge cannot be conducted through the insulating body. By induction, the opposite charge will also be retained on the conducting material. There has thus been created .a condenser, having the two materials as plates and air as a dielectric. In this condenser, as in all condensers, a separation of the plates is attended by an increase in voltage. This is shown as follows:
CAPACITY ASD YOZ.TAGE OF CONDENSES
The capacity of a condenser in terms of its materials and dimensions is given by the equation:
A C = K--
X
.
(1)
Where C = the capacity in farads
A = the area of the plates in sq. cm.
. X = the thickness of the dielectric between them in cm.
K -- 885 x 10-16 x the inductivity of the dielectric
Further, the charge which is considered as representing the exchange of
electricities that has taken place, is given by--
Q -- CE
(2)
1 The Nature of Tribo-electricity, Journal of the American Institute of
Electrical Engineers, May, 1922, page 342. Unfortunately this article was
not Included in the transactions A. I. E. E. Dr. Thomson's paper is quoted further in National Safety Council Safe Practices pamphlet No.
52 on Static Electricity
..
736 Twelfth Safety Congress
Where Q = the charge In eoulcombs
.
C = the capacity of the condenser in farads
JE = the potential difference in volts ,
Q whence E =
.
C
Q
(substituting from (1)`
(3)
A K-- X
QX
KA
(4)
From equation (X), the capacity of the condenser formed by the two materials being separated and having air as a dielectric, is reduced as their distance apart increases. Further, since the amount of charge is
now fixed (\intil discharge occurs), the potential difference will increase
in inverse proportion to the capacity (equation 3), or in direct propor
tion to the distance apart (equation 4). This law of the increase ;o..voltage is subject to certain maximum limits for any particular case, which need not be discussed here. It is sufficient to know that this voltage'is quite high enough to produce sparks that will ignite an inflammable
vapor. The increase in electrostatic energy through the rise in voltage
represents the work done in separating the charges against the force of their electrostatic attraction.
The readiness with which the vapors of these light products can be
ignited is well known. That it could be done by a fine static spark
was the experience in accidents which happened at least thirty years ago.
The static spark, although very small and representing an extremely small
amount of energy, is nevertheless a spark of very high temperature.
"An accident of this description occurred on December 14, 1893, at
Bradford (England) in a process for waterproofing cloth by treatment with paraffin wax dissolved in petroleum spirit. On this occasion the question
of the prevention of such accidents in the future received a good deal
of attention."23
-
Another accident of early record called the "hair dresser's accident" happened in 1897. "A woman was being shampooed with a wash contain ing gasoline, when sufficient 'frictional electricity' was generated to pro
duce a spark which ignited the vapor, burning her so severely that she
died." "A naval surgeon wearing a fur coat and rubber boots (which insulated
him from the ground) made a spark, presumably by friction on the fur.
sufficient to ignite the gasoline in the tank of an automobile."
2 "Handbook on Petroleum," by Thomson & Redwood.
3 "Gasoline and its Danger," by Augustus H. Hill, Power. voL 48, N'o. 3, July 16, 1918.
Petroleum Section
737
static discharge; in heavy oil tank
One of the simplest examples of the above principles known to the
writers Is a case of very heavy static discharges in tanks of filtered cylinder stock, 110-140 viscosity. This material is filled into steel tanks
20 feet high by 15 feet diameter, at a temperature of about 140 'P. by running from the open end of a 2 inch grounded iron pipe into a steel basket strainer, 18 inches high by 24 inches diameter, having a 100 mesh brass gauze in the bottom. The basket is supported on top of the tank by iron supports attached to the tank. The oil falls in streams 20 feet or less. On dry days a charge of enormous voltage accumulates. on the surface of this oil, discharging from' time to time to the tank or to a vertical pipe in the center. The writers have seen discharges as long as four feet in a jagged line across these tanks, ac companied by sharp reports.
On account of the comparatively heavy grade of this oil no trouble has resulted from these discharges. However, it was thought best to eliminate them. For this purpose a brass chain was suspended from the grounded frame of the strainer, so as to hang about centrally under it.
The effect of this was to provide another point to which the arcs could discharge, somewhat reducing their length, but not materially decreas ing the amount. Two types of baffles were than installed to deflect the oil stream against the side of the- tank- Both failed to eliminate the sparking because the oil again fell away from the tank, and so again built up a potential. The desired result was accomplished by attaching a galvanized sheet iron funnel under the strainer, bringing the oil into a galvanized spout, which conducts it to wifhin a few inches of the bottom of the tank. This is below the normal oil level. With this arrangement most of the oil was kept in contact with grounded metal, and the rest in extremely close proximity to it. While some slight discharges might be expected within this spout, none has been observed, and sparking outside the spout has been entirely eliminated.
This phenomenon verifies the theory of static generation by contact and separation rather than by friction. Each molecule or each drop of oil coming into insufficiently intimate contact with the strainer takes part in a "Separation of the electricities" and immediately falls away from this contact, carrying a minute charge. The infinitesimal distance which separated the oil and the strainer is then multiplied practically by in finity in 'the twenty-foot fall to the oil surface resulting in the increase of voltage noted above. This is estimated in the case of the four-foot spark at several hundred thousand volts.
The case of this tank calls to our attention the fact that a serious static charge can exist even with all metal parts and containers grounded, and that in pouring or loading inflammable liquids In bulk, it Is not necessarily enough to ground pipes, hoses, tanks, etc. At least two fires are known to have occurred from pumping hot oils through grounded pipes into grounded tanks. Complete safety may require a conducting
738 Twelfth Safety Congress
pipe practically to the bottom of the receiving tank or vessel. This must be determined for any particular case with respect to the material being handled.
PREVENTING TROUBLE AT THE FILLING STATION
A more familiar example of the same action is the case of the filling hose at a gasoline service station. Here the brief contact with the brass filling nozzle is sufficient to start a charge. Were the nozzle ungrounded, it would itself accumulate sufficient charge (of opposite polarity to that of the gasolene) to cause a dangerous spark when brought near any grounded object, as a metal gasolene can. For this reason it is common practice to connect the nozzle to the grounded measuring pump by means of the metal lining of the gasolene hose, and of a copper wire imbedded in the hose and soldered to both ends. But the danger is not ended then. Cor the same hose is used for filling the tanks of automobiles which are insulated from the ground by their tires. The charge carrie'd over by the gasolene accumulates on the automobile as long as the gasolene is flowing, and will jump to ground through the filling nozzle if it is held a short distance away. To prevent this, the body of the automobile is grounded by placing the nozzle in contact With the gasolene tank before starting the flow, and holding it there until the flow has ceased. 1
The loading and unloading of gasolene tank trucks properly receives especially careful attention. Here again an insulated vehicle and a grounded filling line or receiving tank are involved. The preventive is again the grounding of both. In the case of loading, a chain or wire may be used, properly attached to the filling line and connected to the tank or body of the truck. For unloading, it might be sufficient to make contact with the receiving tank by means of the nozzle of the deliver}* hose if this contact were sure of being maintained. But as the hose is not likely to remain stationery during the entire delivery, due to such causes as the rising of the truck body as its load is lightened, and others, there is considerable danger of such movement of the nozzle as will break its contact at least momentarily, and cause the fatal spark. It Is therefore recommended and is the general practice of some companies to establish a definite metallic ground by means of a chain or otherwise for unloading as well as for loading gasoline. It is the recommendation of the authors that all such grounding connections be made of bare,
stranded copper wire, about No. 10 B. & S. gauge, and that the connection
to the tank be made at some point away from the manhole and before opening it. It is suggested as preferable that the grounding wire be permanently attached to the truck, rather than to the loading line; this, will enable the wire to be used for unloading purposes also at the cus tomer's premises.
STEAM JET CAUSES STATIC CHARGE
A source of electric charges perhaps less familiar but just as sure, is the steam jet- Mr. Harmon F. Fisher, of the American Petroleum Insti
Petroleum Section
739
tutes/ relates that a steam automobile exhausting against a barb wire fence charged the wire to such a voltage that sparks were drawn from it. At the same time the automobile also was charged and gave shocks to those touching it.
Prof. Thomson.refers in the above mentioned article to "the old Arm strong hydroelectric machine, whereby steam, issuing from a boiler, pro duces a cloud in a high state of electrification, resembling a thunder cloud on a small scale." He suggests that it "is probably dependent upon modification of surfaces and surface tension."
An instance which was brought under the attention of the writers was the following: An empty gasoline truck which came in for magneto
repairs and was allowed to stand during lunch hour was found heavily charged by the workmen on their return. No other truck in the vicinity was charged, and this truck did not become charged in any other location. A run on the asphalt paving failed to reproduce the charge. A little investigation revealed a small leak at a fitting on a nearby steam pipe, the wind being in such a direction as to carry the vapor across the body of the truck. It should be noted that the white cloud of steam had died out almost entirely before reaching the truck. Several rearrange ments of truck and trailer and other trucks verified the conclusion that the steam leak was the direct cause of the charge. The accompanying
-----------------------------
Fig. I.
4 A Few Notes on Hazards from Static Electricity. See also Safe Prac
tices pamphlet No. 52 (National Safety Council), paragraph 16. -
740
Twelfth Safety Congress
photograph (Pig. 1) shows the incident and its circumstances. In ex
perimenting to reproduce these conditions it was found that steam at
75 pounds per square inch gauge pressure escaping through a -is inch
round hole, charged a truck sufficiently to give a % inch spark in five
seconds.
This case strengthens the argument for grounding tank trucks before
beginning loading or unloading, and before opening the manholes, as
there may be an initial discharge at the instant of making the connection,
with danger of igniting vapors present. Oil companies have little con
trol over their customers' steam leaks, and may even have some leaks
of their own.
"
The use of the steam hose for steaming out tank cars and trucks
presents exactly the same electrical conditions as above, with the added
condition of having a nearly closed vessel filled with an explosive mix
ture. Explosions from this cause have been known. Steam hose used
for this purpose should be provided with a ground wire connected to
the nozzles at each end. as in the case of the gasoline hose. This wire
should be' a stranded wire of about No. 16 B. & S. gauge. Pig. 2 shows
one form of grounded steam hose. The hose should not be allowed to sway so as to cause sparks by violently striking the steel tank. If used on a truck insulated from the ground, the truck should be grounded. .
An application of this principle, which is quite interesting, although not directly on the subject, was made by an electrical engineer of a man ufacturing company, who built an apparatus for detecting the approach of storms. E. erected an antenna connected to a device for ringing a bell when excited by static or other high voltage. The theory was that the antenna would collect the charges, from the particles of moisture in the moisture-laden .condition of the air preceding a storm, thus actu ating the bell-ringing device. The apparatus worked excellently, except that sometimes it functioned without apparent reason in the midst- of a sunny day. One morning the recording attachment showed that It had been ringing at intervals all night, on the calmest of starlight nights. An investigation developed the fact that the device had been actuated by charges collected from the steam and smoke exhausted by a shifting locomotive on a nearby railroad track, and that the mysterious signals received during the day were caused by the plant locomotive when work ing in that part of the yard.
Petroleum Section
741
w* MXXJEcnrrc stukcctr or xcxzo vjyro*.
An toterwtteg aa& important tact In the rwlatSee. et static hazards to gasoline lairfling la the tact that or the expioetre- range of mixtures of naphtha, v*para and air. the dielectric strength of the mixture
is less than that of either naphtha vapor or air. Experiment* conducted
by the authors show that the voltage required for the puncture of a 5%
mixture is 10% less than for air under the same conditions. For a 10% mixture 16% less voltage is required. As the naphtha vapor alone has a considerably greater dielectric strength than air. ft is evident that discharge will occur more readily in a mixture than in either air or
naphtha Or, when the discharge occurs, it will choose the path of the
mixture in preference to an equally long one in either air or naphtha.
Another important fact is that the vapor of gasoline is about three
times as heavy as air. It will, therefore, flow to low levels. One instance
is reported of a fire resulting from, the flow of vapors downward to a
boiler plant two or three hundred feet away.
.
One might be inclined to assume that a dry atmosphere is essential
to the production of an electrical charge. This is not correct. In moist
or dry atmosphere the electricity is generated just the same, with the
difference, however, that when the atmosphere is damp the charges usually
are led off as fast as formed. Dry air permits the charges to accumulate
in a charged body until contact with some other body or until of sufficient
potential strength to jump to some less highly electrified object.
Static electricity is only one of several peculiar happenings in nature
which are very common to us but which have been more or less mysteri
ous. Its presence in oil handling has not, in many cases, been properly
understood and fires have been attributed to other causes that should
have been laid to static. "While most of those fires directly traced to
its influence have occurred in the lighter oils, its presence in the handling
of heavier oils is clearly established. The first step in precaution, there
fore, must he the increasing recognition of static as a hazard not only
as pertaining to light oils but in the handling of all oils because of the
indefinite line of danger of fire in any grade. In conclusion, we point the obvious; Static is a natural phenomenon that can not be prevented.
It can, however, be controlled. Properly grounded it can be led harm
lessly away.
DISCUSSION
Chairman Wallace: I had the privilege of discussing static, by letter,
with Charles P. Steinmetz (now dead) who Is an authority, if there ever
was one, on static electricity, and there is a very great question in his
mind, whether we can have a static discharge in an explosive mixture
and not have an explosion.
Mr. Ramsey: .It is pretty hard to make a quantitative measurement of
a static discharge. A real static discharge, where we have a spark
which jumps from one point to another point, I believe would cause
an explosion if an explosive mixture were present under almost any
condition.
742 Ticelfth Safety Congress
air. Epps (Tidewater Oil Co.): It has seemed to me that the knocking to and fro that a drag chain' gets will certainly establish a sufficiently good metallic contact between the links, so that we will have as good a contact between the links as we can possibly have between the links and the ground, especially dry ground. Therefore, I should say the chain would be practically as good as a wire, because, after all. I be lieve it is the ground itself that is eliminating the condition rather than the metallic contact between the links of the chain.
Mr. Epps: I would like to ask Mr. Ramsey about the best methods
of relieving belt static. Has he gone into the method of the use of combs
for removing the static electricity from belts, or is just simply grounding
the shafting, both the drive and the other end, sufficient? Is the comb
necessary?
Mr. Ramsey: Peculiar differences occur in different cases. The comb is very often necessary. I have in mind, though, one drive in our plant where we have three compressors driven by individual motors of one hundred horse power. They are all side by side, no difference whatever, so far as we can see, in the operation; but two of them are perfectly free from static and the third is very bad. On that we have found it neces sary to use a comb. The comb should be applied to the belt, if possible, dragging or trailing very flexible wires or something of that sort, and applied at the point where the static is most evident, where it wants to get off of the belt. It is sometimes necessary to do that, and very frequently a grounding of a shaft will not accomplish it at all. The belt material is a poor conductor.
Editor's Note: For further information on humidity and its effect on static, see Safe Practices pamphlet Mo. 52. paragraphs 14-50. and Mo. 37. Fig. 4.
ACCIDENT STATISTICS
Mr. Sandel (National Safety Council) : I presume that every member of the Petroleum Section has been interested in the accident statistics for the first six months of the year 1923 which are published on page 46 of
the October issue of the National Safety Netvs. All companies which
participated in this tabulation, save one, are published here. The reason that the one record is not- published is that it was received in our office on the day that the presses started to turn out the magazine, and of course we couldn't get it in. That company is No. 16, and with a severity rate of 1.1S0, they would have stood ninth in the tabulation as published. This would make a total of 14 companies which participated in this tabulation, running for the first six months of 1923.
Last year at -this time there were only six to eight companies which were represented in the tabulation for the first six months. That number came up to 21 for the entire year of 1922 which was published some time ago. In this year's tabulation, there are two new-comers, companies 22 and 23, which have come in, and you may be sure that we are glad to receive other members who have not yet participated.
Petroleum Section
743
The plant having: an accident which results in the loss of an eye is penalized for 1800 days. I believe that that figure was the result of an average of experience on losses of that nature, taken from a large amount of information. When the loss of an eye is reported, the actual time lost Is not used in the statistical work, but the 1S00 days penalty is used instead. For instance, suppose a man lost an eye and he actually
lost, say, 100 days from the plant. That hundred days is not counted in the total amount of time lost, but 1800 days is counted instead. The figures for the different major injuries of that kind do enable us to put the plants on a comparative basis.
SAFETY VALVES AND PRESSURE GAUGES ROUND TABLE DISCUSSION
Mr. Epps: 1 had in mind trying to get some information on what would be the most satisfactory way of gauging casing-head tanks. At our plants, we are using simply the gauge glasses. On account of the vapor pressure and the casinghead gasoline, it is, of course, impossible to gauge by the ordinary methods, and 1 would like very much to have an ex
pression from the men here who are in that work of wha they are doing, what practice they are following in gauging casinghead tanks. I think the ordinary gauge glass which we are using is a decided hazard. 'They break frequently, their material is spilled.. Sometimes the safety arrange ment in the valves won't operate, sometimes they get clogged. Sometimes I find that the tanks aren't equipped with safety gauge glass valves.
I think the matter of relief valves for stills is one which deserves our most earnest consideration. An analysis of our own fire record for this
year shows us that we have a total of 43 fires, and those fires are of the kind that have been extinguished simply with a bucket of water up to the kind that have required the operation of all our plant equipment. Of the 43 fires, 27 of them occurred around stills.
Going back over our fire record for the last three or four years, I
find at least an average of 50 per cent of fires around our refinery occur
at stills. A great many of those have occurred from the operation of
relief valves and the discharging of the oil into the air, and the resultant
ignition of them.
, -.
Mr. Esterley: How will that work when the oil fires?
Mr. Epps: The oil won't touch the air at all until it gets into this tank.
Mr. Esterley: The valve is entirely enclosed?
Mr. Epps: Atmospheric stills,--yes, sir.
Mr. Esterley: Do you conduct that pipe through a condenser?
Mr. Epps: INo, sir; the most direct path possible. They don't want to condense it at all.
Mr. Bonsib: What means of inspection do you have?
Mr. Epps: We have the still inspector go up and take this arrangement and rotate it once every run to see that it is seating properly and is free. We have a manhole arrangement in this box which can be taken' off very
744
Twelfth Safety Congress
quickly by means of a few thumb-screws, so that once every several
runs ( I don't know whether it is four or five or a dozen) he looks in there
and makes an examination.
We don't plan to run any considerable length of line here, and we plan to make this line several inches larger in size than the size of our
relief valve connections. I don't believe that the amount of back pressure we build up there would be very great. We are planning to
use about 16 inch pipe.
FIBS FIGHTING
Mr. Timm: Before we go on to the next discussion, I would like to
know if there are any gentlemen here who can give me any information
on fire fighting. Mr. Epps: We cover pretty nearly a square mile, and it is divided
into four zones, four or five zones. In each zone we have a battalion
in charge.
*
First, there is the consulting chief who is the superintendent of the
plant, who is to be consulted on all matters involving expenditure and involving policy in the fire department. Then we have the fire chief
himself who is one of the foremen in the plant. We have the assistant
fire chief who is also a plant foreman.
_
Then we come here into several departments. First, we have what we
call the fire fighting division, and here we have a number of battalions, one for each yard. Each battalion is divided up into companies, eight
men in each company. Each company is assigned to a certain definite
piece of apparatus. Over here we have a salvaging division, which consists of an organiza
tion of the men in the pump houses and the superintendents of the dif
ferent divisions for storage and transportation of oil around the plant.
In other words, they organize to shift oil really, including our railroad
facilities around the plant, moving material. Then we have still a third division which we call our auxiliary squad.
That covers the commissary, the repair work, machinists and electricians.
There are several other , divisions. I can't just recall them offhand.
I would be very glad to let you see a complete line-up if you want to
have it. . Mr. Aspinwall: In our plants of the Texas Company, we have a fire
organization in which practically every man has a duty to perform
and responds at the fire signal. The plant is divided off into zones. We also have a fire car in which tools of all descriptions are kept and are only used for fighting fires, so that in case of a fire out in the field, this car
is taken there, and every -possible tool that we would need would be in
that car and it would save our having to go back. We found that a great advantage to us.
lessors FKoai snsoR injuries
Mr. Timm: I would just like to say," in connection with that, that
most of the minor injuries in warehouses I have found to be due to the fact that there is a lack of team-work between the men. One man
doesn't consider the other fellow, especially in the handling of barrels.
Petroleum. Section
745
Mr. Bonsib: Nails are probably one of tbe. commonest causes of accidents In warehouses, in warehouses handling case goods and even in warehouses handling barrel goods. Another very common cause of minor injuries in warehouses is hoops of barrels. Men should be in structed against breaking barrels with the unprotected hand.
So many times you look upon a warehouse as not being dangerous at all and don't spend much time with it. I think it is a place well worth spending time on and studying those minor injuries, because so often they are not reported and they develop into bad infections.
Men should be taught how to pin papers correctly. I would like to see pins eliminated, but nobody has invented a clip yet that really eliminates the use of a pin.
` Mr. Senne: It seems to me the main difficulty has been the fact that the warehousemen were never furnished with any forms for reporting the accident. They sometimes hesitate, and perhaps some of them don't know how to frame up a satisfactory report of an accident. In other words, if they have no form, they will delay reporting, whereas if they have a simple form and it is right there, the questions are all ready, so they simply have to say "yes" or "no" and describe how the accident happened. It simplifies the procedure, and I think if there was a form provided for the warehouse to report accidents or unsafe conditions, you would facilitate your system.
Mr.. Timm: I want to say, in connection with that, that we insist,
regardless of the nature of the injury, that the man report to the first
aid for treatment. When he gets to the first aid for treatemnt, they make
out an A. B. C.--1 form, a copy of which is sent to the safety department,
and in that way, the safety department keeps tab on all these minor
injuries. That, form is entered into a register sheet in the safety de
partment, and then the form is sent to the head of the department.
In that way we keep tab on our minor accidents.
-
Mr. Seals: If we have a minor injury, a scratch or a nail thrust or something like that, we wash it with bichloride. The foreman sends the man right to the first aid during the day-time hours, but in shift work, that is, in the. refinery shift work, we have first aid in each large department. Every minor injury must be taken care of, either^ by the first aid `or by the hospital. The two very worst compensation cases we have had have been the result of minor injuries.
Mr.. Aspinwall: In the minor accidents that we have, we insist on
the foreman being called in to the first aid room, not at the time of the
minor accident but some time during the day, and he makes an investi
gation and then talks the accident over with the supervisor or first aid
nurse. It is put up as a lesson, and he goes back and tries to eliminate
further danger of an injury of that nature. We find that we have elim
inated a lot of small accidents through that method.
'
746 I'w-riftJk t>afety Congress
rue vjoie < iwwxtw ate tyvesrncAnox or aocwexts
Mr. MeDevitt; 1 have footed dat if in accident is allowed to go un-
invesiigated for a fair amount of time, so much so that the man has had a
chance to think thing* over and also to think of what the penalty may
be, that his story is often colored, so much so that the real cause of an
accident is not brvmgbt oat. X have found it very valuable in my end of the work, which, by the
way, is concerned more with the human element than the mechanical,
to keep in very close loach with the first aid department. Whenever an
accident is at all serious or might have led to serious results, except for
the element of chance, either the first aid man or the doctor, if 1 am
in the building wilt immediately notify me. By catching a man in the first aid room with his injured finger, for instance, in. front of him.
without the mind having had time to dwell so much on the cause of the
injury as the pain he is suffering, in nine hundred and ninety-nine
chances out of a thousand, you will get the truth. I have found that very valuable.
Mr. Senne: 1 have here a resolution which I have prepared.
"The movement towards a definite safety program, and the adoption
of universal safe practices, also the devising of ways and means of safeguarding the lives of workers and profit of the companies com
prising the petroleum industry, having received dud and careful con
sideration by the respective officers and executives, superintendents,
plant men and field workers of the various organizations here represented,
as well as the others not present, it Is appropriate at this time for us
to acknowledge the helpful support and cooperation of all in the re
quirements and maintenance of safe practices and working conditions. "Admittedly, without this a^ .istance and encouragement by the manage
ment and executives, officials and others, the work and endeavors of the Safety Committee could not be effectively carried on.
"Therefore, be it resolved, that
"WHEREAS, we have received innumerable proofs of the acceptance of the principles involved and of their active interest; and
"WHEREAS, the great support so given has been of considerable help
and a real incentive toward greater efficiency, we desire to express here
with appreciation, and respectfully solicit their further aid in further
activities.
..
"In recognition of the services rendered, be it
"RESOLVED, that the Petroleum Section of the National Safety Council
express a vote of thanks to all concerned, and that the Secretary write
enclosing a copy of this resolution.to all whose names are on record as
having supported and advanced the general interests of safety through
out the petroleum industry."
(A motion to adopt the resolution was carried.)
ADJOURNMENT.
Plant Publications Section October 4 and 5, 1923
. ERNEST AUGUSTUS, Chairman
Editor, Mead Cooperation, The Mead Pulp and Paper Company,
Chlllicothe, Ohio
MISS EDNA E. COYDE, Tice-Chairman Editor, The Staley Journal, A. E. Staley Manufacturing Company,
Decatur, 111.
THURSDAY" AFTERNOON SESSION
HAIRMAN AUGUSTUS: The first thing on the program is the report
C of the chairman.
I haven't any report to make other than that the
program will speak for itself.
The next is the appointment of the nominating committee. I will
name Mr. E. T. Wilkins, Mr. Spencer Hord, and Mr. A. G. Strickrott as
a nominating committee to choose candidates for chairman, vice-chairman
and secretary during the coming year. They will report at the luncheon
tomorrow.
I will also appoint Mr. Bueno, Earl Neubig, and F. M. Webster as the
by-laws committee. They can draw up a set of by-laws for the' section
and report at the luncheon tomorrow.
THE REAL FUNCTIONS OF A PLANT PUBLICATION
Arthur H. Young, Manager, Industrial Relations Department, Inter national Harvester Company, Chicago, III.
I know many people look upon plant publications as frills; they look
upon them as one of the "ologies" or "isms," frills that have been showered
on us, probably as a result of the Great War. But there is a perfectly
logical development which is responsible for their genesis and advent. In
the olden days we-had a personal contact in industry. Now, with the
advent of large units and with the change of ownership from individuals
and partnerships to corporations, the old-time contact between men and
management has disappeared to a large extent.
We have several forms of substitutes, works councils being one of them,
bulletin boards another, and also plant .publications.
*
The plant publication, as a contact point between men and management
perfectly Justifies itself, and. its genesis is wholly logical, due to these
747
748
Twelfth Safety Congress
changed conditions in industry. My definition, in a single sentence, of the real function of a plant magazine is that "it is a contact medium be tween men and management."
A contact medium between those two factors in the equation, to be wholly acceptable must be mutually acceptable. By tbat I mean that if there is any attempt to make such^a contact medium a pure propaganda
sheet for management, if its main purpose is construed to sell the com pany to its men and not sell the men to the company and not to act in an educative manner true to its function as a contact medium, there should be no more hesitation in its discontinuance than there would be on the part of the management if such a sheet were suggested to be pub lished as purely the propaganda sheet of the workmen.
In order to be mutually acceptable, there must be mutual participation in its preparation. I would criticize and think it almost impossible to produce a publication acceptable to my definition if the real functions of a plant magazine which was not staffed by representatives of the rank and file. I don't mean by that any elected representative who is simply a brawny workman without any technical ability, but I do mean repre sentatives on the staff who have had experience as rank and file workmen, who know their viewpoint thoroughly, and not merely from the study of sociological and psychological treatises and purely academic research.
Going for just a moment from the discussion of the academic question
to a concrete example: A few years ago, we in the Harvester Company
were convinced that the expense of some $40,000 a year which would be
incurred in the publication of magazines in some 17 of our larger plants
was warranted. company.
An appropriation was granted by the officers of the
*j
..
SELECTING THE EDITOR
Our first step, of course, was to secure an editor-in-chief, and we had more than 70 applications. All of them were investigated. Our choice was finally based on technical fitness, experience and a demonstrated capacity as an editor.. But over and above that, we chose the editor-in chief of those magazines because of his personality. He was just the sort of a fellow who could work with local plant editors who were of the workmen type and who could be self-effacing and yet one wbo would exercise a certain control and educative influence; one who could let the other fellow think he was doing it all, that the success of his magazine was greater than any other plant magazine. It was this latter element that kept spurring them on.
Our next step then was to select an editor at each plant. That again was done through the works council. The editor chosen was a local plant man in every case. In one or two cases later we had to bring in some outside assistance, and in both of those cases, the man that we wanted ultimately for the position was not at first hired as the editor of the magazine, but served an apprenticeship out in th'e shop in a relatively minor capacity before being transferred to his editorial position.
Plant Publications Section
749
Then we came to the selection of titles for the magazines. We had
agreed in our works council deliberations that the magazines should be
standard in form and size, thus making possible an interchange of ma
terial Prize contests were conducted at each plant, the winner being
chosen by a committee of the works council, and cash prizes of five to
twenty-five dollars awarded.
_
This introduction of onr plant publication secured for us not only the
cooperation of everybody in the plant, all the forces in the plant, but their
active participation, their commitment to its success from the start. They
were jointly Interested in it.
We published some 1? publications for a period of two and a half years.
We suspended publication about a year ago as part of our retrenchment
program. It was absolutely necessary to save every dollar that we could. Our only customer is the' farmer and we all know of his troubles. When
the retrenchment word went forth, we went before the works council and
suggested that this $40,000 a year item was one we might well do without,
and. In the present condition of our business, we asked their consent to
a temporary suspension of publication, and unanimously that was agreed.
APPRECIATION OF EMPLOYEES
I do not recall ever having had a report, in answer to repeated inquiries made on the subject, of a magazine that was thrown away, of any indica tion of lack of appreciation on the part of the employees.
On the first distribution of the monthly magazine that was made we checked up very carefully. Reports not only from the stair but from other sources which might not be as well disposed toward a favorable report, indicated that not in one single instance was a magazine thrown away or the street littered up with discarded copies, as is so frequently the case when company propaganda sheets are distributed. There was, from the start, a well sustained interest which was manifested by re quests for additional copies and requests from employees who had left our service to be continued on the mailing list.
Frequently, our editor-in-chief would receive letters with money order or postage stamps enclosed so that the little plant -magazine might be sent on to a former employee at no expense to the company.
I think the editor-in-chief's success with our magazines was due not only to his personality and the way in which he engineered things so that they would always appear as a joint effort of the company and the em ployees, but also to the fact that his material, the material submitted by his local editors, aftejr being edited by him was readily readable. I mean by that it was not high brow stuff. Certainly the people in all ranks of life are interested in articles that touch on various refinements of civilization. I don't think that in order to talk shop talk we have to be ultra-slangy. I think too often that mistake is made.
don't overdo the slang
'yi
Recently, I was interested in checking up and meeting a man whose
articles I had read. They were all so slangy and contained so many swear words that I came to the conclusion that that chap was a fellow
750
Tivelfth Safety Congress
who would be the antithesis of what his writings indicated. The thing
was so overdone that it looked like a man trying to'borrow strength to
bolster himself up. When I met this fellow personally, my opinion was
exactly confirmed.
I just mention that to illustrate my point; that in order to talk shop
language, don't overdo the thing on the assumption that all shopmen
are slangy or vulgar. Articles on the highest of topics in the most re
fined language can be presented and yet be readable. They are not all
going to be interested in the Atlantic Monthly type of article, they are
not all going to be interested in more popular magazine staff, bat there
is a borderline which calls for jast as high literary effort a&d just as
fine a technique on the part of an editor as would be demonstrated is
producing an Atlantic Monthly or National Geographic compcettion. . In
conclusion. I simply want to submit that, after aU. the thtg is summed
up in just these words:--that the real function et a ytmt
cation
is that of a contact medium between men Shi management. Its real
function can best be served and can only propes4y be tiarrtud when, it is
edited and so produced as to constitase a paftM offsi l ec maa amd manage
ment. and when its material does not vary ggoatijr front the era* vertical
on propaganda either company wise er centra. ger?tpe.ny wtoa. an even
balance between the two, a frank affgrtssTon m swew fen articles when
company negligence baa been tawwa. or a fra** cmactsm c practices
on the part of employees that are feit t* he eet
t believe there
is no more important doty of the edteer of a pleat pobtlcaeoa than to
keep that pendulum as xrejtr the she elute wgtlwtl
be can. <*o that his
magazine will not become an organ tor any one ptayer.
DISOOSSIOX
Mr. Robinson (Kimberley-Clark) : X would like to ask Mr. Young what
be does in case any of the reporters from the plant leave or go stale on
the job.
Mr. Young: The plant magazine functions under the control of a com
mittee of each works council, the function of which you are all more or
less familiar. Our works council is a fifty-fifty council of elected repre
sentatives of the workmen and appointed representatives of the manage
ment, and on any constituent committee of the council, management and
employees are represented on a fifty-fifty basis.
`
The plant publications committee, or the publicity committee, which
also publishes the minutes of the council usually has been the committee
having control of the plant publication.
'.
The editor-in-chief was responsible for the technical ability of the edi
tors.. Any criticisms that he had to make were presented to this com
mittee, presented in a wholly impersonal way, that is, simply pointing out
the defects. The committee in every case was anxious, and helped to
correct the situation.
'
If we could find any one in the .plant, a time-keeper, perhaps, who got
over the plant pretty generally, who had a personality that would make
it easy for him to get contact with people in the shop, and who had
Plant Publications Section
751
enough literary style so that, under the editor-in-chiefs guidance and editorshp, his materia) would be acceptable, he was our first choice. We liked to get men who were Harvester men, or Harvester women to start with. On failure to do that, we went outside. In one case, we advertised and selected a man from the outside and then brought him into the shop. He was an inspector nearly a month before being made the editor. Satis fied with the man, we submitted him to the committee for approval.
Mr. R. G. McConnell (Defiance Paper Co.) r What means have yon of distributing the publication? Is it done by some fmUvfdnal in each de partment. or mailed, or how do you reach all of the people*
.Mr. Young: We did not mail them. The dSsfrthwFiwB
We bad
seventeen different plants with the gwb&caCfrHBi-. F*
they were dis
tributed to the men as they left fheSf #!*;
department's
magazines were sent to the eafcfiPepfe*
M ffts* department
and he made the dlstribotfat & wEherrk tft# tenge' euett see p> the depart
ment foremen or departiaeat ciwfcr *mG-
m snsTcr. asnally
just before quitting time. We
m Wse eewpne^w fc* W&tSt praewm-
production to distribute the
njWwtfF
*1kw er 95* hrf raffter
than early in the day.
coxnxrAxc* rh jawtf.'fiwir'fr w % tw w tet r
Mr. H. R. Zimmerman (gfathwaiaffl. Cash HtwngTn***'
t i ism- pefteewtariy
interested in the statement yea
that veW
yef pehtico-
tion because of business c*fr*3CS*n=. t Homo irowS *eew Sw*seWtSy where
editors claim that that is the very
ten
Ef sc lives
during times of adversity. Chen if * Pfwff paper
wffier wwrdfe. that
is the time that it is needed the ewe**. fs fteqp tMS &** iwwaili* Mtwwt ymir
employees, let them know hew ...mmiflW'iwqu. arse.
Mr. Young: We had gone ahum? Par pwuiithty # yaafin ** * manttfactnring
concern without plant publication* aa4 gotten tiett very satisfactorily.
Our works councils were really responsible for oar having works maga
zines, they came as a result of requests from the employees. We have
always distributed the minutes of onr plant council meetings to all em
ployees, and they are still maintained. These minutes were later ex
panded into plant publications.
.When we discontinued the magazines, it was not an arbitrary fiat of the management. It was put up to me to save that $40,000, along with a. good many other thousands of dollars that it was possible to save, not necessarily by discontinuing activities but by combining functions when ever possible.
Putting it up and discussing it in the way we did, we withdrew the
magazines in the most inoffensive way we knew and one least hazardous
to the success of the magazine upon their re-inauguration. I don't think
there is a feeling on the part of our employees that the magazines were
unnecessary. I know their discontinuance is a loss to them and that
they are missed, because we have numerous inquiries as to when we will
be willing to publish them again.
-
752 Twelfth, Safety Congress
The magazines did not fail to fulfill their purpose. They were with drawn simply because we had to save every dollar that we could, just as you and I would agree that it is cheaper to buy good clothes, yet if we went downtown with 20 dollars in our pocket and we saw a suit of clothes for 20 dollars and another 75 dollar suit marked down to 35, we would necessarily take the cheap one.
Sydney W. Ashe (General Electric Co., Pittsfield, Mass.): In the carry ing on of these seventeen papers, did you try to develop the competitive spirit between the works?
TUB COMPETITIVE SPIRIT
'
Mr. Young: "We had a sort of unwritten rule that never would more
than 30 per cent of the magazine be taken up with boiler plate material.
We are a greatly diversified industry. We have our own timber proper
ties, iron ore and coal mines, steam boats, railroads, blast furnaces and
steel mills, and all sorts of things. Our method of selling the company
to the extent which we did was to try to make the employees feel a part
of a great, diversified family, and that constituted most of our boiler plant material, other than the announcement of changing personnel in the management. We had an unwritten law that never would any local
magazine carry more than 30 per cent, and I don't think it ever ap
proached 30 per cent.
-
The competitive spirit was not a direct competition, but just a con
stant striving of each magazine to outdo the other in its worthwhileness.
In' the preparation of my talk here, I went back over the files of those mag azines, not having seen them for quite a while. I was really astonished at what I think was the literary worthwhileness of them and of their value to us as historical documents now. The competitive spirit is very evi
dent. Each number seemed better than the preceding one. When a new
development came in any one magazine, that was good, it quickly spread to the other magazines.
Mr. James (Chesapeake & Ohio) : Just how much space did you devote
to safety in those publications?
.
; Mr. Young: Well, you see they carried Works Council minutes. The "Works Councils all have safety committees, and in the minutes of the
Works Council meetings there was usually a volume of safety items.
Aside from that, if there were careless practices to be preached againstor criticized, we held it up until a time when we could legitimately criti cize the management as well as the employees. We came out frankly-- in criticisms of accidents where negligence of the foreman or the com pany was responsible.
I don't think that the total, considering that portion of the Works Council minutes and other safety propaganda, aside from illustrations or cartoons or photographs, would be over 10 per cent of the written part of the magazine. We guarded against having magazines denoted exclu sively to safety.
Plant Publications Section
' 753
A PROPERLY BALANCED ANT) WELL-EDITED PUBLICA
TION A NECESSITY IN SELLING SAFETY
L- G. Bentley, General Safety Agent, Chesapeake akd Ohio Railroad, Richmond, Va.
It may seem1 inappropriate, yet I must take issue with the subject of
my paper in one respect. To state that a thing is a necessity, is to assume that desired ends can not be attached through any other medium, and I' know of many industries wherein safety is being successfully sold without the aid of the plant publication.
If I may be permitted to slightly alter the subject, I will agree and
ardently support the plea that "a properly balanced and well edited pub
lication is a valuable asset in selling safety."
'
I am not asked to report as to what constitutes either a "properly balanced" or "well edited" plant publication and it is well that I am not expected to do so, for my efforts would result in a veritable "bringing
of coals to- to Newcastle" and dead coals at that. I am certain that this most important of subjects has been carefully treated by those of peculiar ability and training, who can say the last word concerning editorial
efficiency', and perfect poise of plant publications.
.:
Let us assume that all plant publications; employees magazines; etc.,
are properly balanced and well-edited, and consider the means and
methods whereby they may serve best as selling agencies for safety, not only to the employee personnel, but first to the industrial management
which, it is agreed, is the prime essential.
_
May I briefly relate my own experience in developing a railroad em
ployees magazine?
.
Some ten years ago, the Railroad with which I am connected, organized
its first safety committee; I was appointed secretary and it became my
duty to give suitable publicity to the various items sent iii by the em ployees which, in their opinion, merited the attention of the general
safety committee.
'
This publicity was accomplished by means of a safety bulletin of four'
pages, not mimeographed, but printed and freely distributed. The items
printed in this bulletin were the safety suggestions above mentioned,
with the names of the authors and such comment as was appropriate to show the final action taken thereon. Naturally some- of these suggestions were so important as to require elaboration and eventually illustration, so
that, in a few months our safety bulletin was increased to sixteen pages
and each issue carried an illustration and full description of some hazard
particularly productive of injuries together with advice as to accident
prevention.
_
Within a short time, as our employees came to read and discuss these bulletins they developed personal interest and began to send in similar
matter with request that It he printed in the "bulletin," We ..usually
printed these contributions with minor changes, but sometimes, finding the material submitted particularly crude, possibly controversial in nature,
we re-wrote it, staging photographs illustrating some specially valuable
754 Tirrlfth Sofety Covgrcss
idea and submitted the re-written article with photographs to the author for his approval. The fact that we went to the trouble to secure illus trations to go with his paper usually overcame any tendency he might have had to be "thin skinned" because of the surgical operation per formed.
ARTICLES MUST APPEAL TO THE MEN
In the course of time, these contributions and comments became so numerous and educational that to properly introduce them, we were com pelled to use a distinctive cover for each issue, and, when this was done, the employees insisted on sending in matter on subjects other than safety,' so that as a result, we soon had an "employees magazine" of *88 pages,
and treated in addition to safety, fire prevention, freight loss and damage, esprit de corps, home building and housekeeping, children's stories, etc., but safety was the dominating feature because the magazine was edited by a safety man, and was therefore undoubtedly a bit unbalanced.
In the course of time, because of the continued growth of the magazine and our greater responsibilities in acci&ent prevention work, we decided to put the magazine in charge of a trained newspaper man, with such assistance as he might need to produce just what it is agreed a plant publication must be, properly balanced and well-edited.
We maintain a safety department in this magazine, edited much along the same lines as heretofore, but other departments are receiving the same advantages of publicity as the safety department; we feel in fact that it is a case of not loving Caesar less, but Rome more.
Every department head should feel the importance of his own par
ticular work and sphere--they sometimes do, to the unfortunate extent
that departmental enthusiasm encroaches upon co-operation; I hope I have not taken this attitude as to the importance of accident provention, but, feeling that aside from the strictly humanitarian aspect of the thing,
loyalty, esprit de corps, production, expansion and dividends are indeed
largely dependent upon safety, I assert that accident prevention should
be given representative space and dignified position in the plant pub
lication.
'
Whether this representation and dignity may be best attained by em bracing all safety matter within a regular safety department, or scatter ing it throughout the magazine, is for the editor to decide, I don't think it much matters, but I am certain that safety can not be sold to the rank and file through a plant publication by simply alloting a page or two each month to the safety department and printing in this space a safety lecture for the general safety officer, a monthly statistical report or an article clipped from another periodical.
I do not believe that a plant publication should be relied upon entirely, as a selling agency for safety through publicity. It is often necessary to produce such an article or bulletin on short notice, and the plant publication issued but once in thirty days, and sometimes less frequently, brings such items to the rank and file as dead issues. The plant publica-
Plant Publications Secti-on '
755
tion should be supplemented by specialized safety bulletins, pamphlets,
flashes, etc., from time to time, so adapted as to meet the peculiar needs
of the occasion and strike while the iron is hot.
An occasional communication, frank, ringing with sincerity, covering
some live issue of the day, signed by the president, should be displayed
in the plant publication in such manner that both the official and employee
personnel may know that safety is not subordinate to any other feature
of operation.
.
AROUSE INTEREST BY EMPLOYEES' CONTRIBUTION'S
Safety matter should not consist of too many sermons; preachments of this kind do not sink deeply into the minds of the workmen. Editorial comment, instructions from headquarters and such matter should be written in the language of the men presumed to assimilate them. These are days of stern reality, therefore let us write to these men, not from dreamland, but from the other side of his machine, desk or locomotive. The men who work may not be the highest exemplars of the fine arts, or students of classic literature, but there is an art about their work with which they are entirely familiar and the editor might, to his own advan tage, take a few days off and study his subjects amid the whir of the flying machines jor the deafening roar of air hammers and anvils. The ideas in the beads of these workmen are nuggets of true color which ought to be polished and refined for broadcasting throughout the plant.
The prize purpose of the plant publication is to get the workmen to look forward to the day of its appearance, to make it of such moment to them that they will discuss it with others and induce them to become
interested, to carry it home with pride and place it with the evening paper on the center table for the family to read. If this is the true purpose and function of the plant publication, why not encourage work men to send in their golden nuggets of thought? There are several extremely valuable angles to the scheme of printing material from the pens of the rank and file.
An employee, to prepare such a paper, must think, study, originate ideas and strive to excel, thereby broadening his perspective, cultivating the spirit of advancement; if the editorial staff finds it necessary to polish it up a bit, so much the better. I have found but one man who objected to this, and his objections were soon quieted; I am strong for illustration; an ingenius staff artist or photographer, can find some thought in every one of these contributions which will be strengthened by judicious illustrations. If the illustrations are posed photographs, an impression is made on those who are photographed, for the purpose of the picture should be thoroughly made clear to them; bystanders catch the significance of the pose, and together with the principals in the pic
ture, look forward to the issue carrying this matter, and so, not only
is Interest excited because of the immediate performance/ but real incentive
Is offered all concerned, even friends and acquaintancs, to credit the
magazine with its true character and recognize it with pride as "their
magazine."
'
756 Twelfth. Safety Congress
I know of no more fitting illustration of the principle I am trying- to describe, than to ask you to go with me In memory to and old fashioned experience meeting such as you have all attended, without doubt. You will remember that it was not alone, nor in major part the carefully chosen, correctly spoken words of the preacher, that brought the sinners to the mourners bench--it was his ability to get old Bill Jones on his feet way down in one comer of the meeting house, or Aunt Suisie Stokes to arise in her seat and relate the particular influence which brought them into the fold of the redeemed--the few sincere, outspoken simple words from these honest hearts became the emotional symphony which caused your pulse beats to become more rapid, your heart to respond to the highest spiritual ideals and your mind to register a resolve that true happiness lies only for those who live Godly lives.' Oh! for the return of the good old fashioned "experience meeting," before we became so depend ent upon paid specialists to do our moral thinking.
SPEAK TO WOBK3CEK HT THEIS EANGTTAQE
Liken your safety department to the experience meeting and you will find your columns filled with live, instructive, intelligent matter, devel oped through personal research of the men on the firing line.
The opportunity of the editor lies in the editorial column, where dis cussion of such contributions as those I have referred to renders them but the more valuable. Take this matter home and answer this--what one of you is there who does not feel pride to find some child of your brain quoted and commended in the editorial columns of your most im portant home newspaper.
I am a great believer in the strength of a striking illustration, par ticularly an educational Illustration on the cover of the plant publication.
These illustrations ought to be changed each issue and so adapted that each department may in turn be represented. As an occasional safety cover, nothing, in my opinion, can sell safety to better advantage than
such a drawing as that reproduced on the National Safety News, recent
issue entitled "Please give me a new handle Bill.". These drawings and photographs may not be as artistic as a setting sun, a field of waving grain, a rangs of snow-capped peaks or broad view of peaceful waters, but they have the kick that appeals to the man who is using tools and suggest to him the danger of working with hammers and sledges with broken handles, and that is the man to whom you want to sell the safety idea, not the prospective passenger who may, by reason of some par ticularly attractive scenic portrayal, be induced to ride your railroad or visit your plant as a possible purchaser.
The publicity is not entirely deaf as regards the appeal of such material as X advocate publishing in plant publications as selling agencies for safety, nor is the press callous to Industry's efforts to provide employees with safe conditions and educate them in safe practices, and I am sure it is sensible publicity such as this, that is gradually denting the hardshells who have moaned so loudly of the heartlessness of corporations;
Plant Publications Section
757
they are beginning to see that industry is more thoughtful of workmen and public carriers more painstaking in protecting patrons, than such patrons are in taking care of themselves.
The plant publication in safety, as well as in many other ways, occupies a most important position, and has the golden opportunity of bringing employer and employee more closely together, of letting them see each other as human beings, of acquainting each with the others problems, of inspiring admiration for each others commendable accomplishments and sympathy for their honest failures.
DISCUSSION
Mr. Orr (National Malleable Castings Co.): Some time ago, the National Safety Council furnished a cartoon service which was used in a number of papers, and I used it-in ours. They were cartoons pure and simple. I wonder what the opinion here is of those cartoons.
Mr. Bentley: I am not very strong for cartooning safety ideas. I
think safety is a very serious subject and should be handled in a serious
manner and not be made a matter for a joke.
-
R. F. Thalner (Buick Motor Co.): We had the same experience at our plant with respect to the cartoon calendar which was published by the National Safety Council. A few of our plant managers thought that this proposition had 'gone beyond the stage of comedy and was a serious proposition. -
J. Ride la Torre Bueno (General Chemical Company) : I think that as a general principle, we may properly feel that if safety is such a poor subject that a joke will kill it, it might as well die here and now.
Mr. Ashe: We have been publishing our little paper for about 10 years
. now, and In the early stages, when we were trying to introduce safety,
we introduced one or two cartoons. After a little while, I felt the same
as he did about it. I think that you can arouse somewhat of a little
different reaction by using a poem occasionally. I think you can 'get
better results than you would from a cartoon.
*
I also like a single picture cover. We don't usually go in for quite
such ornate covers as the one I have In my hand, but this happened to
be a convention number and was very attractive.
Mr. A. B. Drummond (Wilson & Company): It seems to me that the cartoon is properly used on something which represents an elementary idea in safety, something that everybody ought to know. If something obvious Is brought out cleverly, we make a very good point In holding the thing up to ridicule in order to prove the seriousness of the matter.
Mr. Strickrott (Adirondack Power & Light Co.): It seems to me there
is some merit to the question of cartoons in safety. When you speak about the seriousness of the subject, it seems to me that there is prob ably nothing more serious than the subject of matrimony, and that prob ably has been cartooned more than any subject. Yet I think any .married man sees a great deal of humor in many of those cartoons.
758 Twelfth Safety Congress
When it comes to the question of putting the safety idea, across, what . you are trying to do is to make an impression on the man's mind, and
any way you can do that I think is good form. Some men yon can reach with a written article and they will read it; other men will read a poem; still others will look at a picture that is particularly designed to convey a safety message and they will get something from that. Others will get something from a cartoon. I think there is a limited field for cartoons in safety.
Mr. W. D. Price (Warner Gear Company, Muncie, Ind.) : I would like to know just what advantage there is financially, in a plant publication ' in a plant employing about a thousand people?
THE ECONOMIC ASPECT OB' A PLANT PCUL1 CATION
Mr. Close (Commonwealth Steel Co.) : I don't think I can answer the
question exactly, but I might help'a bit by saying a word about our
publication. The Commonwealther. It started purely as a safety paper
for distribution among our men in the plant, and now we publish two papers, one which is mailed out, and one we call the "home edition" which we limit entirely to the plant.
Our clientele is entirely among locomotive builders and railroad men.
When we send out our regular magazine number of The Commonwealther,
in addition to distributing it among our men, we also distribute it among perhaps thirty-five hundred railroad men, and we do it from this point of view that we try to make our magazine a medium of tying up the rela tionships of our company in different directions, not only relationships
between the men in the plant and the management but also the relation
of the management to our customers.
'
We try to cover a rather wide field, but we do it in this way--by pre senting in our paper the spirit of our organization, by trying to show railroad men that we have su.ch a spirit in our organization, that we
practice fellowship, that we run our plant on a golden rule basis, in
such a way that the railroad people, when they want to buy stuff, will
feel sure they are going to get what they want if they go to the Common
wealth. We find that our railroad friends are interested in the home
talk of the company, they are interested in knowing what we are doing
there in^the way of safety.
.
Our president always sends a letter out with our paper, and we get
replies. Sometimes we get a hundred or more letters from men express
ing appreciation of it. Our president and our management feel that onr plant publication more than pays for itself in indirectly influencing rail road men, locomotive and'car builders, favorably toward our organiza tion and toward our product, and that it creates a confidence in us
which makes our company willing to spend considerable money in get
ting out the publication.
air. Bueno: That question has been on my mind for ten years, and thus far -the only thing that approximates an answer is this: Can you trace any decrease in labor turnover to the efforts of your publication? If you can do that in any way, you have a yardstick. It seems to me
Plant Publications Section
-759
that if through your magazine you can give strong life to esprit de corps and loyalty, you will reduce labor turnover materially, and that is about the only gauge that will show anything.
Of course, it seems to me that if we can get our publications into the homes of those to whom they are ostensibly addressed, we are certainly doing very much toward increasing loyalty to the organization, and that, of course, reflects itself in a decreased labor turnover.
Mr. Ashe: I think that you can do a great deal in the matter of costs by comparing the expenditure of your paper with what you are doing on other things. As an illustration, take large industries that are carry ing on educational schemes, group insurance plans, and things of that sort. You would probably find as a rough estimate, comparing with our own experience at Pittsfield, that you are spending probably about $9 a year per employee on your group insurance. Then you are probably spending about $6 a year on your accident compensation per employee. You are probably spending about $2 a year per employee on yotfr educa tional work. Yon are probably spending about $1 a year per employee on your plant paper. A good, many of these papers, as well as our own. originally started on a pure safety basis. You could try to work out, on that basis, that you were going to cut your accident expense, and if you were introducing your paper at a time when you were doing very little in other educational, lines to reduce accidents, so there would be the newness of it there, you would find it very effective. You would be fairly safe in claiming that you could cut your accidents 20 per cent that week. I think it is good to get it down to a comparative basis.
You can say, "Here, all I am spending is ?1 per employee per year, which is about what it costs us to put out our paper. That Is a nominal amount compared to what you are willing to spend on other things.
SOME PROVED METHODS OP PRESENTING SAFETY AND HEALTH THROUGH PLANT PAPERS
E. T. Wilkins, Editor, Schenectady Works News, General Electric Company Schenectady, N. Y.
Several hundred editors of employees' magazines were recently asked
why their publications existed. Two hundred thirty-nine said, "to better
the esprit de corps;" 167--"to explain the policy of the house;" 165--"to
encourage pride in work;" 139--"to prevent accidents;'' 98 said "to in
crease production." Many other reasons had one or more followers,
while a few editors confessed frankly that they did not know why they
were publishing an employees' magazine.
-
Have you ever stopped to ask yourself this same question? In other
words, what are you trying to accomplish by publishing your employees'
magazine or plant paper?
Unless an editor endeavors to carry out the true functions or the funda
mental principles underlying an employees' magazine, he will surely meet
with failure. Many employees' magazines have expired after a short dura
tion through immature consideration of their need for existence or In
adequate attention after commencement.
-
760
Twelfth Safety Congress
On July 1, the New York State Industrial Commissioner, Bernard E. Shientag issued a report in which he stated, that during a nine year period, the Industrial accidents in this state totaled more than 2,500,000, an average of about 300,000 a year. The total number of reported deaths from industrial accidents during the entire period is about 12,480, an average of 1,300 a year. Claims for compensation during the entire period totaled about 300,000, an average of about 35,000 a year. In recent years, however, because of wider application of the law, claims have averaged about 60,000 annually. The. discrepancy between, the total number of accidents reported to the state department of labor and the total number of claims for compensation, the review explains, is largely due to the fact that all accidents do not come in the compensation class, no compensation, beyond medical treatment, being allowed in cases where the disability is less than fourteen days.
COMPENSATION FIGURES
Compensation payments have averaged about $13,000,000 a year over the nine year period, each successive 'year showing an increase, with the highest total payments reached during the war years of 1917 and 1918 when the industries of the state were going night and day. For the past two years, compensation payments have been at the rate of about $15,000,000 a year. The report lays emphasis on the fact that the $125,000,000 compensations were paid out to claimants with very little reduction for lawyer's fees because only in rare instances are lawyers retained in workmen's compensation cases.
These are startling figures to he reported by simply one state In the union. How many industrial accidents has your state reported? It rests heavily on the shoulders of every editor here to try to reduce the total number of industrial accidents not only in his own plant but in his own particular state through his plant paper or employees' magazine. If each editor, through the influence of his paper, can save the life of one em ployee he will have been amply repaid for issuing h'is magazine.
Here is a challenge flung by "carelessness" to every editor -within my hearing today:
I am more powerful than the combined armies of the world.
I have destroyed more men than all wars of the nation. I am more deadly than bullets. I have wrecked more homes than the mightiest machine guns. I steal in the United States alone over $300,000,000 each year.
I spare no one. I find my victims among the rich and poor alike, the strong and weak, widows and orphans know me.
I loom up in such proportions, that I cast my shadow over every field of labor from the turning of the grindstone to the moving of every railroad train.
I massacre thousands upon thousands of wage earners within a year.
Plant Publications Section
761
I lurk In unseen places. I do most of my work silently. You are warned against me but you heed not. I am relentless. I am every where--in the home, on the street. In the factory, at railroad crossings
and on the sea. I bring-sickness, degradation and death, yet, few seek to avoid me. I destroy, crush or maim; I give nothing but take all. I am Carelessness.
Can you as an editor, sit at your desk and let this challenge go un heeded?
Can you as an editor issue an - employees' magazine oblivious to the obligations of your paper to help stop this human waste in industry?
My mission here today is to submit for your consideration 21 proved methods of presenting safety and health through plant papers. How many have you tried? If I can suggest one or two methods which you have
never used but will try in your plant paper, I will feel that I have been amply repaid for preparing this paper.
Competitive Campaign. Start a competitive safety campaign between de partments. Have the manager issue a letter through the plant paper to all employees, explaining the purpose and rules of the campaign. To stimu late interest In such a campaign and to award sections, or departments having the lowest percentage of accidents each month, offer cash prizes. One concern made the following offer: To the factory section having the lowest percentage of time lost due to accidents during the month, will be awarded $15, to be applied to the Mutual Benefit Association. The Mutual Benefit Association referred to is a sick and death benefit fund organized for the benefit of the employees of which there are 100 sections In this particular factory.
Safett Puzzle Pictubes. Run a series of safety puzzle pictures. These puzzle pictures are made from blueprints, reproduced from photographs taken of some hazard in the plant. The artist makes a pen and ink rendering of this blueprint and a line cut is made from the drawing. The puzzle is made by allowing the artist to make ten errors in the drawing. This is done by eliminating a foot, a hand, a vise handle, an eye, putting in a false shadow, etc. The employee who sends In the correct solution of each safety puzzle receives a- cash prize, which amount may be deter mined by the editor.
Awards For Suggestions. Offer rewards for safety suggestions. Many
practical safety suggestions are made through the suggestion system. A.
photograph of the individual making the suggestion can be played up
in the employees' magazine together with a write-up of the safety device
which he has suggested. The amount of the award made to him should
be liberal to encourage more employees to make similar suggestions.
Those desiring to investigate further into the safety suggestion system,
will do well to secure a copy of "Safety Practices Bulletin Ho. 40" Issued
by the National Safety Council.
*
Educational Articles. Publish Safety articles pertaining to the eye, hand, foot and body. For instance, the eye; show by diagram how this
762 Twelfth Safety Congress
delicate organ is constructed, explain its care, how it should be guarded by goggles when chipping or grinding material, etc. Another article can be prepared on the manufacture of artificial eyes, and a safety motto can be added. The band, foot and body can be interestingly treated in the same manner. The cause of hernia or rupture can be explained with safety suggestions.
Essay Contest. Arrange for a Safety Essay contest. An essay contest
which proved very valuable to one concern was entitled "How to Avoid
Shop Accidents." Three prizes were offered for the best essays submitted.
Pictures of the winners as well as the text of the winning essays appeared
in the Employees' Magazine. In this' connection, it may be of interest
for you to know that on Sept. 15, the Highway Education Board, Washing
ton, D. C., announced the renewal of its annual safety contest in which
$6,500 will be given away in prizes. This is the third annual safety
campaign and takes the form of two contests, one among elementary
school pupils and another among elementary school teachers. Approxi
mately 500 state and national prizes are to be given for the best essays
and lessons written. The subject of the essay which children are in
vited to write is "Highway Safety Habits I Should Learn." The contest
opens with the beginning of school and closes December 4, 1923. In .the
two previous years, approximately 400,000 pupils and 50,000 teachers have
participated each autumn.
*
It is believed by board officials that the cumulative effect of these con tests and the increasing attention given to safety education will result in even a greater number of participants this year.
Company Rui.es. Publish company rules regarding Safety in the plant. This should be done at least once a year in order to give the employees and idea that the company is back of the Safety First movement. You may say, "we publish this in booklet form and give it to our employees." but it should be reprinted in the employees' magazine. '
Injury Pictures. Publish photographs of employees showing how they escaped from being hurt or injured. This causes considerable interest among the readers of your paper and besides photographs help to break up the solid type matter. In no case publish gruesome pictures of acci dents in your paper.
Safety News Stories. Prepare news items about safety conditions in the plant. One magazine published a story showing that it was more dangerous to go fishing than to work in the electrical plant.
Character Figure Editorials. Introduce a little character figure or
gnome to talk to the employees each month. This was a feature used in
the "Solvay Life" and introduced what was termed "Safety Annie." Another employees' paper is running a Genie figure which has something
to say to the employees in each issue on safety and other subjects.
.
Cartoons. Use cartoons. There is a right and a wrong way for doing everything. Cartoons can be drawn showing these two ways. The Nation al Safety Council has prepared some very good cartoons that are available to all editors upon request.
Plant Publications Section
763
Editorials. Editorials may be prepared impressing upon the employees the idea of the Safety First movement and the prevention of accidents. These editorials can be based on conditions in the plant, in the city, in the street car or in the nation. An editorial written on the first Safety Regulations may be of interest. Turn to your Bible, in the book of Deu teronomy, twenty-second Chapter, eighth verse.
"When thou buildest a new house, then thou shalt make a battlement
for thy roof, that thou bring not blood upon thine house, if any man
fall from thence."
.
King Solomon, of Israel, gave the following wisdom which is found in the third chapter Proverbs, Verses 21 and 23:
"Keep sound wisdom and discretion--Then shalt thou walk in thy way safely and thy foot shall not stumble."
That safety was acutely practiced in ancient times and that penalties for non-compliance with safety laws were carried out, is shown'by the following extract from laws of King Hammurabi of Babylon, who died in the year 2185 B. C.
"If a builder build a house for a man and do not make its construction firm, that builder shall be put to death."
That is the oldest safety law known which has a definite penalty for
its violation.
.
The great sage and moralist Confucious, who died in 478 B. C., gave
the following bit of safety advice:
"The cautious seldom err."
Safety admonitions may be found also, in the writings of William
Shakespeare, Victor Hugo, Benjamin Franklin, Abraham Lincoln and
many others.
~
Have cuts made from the yearly Safety Calendar illustrations pre
pared by the National Safety Council. Run these cuts in your employees'
magazine.
Recognition of Safety Accomplishments. Recognize the individual
who has prevented an accident by publishing his picture. write-up of the way the hero saved a life.
Give a good
Slogans. Run Safety Slogans -between articles in your employees'
magazine or at the top or bottom of the pages. To secure the interest
of employees, slogan prizes can be offered for the best safety slogans
submitted in the contest. National Safety Council.
Safety slogans may also be secured from the _
Explanatory* Articles. Explain the hospital facilities in your plant and what your visiting nurse is doing, if your concern employs such a person.
It would be well to have some photographs taken of your hospital to
illustrate the article. Keep in close touch with your industrial physician and he will give you many ideas for articles to he written about emergency hospital work.
Health Articles. Publish health articles. Have your industrial physi cian prepare these articles or secure them from your state Health Bureau.
764
Twelfth Safety Congress
Every Friday night the New York State Health Bureau broadcasts health
talks from W. G. Y. These talks are timely and valuable for publishing in an employees' magazine. If you will write to the bureau, they will be glad to place your name on the mailing list and to receive these articles as
soon as they have been broadcast.
.
Pertaining to the Home. Publish safety and health articles pertaining to the home. As every editor is anxious to have his paper taken home here is another point of contact. These articles could also be based on safety while walking in the streets or driving automobiles.
Graphic Charts. Use graphic charts to promote the safety idea. These charts may be targets,' diagrams or' score boards showing comparisons
between departments in the number of lost time accident cases. The
following article recently appeared in one of the employees' magazines
entitled "What Happened to 'Bill' Bast Year" and -was illustrated with
an outlined chart of Bill.
.
Committee Reports. Reports of Safety and Health Committees within and without the plant make good safety and health news. Recently we had experts from the Harvard School of Public Health make us a visit with the idea of determining the health conditions surrounding the workers in our plant and of suggesting ways and means of improving conditions. This report made interesting reading for the employees.
Use op Poetry. A story of safety may be told in verse. Here is a verse which is one ofmany which I have used. It is entitled "It Makes You
Pay."
"Do you .ever stop and wonder As along through life you blunder. Taking useless chances every day, How it is that you're still working. While your safety you're shirking? Carelessness is sure to make you pay.
Stop a minute now and ponder,
.
Life you can't afford to squander.
Taking useless chances every day.
Watch yourself and fellow toilers,
Those that don't care are all life's spoilers.
Carelessness is sure to make you pay."
Sx'eciax. Columns. Introduce a "Don't Let it Happen Again" column. In this column may be given an informal account of typical accidents in the shops over a certain period that could have been avoided and giving warning to other employees not to have the same accidents occur to them.
I have reviewed with you briefly 21 proved methods of presenting safety and health through plant papers.
You may now ask, "how can I use the 21 methods in my paper to best
advantage?"
'
Plant Publications Section .
765
To this question I would make the following reply. Try out the various methods in the order as given above or combine two or three methods in one issue, but no more. An editorial, a cartoon and an announcement of winners of safety suggestions make a good combination. An editor should use his sense of proportion in the makeup of his plant paper, the same as a good cook uses the correct proportions in seasoning food.
Too much talk in one issue will be boresome and will not accomplish the results desired.
Do not centralize your safety material on one page. Personally I do not approve of having a certain section of your plant paper devoted to safety material- The best way to handle it, is to scatter the material well through the paper.
Have every issue of your publication carry some method of promoting .
the safety habit for it is the constant hitting the nail on the head that
Is going to drive the safety educational work home to the employees.
At this point, let me throw in a suggestion. Every editor to get the
right angle of safety, should be a member of the safety committee in his
own plant.
The Safety and Health movement deserves the unqualified cooperation
of every editor here. Not the kind of cooperation described by Rastus
when he defined the word "cooperation" by saying that Mrs. Rastus took
in washing to support the family while he "jes cooperated," but the kind
of cooperation that means rolling up the sleeves and getting right into the
work by observing every opportunity to tell and show others through the
employees* magazine how to .acquire and practice the safety habit.
.
DISCUSSION
'
Mr. Spencer Hord (Eastman Kodak Co.): I would like to offer one little plan that worked out fairly well with us as regards the safety campaign. "We inaugurated an essay contest for the children of em ployees. We offered prizes of fifteen, ten and five dollars. For prizes below that, we utilized a safety game. It was very similar to the game of parchesi. As a matter of fact, everybody didn't get a cash prize, but everybody who sent in an essay got one of those games. That was about three years ago, and I understand every one of those kids is still playing that game.
Mr. Strickrott: I think one of the best classes of material you can get is the story of the man who was injured by himself. We were able to do that this spring, and we gave the article the title, "The story of a man who was pronounced dead." This man, through his own foolish ness, was electrocuted. The doctor was called into the plant, and when he arrived there, he pronounced the man dead. The men then got busy with the prone pressure method of resuscitation and brought the man back to life, and after some three or four months, he again went back to work and Is still working with us.
I asked him to write the story of what happened, and he said,. "Well, all I can say is that I was a fool doing what I did." X said, "Then say
766
Twelfth Safely Congress
that." In his own words, he did tell his story of how the thing came
about, what he did, the sensation of getting this shock, as far as he
knew it,` and the story of his recovery.
Mr. Ashe: I would like to say a word to supplement the last two
speakers. While I have given a large number of prone pressure resus
citation demonstrations during the past ten years, and while we have
resuscitated about eleven people at Pittsfield, it was only last spring
that I had the privilege of bringing a man to myself. I worked on that
man about three-quarters of an hour. He was overcome with gas. It
was a very interesting experience. Afterwards, we posed the man with
a nurse and myself, and we used the photograph in our paper as well as
a description of the talk.
k
The important thing, as the last speaker said, is the combination of . the news value and the illustration, plus the personal feature. You can put it in in that way as a news article, and there are any number of companies who have had similar experiences.
When you can get hold of material of that type, it certainly has a factor of interest, and many people will come around and want to get further instruction. That is really the test of your material, the reaction you get from it.
Mr. G. H. Shaw (The Northern Ohio Traction & Light Co.): One of our interurban conductors went to a telephone and the wires were mixed up at high tension, and this conductor was apparently electrocuted. There was considerable confusion. No one .knew just what to do. But on a passing car there arrived at about that time another employee, who had taken some interest in prone pressure resuscitation. He ran over and after working about 15 minutes, brought this conductor around in fine shape.
We hold trainmen's meetings every month. All the trainmen are there. Immediately following this experience, we had our meetings, and I gave those men a thorough demonstration and explanation of the prone pres sure resuscitation method. I had this conductor attend the meetings. I followed that up in our magazine with a brief description of the accident, pictures showing the rescuer, his home, and all the little incidentals. It was one of the most effective things that I have ever used.
Miss Margaret Stevens (Baltimore & Ohio Railroad): If we can get
our safety message across in the home that we will be doing a whole
lot. Thus far we haven't been able to do very much in getting the safety
message across to the homes through the women's department because
I think we have not emphasized it enough, but I really do think that It
is very important.
We used a children's contest in our magazine last year, and we asked each child to make a list of all the things he did for safety each day for 30 days, and this had to be signed either by a parent or by a teacher to certify that it was all right. Then we gave prizes to the children who had done the most for safety.
jPlcmt Publications Section
767
OFFERS FRIZES TO SCHOOL CHILDREN Mr. Close: Our company has offered prizes for all of the schools in Granite City, 111., where our plant is located, for the best essays on safety. We are offering a cup for each of the schools. The child who writes the best essay has the privilege of having his name engraved and inscribed on the cup, and then it goes on from year to year. We are planning to make a .feature in our paper of the best essays which are written by the school children, if they are good enough.
FRIDAY AFTERNOON SESSION
Chairman Augustus: We have with us, and we feel very highly hon
ored to have him, Mr. DeBIois, who is the new president of the National
Safety Council.
Mr. DeBIois: I believe we will take away from this Congress tre
mendous inspiration to do better and more consistent work than we have
ever done before. I am not a plant publication man, and I am not at
all familiar with your individual problems, but I know there is much
that can be done in your section to keep up interest during the year,
much that you, individually, can contribute to the National Safety
Council, and much that you can draw from it to help you in your own
problems.
.
An organization such as this gets its headway ionly from sheer weight,
l think we are all very happy over the success that we have had hereto
fore, the progress that we have made in accident prevention, but we
never could have attained. Individually, the distance that we have gone
over. It was a mass reaction that has brought us to this point.
REPORT OF COMMITTEE,ON BY-LAWS
J. R. Bueno. Chairman
'
In the first place, any by-laws we adopt are subject to the approval
of the council. One of the things that has to be considered in the by-laws
is the name of the section. It is called the Plant Publications Section
at present, but that seems to be rather limited in scope.
The second thing is the object, which, of course, we all know.
The next question is'the officers. The usual sectional officers are a
chairman, vice-chairman and a secretary. There are three standing
committees. One is an executive committee composed of the chairman,
vice-chairman and the secretary and two members at large, who are
elected by ballot at the annual meeting.
The other two standing committees are a nominating committee and
a program committee; the nominating committee to consist of three and
to consider possible candidates for officers and report at the annual
meeting. This committee, in the view of your committee on by-laws,
should be an elected committee.
.
The other committee is the program committee. This year, our vice chairman and chairman have worked hard- to get up this program, with entire good will on the part of all of us, hut I don't know hcfr much
768
Twelfth Safety Congress
substantial aid and comfort we gave them aside from that. This pro
gram committee has got to work throughout the year preparing the pro
gram and doing the work, and of course it is then submitted to the
executive committee. The executive committee manages all the affairs
of the section during the year.
,
We beg to submit that as a form of report to be adopted at this meet
ing, subject, of course, to being reduced to writing at an early period
and subject also to the approval of the National Safety Council officers.
(Report approved.)
REPORT OF NOMINATING COMMITTEE
E. T. Wilkins, Chairman
The committee nominated for Chairman Sydney W. Ashe, editor of the
Current News, General Electrical Company, Pittsfield, Mass.; for vice
chairman, Miss Margaret Stevens, associate editor of the Baltimore & Ohio Magazine, Baltimore, Md.; for secretary, A. J. Strickrott, editor of
the Synchronizer, Adirondack Power & Light Co., Schenectady, N. Y.
The candidates named by the nominating committee were unanimously
elected. Ernest Augustus, Mead Pulp & Paper Company, Chillicothe,
Ohio, and H. R. Zimmerman, National Cash Register Company, Dayton, Ohio, were elected executive committeemen at large.
SIMPLE ECONOMICS FOR EMPLOYEES
Or. P. Li. Rector, Nationai. Industrial Conference Board, New York City
I am firmly convinced that employers need educating on economics as
much as employees, and sometimes it seems almost to a greater extent.
The National Industrial Conference Board, with which you are all
doubtless familiar, has made a great many studies on economic ques
tions and has reduced those studies, as far as may be possible, to statis
tical form, and from there into the form of charts and other methods of
expressing those results.
I was told by the man who had this work in charge in our organiza
tion that about a year ago he sent but four or five hundred letters to
you people and others like you, offering the services of these charts to
the plant publication editors, to see that they would have each month a
chart of different material accompanied by approximately 500 words of
text that could be used in explaining the chart and in writing up the
subject in the plant publication.
.
The General Chemical Company In New York: took: advantage of this,
and to date has been using this material regularly. As one who has
spent considerable time in research work, I think that I know something
of the value of statistics, not only of economics but of all other kinds,
and the more time you spend in research work, the more you will value
reliable statistics and the more you will come to realize how'hard it Is
to get statistics that tell the story as they are supposed to tell it and
the story that they want to tell. It is so easy to slip up on some of
those things. But when you have your statistics, it is also very evident
Plant Publications Section
769
that you will find a great many people who do not appreciate them and do not understand them as they stand in their statistical form of tables and such ways of expressing them as that. And so we have the different graphic methods of charting statistics, either in the form of line draw ings, in the form of blocks or circles, or any number of ways that have been devised for showing the relation, of one group of information to another. . It is always well, I think, to give your people, whoever you are trying to meet, your employees or your employers, the opportunity to visualize a thing in more than one dimension. You have a table of figures before you that gives you an item in one dimension. If you have it in the form of a graph, either in the form of columns or of line drawings with peaks and valleys, you have your two dimensions, and the third way may be the method of employing blocks or solids or cubes. I saw a very fine dem onstration of that recently by Mr. Dietz, the president of the Bridgeport Brass Company, of Bridgeport, Conn. He has assembled a large amount of information for his employees in the form of blocks painted different colors, different sections of them. They, are about three inches square and have the different colors across them showing the different things. that he wants to bring before these people. In presenting this material, he said that he felt it was. much more easily comprehended by the average worker in the factory, when he had something that had dimen sion to it and volume, so that he could handle it and could see what it was in comparison with the material that he was handling In his own shop rather than the form of tables or charts.'
HOW TO PBfiSENT STATISTICS
It seems to me that there are three or four things that we should
have in mind to accomplish in the presentation of our material. For the people like yourselves who are assembling this material and using it, it would be necessary to determine the kind of economic facts that
it is desired to transmit to the workers. That is the first thing that you
want to determine. The second thing is to establish contact with the
sources from which this information may be drawn, and this may be
either from within or without the industry.
'
Third, present these facts in the way most easily comprehended by those for whom they are intended.
Fourth, make some practical application of the information displayed
to the work and processes carried on in your plant. The nearer you
come to making this a. home affair, the more valuable it is going to be;
just as you realize the more you can get of the personal touch and the plant touch into your plant publications, the more interesting they are going to be to the workers.
It Is extremely important, that we present constructive rather than destructive information to your people. I mean by that a situation like this possibly arising--you want to tell something of the trend of the hours of work, the number of hours worked per week. You -can do that in two or three ways. You can show the declining rate of the longer
770 Twelfth Safety Congress
days. That I don't think is advisable. You can also show the increas ing rate of the shortened work week, the forty-eight hours or forty-four hours, or whatever it is.
I could go ahead and talk about that for quite a little while, but I find it is so easy for well-intentioned but misinformed people to take infor mation of that kind and stress the wrong thing. They are both 100 per cent true, but what is the use of saying that there were 500 people killed at a certain time if in a similar length of time 5,000 people were saved by doing something else? I think it is always best to present <-onstmctive information.
CHARTING A COURSE
J. Jav Fulleb, J. Jav Fuller Advertising, Buffalo, N. Y-
Before launching into the subject of the technical' course to be charted
for a plant publication, I want to say just one thing, that probably became
it is so elementary is passed up in all of the so-called "educaXfcackaJ~
instructions for launching, planning, and picking up material for fcamw
magazines.
-
in the first place, a house-magazine should move definitely and
in its contents and in its policies from one -point to another point. U
other words, the very fact that a house-magazine needs to have a charted
course implies that it should move positively and definitely along that
course. The trouble with most house-magazines is the fact that they
pick you up, whirl you around in the mental ether a few times and then
set you down exactly where you were before. If you are trying to tell your reader- the story of your plant, yon have
to definitely pick him up, carry him on and finally set him down with
a comfortable jolt if be is going to be conscious of the fact that anything
in particular has happened.
We are conscious that the most beautiful and striking design usually
conceived for the cover of the average house-magazine is a wonderful
view of the front entrance to the factory. In as much as "Jimmy Jones"
leaves and enters that same factory every day in the week, the `vision
of the entrance In all Its resplendent glory has not moved Jones' mental
processes very much In the direction you are trying to lead him. If yon
have a vision for this particular factory in which you want the partici
pation of some two or three hundred of Jimmy Joneses, you had better
get your idea in the hands of some more or less capable artist who can
visualize what you expect the plant to be some ten, fifteen, or twenty years from your story. Then will you get the attention of your reader.
This is a matter of polic'y but it is elementary enough to be placed with the matter of illustration, copy, plan, text and all of the many other descriptions which are applied to the'separate parts of a house-magazine. For instance, if it becomes your delightful privilege to announce the fact that a baby boy has joined the family circle of the Jones', you will prob ably get by with saying that Jimmy Jones has had a baby boy at his house and that the entire force congratulates him. But, if you want to actually gain the interest of all your readers, you had better say that
Plant Publications Section
771.
Jimmy Jones has created a new superintendent for the riveting depart ment who will some one of these days take his place with the X. Y. Z. industry. The more human the touch, the more interesting is the story to your reading public.
THE SCXXT
The dummy should emanate from your printer and not from your own desk. There may be men who edit house-magazines' of great scope and
vision, whose copy is alluring and who, at the same time, are authorities on the technicality of printing. I will be frank to say that I have never met one. The greatest writers of "he-man" copy that I know are the poorest authorities on printing.
1 have never thought that a man could chart a course for a housemagazine and do it successfully and have very much time for learning
the technical details of the printing and paper business. If you know
all about the sizes, weights, description and economical cutting of paper,
you are fortunate, although it will not contribute greatly to a house-
magazine prodncer.
.
. Your start, in my estimation, in preparing the dummy is to the Treas
urer's office of your company. Know in the beginning how much money you are going to have to spend for your house-magazine and. with this
information, yon can go to your printer or printers who are to compete
for the job and let them estimate from your figures and compete for maxt-
mnm quality and quantity. About one-half of the time of a hoase-magae zine novice is spent in getting printers' estimates based on various imagi
nary specifications. Your printing competition should not he on the basis
of figures. It should he on the basis of getting the most for a definite
figure--which should be the most generous one. of course, which you can
persuade the board of directors to pass for your project.
Having determined how much house-magazine yon can buy for your money, yon should secure from your printer a dummy in blank which takes the measure of what your craft is going to be. Then you can look around for rigging and trimmings in the way of type, etc. .Here again Is an element for which you had best lean rather heavily on a good respectable printed--mixing his ideas with your own commonsense and Judgment. Kindly bear in mind that all printing is fundamentally Intended to be read and read easily, all sorts of fine typography notwithstanding. If the course of your house-magazine is to be directed toward (and it probably will be) a lot of red-blooded "he-men" of average intelligence and a few of lesser intelligence, don't- waste any time in studying the value of Italian Renaissance borders.
Get your story into vigorous, readable type. Bear In mind always that there are some of the boys in your organization who wear glasses in the evening and that the physician in your plant or the man who examines the men occasionally,' may surprise you with the fact that some of these boys are not able to read any great length of time without being tired. $"ou may have to get over your story to a great many of the boys in head
lines or pictures.
.
772 Twelfth Safety Congress
SELECTION1 OF TYPE
I am not going to give you a great many rules for the selection of type. Not one man in a hundred could tell you, if you put them side by side, that Goudy Bold was a comparatively recent creation and that Devine Old-
style was a >. y old type and very much out of date. . Either one, consist
ently employed, would probably tell the story as far as your reader is concerned.
There is another little thing that belongs here in the matter of the
dummy. It should be appetizing in its appearance. The clever advertiser,
who sells food in the pages of the Ladies' Home Journal makes the pie-
tures of the stuff good enough to eat. It may seem a little like a bromide
to have to repeat this statement but when you see four out of five house-
magazines set in fine eight or ten point type--sometimes four or five
inches across without a break, you can understand that the editor has
not made his stuff into very appetizing reading.
I like a magazine like the Kodak Magazine, for instance, running two
narrow columns to the page with plenty of liberal panels at the side for
special thoughts, well broken up with headings and with photographs put
in occasionally in unusual places.
.
' I have always thought that the matter of buying engravings should be entrusted to a printer. I have never been interested much in purchasing photo-engravings direct for house publications. Whenever I find myself puttering around with the measurement of an engraving or some such thing, I am conscious of the fact that I am putting my mind where it does not belong and not creating good ideas for my magazine.
I like photographs in a house-magazine. The reason I like photographs in a house-magazine is because everybody understands them so easily. But here I am conscious again of the fact that the photographs must show
definite action and motion and that they should move the magazine definitely along the course for which it is intended.
. Just to print a photograph of Hiram Johnson is all right as far as Hiram and his friends are concerned. But what puts the photograph over is what you say about it underneath the picture. You have got to create an idea around Hiram Johnson that will satisfactorily explain to your reader any reason for using the picture.
The last thing that I have been asked to touch upon is the matter of
copy. To talk about copy for a house-magazine, I will simply have to go
back to the beginning and say what I said all over again. Get positive,
definite, moving words and thoughts into your copy. If you want a good
course in writing copy and heading the latter which are about 90 per cent
of the copy in a house-magazine in my estimation, read back files of the
American Magazine.
'
THE VALUE OF HEADLINES
If you are writing about the Safety Movement, it may be perfectly all right and in good taste to use "History of the Safety Movement" for a heading. The chances are, however, a lot of the boys in the factory will
Plant Publications Section
773
be more interested in your story if you write a heading which starts, "Let's Keep the One-Legged Men off the Streets in Grassrilie." Let them make the obvious deduction.
Another thing--and here's where you are going to lose out with most of your directors--deal generously with the intensely active present in your industry 'and very gently with your past history. The back history means spent pay envelopes for most men in your industry. What Is hap pening now and what will happen in the future is engaging the attention of most working men.
You have probably decided at the beginning that the principle purpose of a plant publication is to make your men like your organization.
The President of the company always says, "We like to consider the employees of the Brown Manufacturing Company as being all one great big family.'' These are always sweet words even though they are am biguous. But you will not accomplish it, in my estimation, unless you make the men like their surroundings by making them like themselves. After making them like themselves, you can. make them like the things they are doing and you can make them like the other fellows who are around who are doing somewhat the same thing.
When you are charting a course for your house-magazine which is to accomplish these things, do not forget that your men. are spending eight hours a day in your factory, eight hours sleeping (sometimes) and eight hours doing some other things. And your job has got to go a little farther than being entirely shop talk.
If you will pardon a second reference, don't be afraid to run a depart ment under tbe slogan, "Do you Want to Buy, Sell or Rent a House?", or a health coupon by which you can check up on your weight, diet, etc., to see if you are eating the kind of food your job warrants--or still again
an article on "The Wife in Business." As does .the Kodak Magazine.
SECOBE CO-OI'KKaTIOX
The most interesting house-magazine that I know of is one of only about 16 or 18 pages and I think it has 16 or 18 editors. The man who edits this house-magazine is a sales manager at the same time. He simply has the faculty of getting 16 or 18 people to work on getting the news of his organization and bringing It in. He does not restrict them on the amount of news that they bring in either. He has a complete file for each editor. They all stand in a row. The editors are supposed to turn in about three times as much stuff as is finally used. Prom this material he makes the book. The editor of each department is given credit for the department. It is written over his name. Mistakes in English do not worry this editor very much. But when he gets through he has a vital, moving, live copy about his industry and the men who are in the business are getting the news because they are part of the news.
He does not spend a great deal of time on typography. He cleared the matter up the first month by insisting that his printer have one man handle the job. A printing salesman is one of the ex-officio editors of this publication and he is supposed to be on the look-out for ideas along
Txvelfth Safety Congress
that line particularly. Somehow there is a tree and breezy atmosphere about this magazine that does not exist among most plant publications. It may lack something in its artistic appearance. There may be com paratively little of scholarly effort in the copy--although some of it, I think, is pure gold. It does not look like the boss' handiwork because it is not. When the boss does put something into this publication, he puts it in over his own signature and everybody knows that the boss said it and the boss means it. Occasionally, this publication quotes from Elbert Hubbard, Emerson, or Shakespeare. But the times are few and far be tween. It is more apt to take its philosophy from the workers. It has made this corporation popular with its people because it has made them popular with themselves. It has gone all of the way. Its course is charted. Its compasses are set. Its sails are up. It travels.
GETTING THE MOST OUT OP ILLUSTRATIONS
Frank E. Redmond, of the Staff of Associated Industries of New York State, Incorporated, Buffalo, N. Y.
I shall precede anything I have to say on this subject, with the oftrepeated and, by no means original statement, "one-picture will tell a story better than a page of type." I am a strong advocate of illustrations in a plant magazine. That is one conclusion I have had no difficulty in reaching from my own experience as a plant magazine editor.
When you have decided that pictures are to play an important part in the makeup of your paper, you must then consider the following:
(a) How many shall I use? (b) What kind of pictures? (c) Where shall I get them? (d) How shall they be displayed? (e) What screen cut will give the best results?
How Many Shall I use?--Don't use too many. Effective display of a
few good pictures is far better than the lavish use of a large number of mediocre ones. I should say about one photo for each page of your maga zine is about the right proportion.
What Kind of Pictures?--Use any kind of pictures that will interest the
greatest number of employees. There are several old standbys; you will undoubtedly find them.old friends of yours and, perhaps, you will think I am telling you nothing new when I enumerate them. Bat these have stood the test of time. You cannot go wrong with them. I refer to children's photos--the children of your employees. It's a sure-fire feature and once started, should be kept up indefinitely. You will feel, after a few months, that it is getting to be stereotyped matter, but just remember that it is always new to the fond parents whose children's faces appear. And don't forget to use occasionally, photos of officials' children. Run them with the others. Make no attempt to give them special display.
Plant Publications Section
77o
Then, tliere are the old shop groups; photos of departments made ten
and twenty years ago. Some of the men are still In your employ. Once you have made your wants known you will be surprised to see the number of these old photos that are brought in to you. It is the best kind of propaganda. They speak a lesson that sinks home to every worker in the plant--especially the newer men. They are bound to leave the impression with these fellows that this is a pretty good place to work. If not, "why are there so many who have stayed so long?" Do the same with individual pictures of old employees, usfng two photos if possible, one when he came to work and one at the present day. Use a short biog raphy and let the employee who is the subject of the sketch tell, in his own words, just why he has stayed so long with the company.
Then, there are pictures of plant outings, of department entertainments, of ball games, of safety meetings and of fishing parties and the catch; your subjects are unlimited. If your experience is the same as mine has been, you will never be short of good pictures. Rather, you will find it
a problem to select the ones you should, run and diplomatically eliminate the rest.
How are you going to turn down a picture that is brought in by an em ployee, you ask, and have that employee depart without feeling that his contribution is being discriminated against? I know that is a problem, but I always made a rule that a picture, unless it had an unusual interest, must be clear and sharp, suitable for the very best reproduction. There you have your excuse. If you don't want to use a certain photo, explain that it will not make a good cut. Say that the engraver demands good copy. You "are sorry," etc., you "would be glad to use it if the photo was clearer."
USE OF niUSTKATIOtrS
.
I should like to emphasize that one point. Use only those pictures which are clear-cut and will reproduce well. Kvery photo loses something in
engraving and printing. The poorer it is the greater the loss. A poor
picture spoils the appearance of your page.
.
Where Shall I Get Them?--I should strongly advise every editor of a
plant magazine to secure and learn to operate a good camera. I do not
mean that you must buy the most expensive camera- on the market and take a special course in photography. There are half a dozen cameras of reasonable cost that are easily learned and produce very satisfactory work. A good many editors think that buying a camera means that they must have a Grades, because of the great flexibility of that type of ma chine. It is not necessary. For 12 years I was a newspaper man and during that time I had my choice of five or six, including a Grades and other types of reflecting cameras, but my favorite for general work was a small lea camera of the folding type, equipped with an anastigmatic lens of f4.5 speed and a shutter operating at 3/100 seconds maximum speed.
We used to call it the "guess box" because you had to guess your distance from the subject within a foot or so or the picture would be out of focus. I covered every type of story with that camera and seldom failed to get
776 Twelfth Safety Congress
good pictures. I never used the Graflex except when covering automobile and horse races and other events where extreme shutter speed was nec
essary.
_
'
I should say that an ordinary 3-A Eastman Kodak, equipped with an Optimo shutter working up to 1/300 of a second and an anastigmat lens
working at f6.2 or f7.7 will meet every emergency. The Kodak and lens
should cost you about $25; the shutter will add a little to the cost.
"With this outfit and a little practice in studying light values and speeds, you are equipped to illustrate any event that may come to your notice.
Have your prints made on a glossy surface paper, the degree of detail depending on the grade of engraving you use. If you are using a coarse screen cut, have your photographic prints emphasize the contrasts; if
you use a finer screen, have prints made on a little softer paper in which
the details are more prominent.
A camera is your one big bet if you would have the sort of pictures you want. With it you are able to stage any special photographs you may wish; you can attend all outings and bring back a picture record; its use fulness will be emphasized every day.
Other pictures, (portraits, etc.) may be secured, of course, through the
usual appeals in the columns of your magazine.
'
How Should They Be Displayed?--Unless a picture is well displayed,
it will lose most of its value. Consider the location of your picture on
the page before you have a cut made. Plan your entire page and build it
around the picture for the picture is the first thing that is going to attract
the eye of the reader. Strike a happy medium for a size, but by all means
don't try to economize by making your picture too small. Make the cut
large enough to give full value to the picture.
Don't locate your pictures all in one place. Scatter them throughout
the pages. Use an occasional layout, however, when the subject warrants it, the most effective type of layout being a combination line and half tone; that is, a pen and ink border in which the half-tone is inserted.
When a photo is not to be returned, effective layout can be obtained by trimming the photos to the desired shape and arranging them on a grey or figured cardboard on which the art work is carried out. Such a layout is reproduced only in half-tone.
CUT LAIOUT
Lay out your cuts in a tasteful manner. Many magazines are spoiled in appearance through a haphazard dropping in of cuts wherever there seems to be space for them. Overcome this by laying out your pages in advance. The appearance of your magazine is second in importance only to the content matter.
What Screen Cut Will Give Best Results?--The appearance of many
plant publications is spoiled because the proper screen cut is not used. It is just as bad to use a coarse screen on an enameled paper as it is to use a fine screen'on newsprint; yet both of these mistakes are often made. A coarse screen can be made on zinc and is, therefore, cheaper in price but this is foolish economy.
Plant Publications Section
m
If ycrar budget allows, use the best grade of enameled paper with copper cats of 150 line screen or finer. If you must use a cheaper grade of paper, choose the right screen for it. If you use newsprint, don't attempt to use anything finer than 85 lines; more often a 65 line screen will give better results. On machine finished paper use 100 line cuts. Any of these can be made of zinc and should give good results. When you reach the finer grades of paper, however, consult the engraver. Cuts of 120 and 133 lines on copper are well adapted for use on medium grades of book paper and are the most generally used. However, if you are using a* fine enameled paper, have your cuts made 150 lines. Few en
gravers carry screens finer than this, but If you would go deeper into
the art of printing, you can use cuts with a screen as fine as 300 and 400 lines to the inch. The results obtained from such plates, however, depend
almost entirely on the skill of the printer and often necessitate halts in
the press run while the plates are washed.
'
I stress this point of the selection of the right screen for engravings because I see so many publleatoins in which little attention has been paid to it.
Now just a word about the use of cartoons. This type of illustration is either the salvation or the damnation of your magazine. If you will have it the salvation of your paper, use judgment in how you use them. If you will have it the damnation of your paper, use every crude sketch that is submitted to you and you will soon have plenty of trouble to keep your mind busy. Plenty of cartoons, of the right kind, liven up your paper; they add the humorous touch which is absolutely necessary to the success of your publication. Cartoons of the wrong type stir up a nest of trouble that will stick with you until you finally write your "swan song."
So you have a problem. If you let it be known that you want cartoons, every would-be cartoonist in the plant starts showering you with crude examples of illustrated humor and you will find that the majority are directed at some unfortunate individual in the personnel. They are usually of a derisive type and show, more than anything else, the raw sense of humor of the average worker. You don't print such a cartoon but if you turn It down, the aspiring artist turns into a most energetic knocker against the magazine and its editor. If you do print it, the poor fellow who is the object of the thinly veiled insult does the knocking, so you are "between the devil and the deep blue sea."
What is the Value of a Cartoon?--In your plant, however, if it is of any
size, you will find at least one man who Is more or less skillful with the pen. Make him the official cartoonist of your paper and carry his name as such on the mast head. Then guide him; select your own subjects and have him put them in cartoon form. Other would-be artists will soon learn that this man is the official artist and. that it is useless to send in examples of their own work. The result is that you will have cartoons uniform in appearance instead of a mass of crude sketches which only give a mussy appearance to your pages and add nothing of value to your magazine.
77S Twelfth Safety Congress
OABTOOKS
Make It a practice to have several of these cartoons in each issue. If
a humorous article is to be run, have it illustrated by cartoon sketches;
sometimes just a tail piece will do, but it will add to the effectiveness
of the whole. Cartoons are. useful too, in putting over your safety and
thrift messages. Straight safety or thrift propaganda, which runs the
risk of being recognized as propaganda, may often be so camouflaged by
the use of a cartoon that it rises from the ranks of propaganda to an inter
esting feature. As such it is doubly effective.
-
If you have no acceptable artist In your plant, have the work done by
a professional. Just bear in mind that every individual is more or less
an art critic. I have heard criticism of art technique come from the lips
of men whom you would least suspect of having a sense of art values.
Welldrawn cartoons, therefore, should be your aim. Don't use the crude
offerings of the rank amateur. There is still another reason; the profes
sional artist or even the amateur of fair ability, has studied line value.
He knows that fine, grey lines in the drawing will not reproduce. He
knows that he must use bold, black strokes. The drawing made up of
scratchy lines is but a mussy blotch when printed.
The cover page, I think, comes within' the subject of this paper, if
you would get the most out of it, you should select the cover illustration
with great care. If it is a photograph, be sure it is a good one and will
reproduce well. If it is a cartoon, make sure it carries a general interest.
The subject of the cover illustration influences the mind of your reader
toward the contents of the magazine. If he is pleased with the cover,
he opens the pages with a feeling that he will find therein something
else just as pleasing. If he dislikes the cover, he throws the magazine
aside or scans through the pages without particular interest.
"What Kind, of Cover Should One Use?--When I was. editing a plant
.magazine I gave this one matter the deepest thought and, after much
discussion with the departmental editors and the editorial board--made
up of executives in that instance, it was decided that the cartoon cover
would be the most effective. Perhaps the fact that I had spent a number
of weary years as a newspaper cartoonist, influenced the decision, but it
is a fact that the cartoon cover jumped into immediate favor with the
men in the plant. Each- month we produced a little cover sketch which
emphasized play rather than work; which had a general appeal to all
classes; which never suggested, even, that the magazine was a plant publi
cation. It carried the appearance, rather, of a magazine of fun and we had
expressions enough from all parts of the works to convince us that the
men were looking forward with pleasure to each Issue, often just to see
what we had on the front cover. It was evident to us that, with this atti
tude. the men were opening the magazine with interest: an interest that
would carry through each page of each issue.
I am not advocating this type of cover as the ideal magazine cover. I
am merely citing the facts of my own experience. The scenic cover may
appeal to your particular class of employees; or the decorative cover, or
the smybolic. I can speak only from my own experience.
Plant Publications Section
779
It you can afford colors, by all means use them. Bright colors, especi
ally, are pleasing to the workers of Batin-type. If you have many foreign-
born workers in your plant, a color combination--especially on the cover
of your magazine--is worth while. If you have a standard front cover,
change the color combination each month. The magazine is thus always
new in appearance. Men tire of the same cover repeated from monish to
month. Strive to give them something new and striking. They will take
a greater interest in your publication.
In closing permit me to call your attention to Hacklemail's "Commer
cial Engraving and Printing," published by the Commercial Engraving
Publishing Company, Indianapolis. It is a most complete manual of prac
tical instruction covering all phases of the printing and engraving art.
clothed In a language that is wholly intelligible to the novice. I recom
mend it to every editor of a plant publication.
~
OUR EMPLOYEES PUBLICATION AND WIIAT IT HAS ACCOMPLISHED
Spences Hobd, Editob, The Kodak Magazine, Eastman Kodak Company,
Roohesteb, N. Y.
I cannot say that The Kodak Magazine has reduced labor turnover so
many per cent, that it has reduced absence and tardiness so many degrees, nor that it ha3 induced a certain number of employees to invest their
savings in the Eastman savings and ioak association. Nor can I state
that it has reduced accidents by so many cases, that it has bettered the
health of such a certain number of employees. But I can say that it has been a decided factor in accomplishing all of these things.
The Kodak Magazine is now in its fourth year, and is conducted as
part of the work of our industrial relations department. The inagazine
came into being shortly after the formation of the department because
it was felt that .an employees' magazine, rightly conducted, would prove
of value in promoting work of the department.
'
As to the planning of the magazine and the formation of its policy, my instructions were decidedly brief. One of our "vice-presidents with
whom I have had the pleasure of close association for a good many years,
notified me of the new job. He said:
'
"You have been selected for the job not because you can sling words
together, but because we happen to know that you have made more than
the usual average of human mistakes, and so we have a slight hope that now in your mature years you may be able to help your fellow-employees to avoid similar ones."
Outlining a definite policy presented no difficulties because I knew from long association just how the heads of our organization stood as regards the employees, and I knew that I could be assured of hearty co-operation from all the executives from Mr. Eastman down.
MUST SELL COMPANIES TO EMPLOYEES
The purpose of any employees publication is primarily to sell the
organization to the employees, to convince them that the organization
780 Twelfth Safety Congress
Is a good one with which to be connected, and to prove to them that they
will in every case be handed a square deal in all relations with the
company.
The employee knows that every first-class business organization is In
terested in him as an individual as well as one of a class. If he does
not know that, it must he proved to him and for this there is no better
way than through the columns of the plant publication.
This being the policy of The Kodak Magazine, what had it to sell?
This being a meeting of the National Safety Council it seems fitting
to start with the part our magazine plays in general safety and accident
prevention work. We feel we have a very efficient safety organization
headed by Major Charles H. Thompson as general safety supervisor. In
every issue of The Kodak Magazine we print a tabulated accident report
for the month preceding covering all Rochester plants. We do not print
a special safety page, but in addition to the tabulated report, practically every issue contains a story covering some phase of fire or accident pre
vention. The safety problem is kept ever before our employees, and
we have every reason to believe that our magazine has been a factor in
reducing our accident percentage.
Safety articles in The Kodak Magazine are supplemented by safety
bulletins, many of which are those supplied by the National Safety
Council.
In close relation with the work of our safety organization is that of our
medical department. This is quite elaborate and functions in different
ways which need not be mentioned in detail here. It has been the aim
of The Kodak Magazine to sell the work of the medical department to the
employees, to impress upon them the necessity for the prompt, and proper,
first-aid treatment of even the smallest injuries such as scratches and
abrasions, and to emphasize in all ways proper guarding of their" health.
We have published many articles on health topics, including correct
diet, the care of the teeth, seasonal disorders, and kindred topics.
It has been our endeavor to protect our people from the unscrupulous
fakers in medicine, not only the practitioner, but the purveyors of patent
nostrums as well. We have made it easier for our visiting nurse to gain
access to the homes of our employees who are ill, and to establish
friendly relations with them, through articles in the magazine telling of
their work. Our people regard the medical department in a very friendly
light and I cannot help but believe that our employees' publication has
been a factor in bringing about this much-to-be-desired feeling.
In common with most larger organizations we have a legal department.
The services of this department are available to all employees for con
sultation regarding any personal legal matters.
TEACHES FAITH BY I'KOrER INVESTMENT . GUIDANCE -
..
New York State has been a fertile field for the promoters of- fake stock
propositions, and salesmen have taken a heavy toll from the working
people of Rochester. The Kodak Magazine has repeatedly called attention
Plant Publications Section
781
to the activities of these "pests," and has been instrumental in having
our people consult with our legal department before parting with their savings which, before these warnings, was all too frequently the case.
Under our stock distribution plan all employees, after a certain period of service, are permitted to purchase common stock of the company. A great many of our employees have completed payments on their shares which will "become their absolute property in July, 1924, and many others
will have their shares delivered to them each year thereafter. In practi cally all cases his stock has not cost the employees a penny because the shares were sold to them at par, and accruing dividends credited on their shares have paid for them.
This stock is very valuable and is given to the employees as a reward for faithful service and as a basis for establishing a competence in old age. Many vultures have had their eyes on this stock, and schemes
galore have been formulated to get hold of it. Our employees' publica tion has been instrumental in teaching our people the value of this stock, and will continue to expose all schemes for despoining them of their
stock.
.
. An annual wage dividend also is paid to all employees after a certain
period of service, and The Kodalc Magazine has endeavored to point the
way to the saving or investment of this extra money.
The Kodak Magazine has, without question, been of much benefit in
promoting the purchase of shares in the Eastman Savings and Loan As
sociation, and the financing of homes by employees, and in intelligent selection and purchase.
The Kodak Magazine has familiarized our employees with company
history and with its various factories and branches, both at home and-
abroad. It has fostered social activities between the various plants, has
promoted athletic activities, the study of amateur photography, the read
ing of good books, and many other things that have to do with the hap
piness and welfare of our employees.
'
MAGAZINE ANSWERS QVESTIONS FOB EMPLOYEES
Our company was .one of the pioneers In establishing suggestion sys tems and in paying substantial cash awards for ideas. These systems
are In operation in all of our plants, and The Kodak Magazine has pub
lished many articles stimulating interest in this direction. As I stated In the beginning, it is the policy of the company to lay all
its cards on the tables. "When a wage reduction became Imperative in some of our plants In 1921- we took the employees into our confidence by telling them, through the magazine, just why this step had to he taken.
. We have, on occasion, replied to anonymous letters to Mr. Eastman, our president, when it was felt, that'the writer had the wrong idea as to our square-deal policy, and had the. right to have his letter answered.
In a late issue we commented on anonymous letters as follows: "Once In'a while, not very often we are thankful' to say some, executive of the company receives an unsigned letter from an employee.
782 Twelfth Safety Congress
"Such letters are usually expressing dissatisfaction with some condi
tion, or conditions, relating to employment.
"In practically every case, this dissatisfaction comes through some
misunderstanding which could be cleared up if the writer would disclose
his identity.
"From top to bottom, the policy of the Eastman Kodak Company is
the square deal for every one, and as far as is humanly po'ssible, this
policy is being carried out.
'
"It is quite possible that, for some reason, the writers of these letters
do not wish to take up the matters, at issue, with their foreman or de
partment head; this is of course, an error but quite a common one.
"In view of this, we invite the writers of these letters, and any others
of our employees, who feel that they are in the same boat, to get in touch
with our industrial relations department. State Street office.
"It goes without saying that you will be met with courtesy, and every
effort made to arrive at a full understanding. A personal call would be
preferable; if this is not convenient, write a letter--but give your name
and address so that we may know with whom we are dealing."
The planning and editing of The Kodak Magazine has been a real pleas
ure' because I have had whole-hearted co-operation from every executive,
and enthusiastic support from all plant editors and reporters.
OUR PLANT PAPER AND WHAT IT HAS ACCOMPLISHED
H. R. Zimmerj[.\x, Editor, The K. C. K. Keics. National Cash Register
COMPAAV
Being asked what a plant paper accomplishes, I want to tell you what
we sincerely believe our paper has done. In any of these remarks, I
think you will recognize the same things that your own papers have
accomplished, and it will be nothing more nor less than a confirmation.
The 2V. C. K. Netcs and what it does for the employee:
Keeps him reminded of his opportunities and that promotions are
made from the ranks, because every issue carries a picture or two of
men who have been promoted.
Gives him information about the business which he could obtain in
no other way.
Makes him realize that he is part of an organization which is world
wide in scope.
-
You will perceive we stress the educational side of it, because of the
fact that of 1,700 men. in the field, approximately 500 of those men
have come through the factory, and we are continually trying to get
our men stimulated to the point of going out into the field. That is
the reason we try to stress the educational side. We try to use drama,
cartoons, and every other human element to get it across.
It wipes out misunderstanding between management and' men and
' humanizes the management.
It provides a medium through which the worker may express him
self.
'.
Plant Publications Section
783
Mr. Young talked upon that point very effectively, about these nuggets
of gold that the .men have. I go out into the factory and find that I am
not the only fellow that thinks. Those fellows with the old clothes on
can think some, too.
'
Protects the worker by driving home the value of thrift, safety,
health.
-
Answers questions which the family naturally wants to know about
the business upon which their prosperity depends.
Awakens a desire in the children to become employees of the National Cash Register Company when they grow up.
Our Children's Readings especially do that; on Saturday morning, we have about 3,000 children at the readings.
It makes the women in the home realize their tremendous influence as silent partners in the business.
It creates confidence i nthe future prosperity of the company, and
gives them a feeling of security in their own plans.
.
Gives practical suggestions for home improvements.
Factory News was started in 1892, a little paper which was intended
to keep alive that personal contact between Mr. Paterson and the men, the same as in the beginning when he had thirteen employees. The only
difference between Factory Netcs and the N. C. E. Ncics is that the latter
is edited by the employees and has a little higher percentage of human
interest material in it. Fundamentally it Is the same.
It promotes friendly rivalry between departments and thereby re duces waste, prevents accidents and increases production.
It brings capable men to the attention of the management who, by
writing good articles, prove that they can think and express them
selves.
"
.
It attracts skilled labor by pictures and articles showing the ideal working conditions that exist throughout the factory. We have many cases of men coming to our organization who come through the N. C. R. News, and if they are good men and skilled, we both profit.
It maintains to a large degree the personal relationship that existed with the late John H. Paterson and the thirteen men who started with him.
It helps other companies to solve their problems by showing them how we solve ours.
'
It teaches that it pays for an industry to take an active interest in civic affairs and social conditions generally.
An Employees' Magazine is one mediums an organization can have. background advertising.
of the best indirect publicity It is a most effective .piece of
84 Twelfth Safety Congress
It gives the employees a more intimate acquaintance with their executives and results in a freer exchange of ideas.
It impresses the public with the fact that where working conditions are right, the product can be depended upon to be right.
It gives prospective workers in schools and colleges practical insight Into factory life. No doubt a number of you people have colleges and schools on your exchange list, and they use our publications as text books in their classes.
It creates great Interest in civic affairs.
It gives authentic information about the business and the policies
of the company.
It emphasizes that the true source of human welfare is work, and that it takes more than wages to win' the cooperation of men.
ADJOURNMENT.
Public Safety Section
October 2, 3, 4, 1923
BAYED TAN SCIIAACK, Chairman
Aetna Life Insurance Company, Hartford, Conn.
'
D. E. PARSOIVS, Vice-Chairman Bast St. Louis and Suburban Railway, East St. Louis, 111.
JR. B. STOECKEE, Vice-Chairman
Commissioner of Motor Vehicles, Hartford, Conn.
.
A. H. IIlfTZ, Secretary
.
Manager, Cleveland Safety Council, Cleveland, Ohio
TUESDAY AFTERNOON SESSION
HAIRMAN VAN SCHAACK: There has been nothing in the develop
C ments Of the past year, nor Is there anything in consideration of the
future possibilities of safety work which would lead now to the belief that the Public Safety Section is on the wrong traclr. On the contrary, every thing points to the development of the outstanding activities of the year and an increased interest in them as the most dependable means, in the light of experience of furthering the objects of the National Safety Coun cil in its public safety activities.
What is most needed to give public safety its right place Is to. arouse public sentiment to an appreciation of the seriousness of public hazards and. of the necessity of" developing practical means of coping with them. This appreciation has been slow in developing, but there has been notable progress during the past year, as evidenced by the increase in the number of chartered local councils, and especially the increase in the number of those with full time paid secretaries. At the end of the fiscal year, there were 51 chartered locals in comparison with 34 at the beginning; and there were 30 locals with full time paid secretaries as compared with 18 at the beginning. Of these 12 new locals with full time paid secretaries, all but two of them were developed through the activities of the National Safety Council; six of them as the result of field work in "virgin -soil"; and three of them as the result of field work in communities where or ganization had been attempted. This extension of the local council move ment is of great promise. There can be no better evidence of a com munity's interest in public safety work than its organization of itself for this purpose.
785
786
Tirelfth Safety Congress
Another notable development of the past year has been the increased
interest in public safety shown by the newspapers, especially In connec tion with traffic accidents. A big opportunity in public safety work today lies with the newspapers of the nation. They are already performing a most significant service in' keeping causes and results of public acci dents continually before the public. This service may well be enlarged to include a program of education directed at the great reading public to teach the principles of safe driving and safe walking; to explain street and public safeguards of mechanical or regulatory nature; and to keep the need for more public safety continually before us as a nation.
MORE NEWSPAPER PUBLICITY NEEDED
More newspaper publicity on automobile accidents is greatly needed to stem the heedless and reckless conduct of 10 percent of our motorists. Some newspapers are chronicling the growing toll in automobile accidents by the "clock method" or by showing the daily death record in black face type blocked in so as to attract notice. Such ideas are worthy of imitation, for they arrest the attention of a newspaper's readers and have more or less of the pictorial effect. An automobile accident is not only news; it is a community calamity of the greatest importance--another human life needlessly wasted. 'More stringent enforcement of laws lies within the realm of the newspaper as watchdog of the public interests.
Some of the newspapers of our larger cities, which from day to day have given the reading public the detailed facts of fatal and less serious automobile accidents in. such a way as to carry between the lines a warn ing against recklessness and indifference have, I am certain, accomplished a great public work in their respective communities. There is no doubt of the power of the press in moulding public opinion, and it follows that in communities where the press has exerted its powerful influence against avoidable accidents, public opinion is aroused against them also. News papers, automobile clubs, and national associations correlated with this kind of work should cooperate everywhere to minimize the accidents caused by our rapidly increasing motor traffic.
Of course, public sentiment, even fully aroused, must work along the right lines to accomplish real results in public accident prevention, and especially the prevention of automobile accidents. It is highly essential, therefore, .that uniform and accurate accident statistics be developed to show exactly where, when, how, and why accidents occur, so that prompt and definite measures may be taken to eliminate the causes so far as possible. I think this Public Safety Section is to be congratulated upon the excellent work in this -direction done by Dr. Dublin's committee.
One of the outstanding developments of the year in the direction of public safety has been the organization of the conference of Motor Vehicle Administrators of the Middle Western States. This is the second of such regional Conferences to be organized, the first having been the Conference of the Administrators of the Eastern States; and it is sincerely to be hoped that this conference movement will extend to other sections of the country, as the South and the Par West, and that eventually these
Public Safety Section
787
conferences will lead to the development of national uniformity in motoi vehicle laws and their administration, so far, at least, as safety is con cerned. While the motor vehicle laws of the several states will neces sarily vary in many respects, they can certainly be uniform so far as the principal general requirements of safety as well as convenience for motor ists are concerned. There is no single influence in any state so power ful in the promotion of motor safety as that of the state's motor vehicle department which, given the proper authority to control operators' licenses can not only be of tremendous assistance to community effort but can further the cause of'Safety in a state-wide manner which is im possible through the organization of communities.
TRAFFIC SIGNAL. WORK
Another important development of the year in which the Council through this section has been concerned is the work of preparing a code on colors for traffic signals. Three sub-committees have been engaged in the preparatory stages of this work for some months and will be ready next month to report to the executive committee in charge. One of these sub-committees has collected information, studied the experience with all colored signals now in use as traffic signals, and, where possible, has ascertained the reasons for adopting certain colors for specific uses; has studied the use of colors in railroad and navigation practice; and has studied the present traffic methods of signaling, including the use of various types of semaphores, flashing signs, etc. Another of these sub committees has studied the -relative visibility of colored lights now in use such as the standard railroad signals, with various backgrounds and various conditions of atmosphere (dust, fog and smoke). The third sub committee has studied non-luminous signs and signals with the purpose of suggesting appropriate colors, shapes or other combinations for high ways, to be used at all situations coming up in practice, including rail road crossings. This brief outline of the work assigned to these sub-com mittees will indicate that each of them had a large job on its hands, one which required ample time in order that it might be properly done.
The executive committee which is to receive the report of these sub
committees is composed of a representative from each of the following
groups:
"
Asociations and officials having administrative authority '
Owners and operators of automobiles
Manufacturers of. automobiles
Manufacturers of automobile accessories, signals and signs
Railroads and Interstate Commission
.
Insurance
Scientific and technical societies.
-
. -
This representation assures consideration from every possible view point of the information furnished and recommendations made by the sub committees, so that when the sectional committee is called together to
788 Twelfth Safety Congress
finally act upon the proposed code. It should have before it a carefully
thought out and developed plan for regulating the use of colors for traffic
signals.
I cannot close these brief and inadequate remarks without at least
reference to the work for public safety which is being done by the Educa
tion Section of the Council. The reports and addresses at the meetings
of that section will show that even with the limited facilities at its dis
posal a great deal has been done during the past year to make proper
consideration of safety a real factor in the education of the coming gen
eration of adults.
.
There are many features of the Council's public safety work during
the past year upon which I shall not even touch. Through the Public
Safety Division at the headquarters in Chicago, the section has endeav
ored to stimulate interest in all phases of- public safety, and to follow
up encouragement by such practical assistance as may have been pos
sible. It seems to me that the work of the coming year should start at
least along the lines followed for some time past. We cannot flatter our
selves that we have found the "cure-all" for public hazards; it probably
never will be found. But I think it is safe to say that the Council's
encouragement, of community organization, and of newspaper publicity
and campaigns for public accidents have demonstrated their practical
value. If, with public sentiment aroused by these means, the Council
can increasingly promote the development of better accident statistics,
and through cooperation in research and in the development of practical
remedies can help in guiding this public sentiment along the right lines,
it will make a worth while contribution to the welfare of this country.
REPORT OF SECRETARY
.. A. H. IilNTz
I..think there are three essential things the Public Safety Division should drive home during the coming year, namely, the operators* license law, mor.e rigid and stricter law enforcement and permanent or part time safety supervisors in our public and parochial schools.
REPORT OF ELEVATOR HAZARDS COMMITTEE
J. G. Shaw, Chaibman (Read by Mr. Van Scuaack)
To this committee was assigned the work of preparing a series of stereopticon pictures accompanied by a descriptive talk on the various subjects shown. Also short talks for use in Radio Broadcasting, or direct to an audience, impressing upon those using elevators the necessity of exercising care when entering or leaving. the cars. Consideration was given to the matter of suitable pictures for bulletin display, but although the committee has on hand quite a number of photographs for this pur pose, these have not been worked -up for actual use and we would be glad to submit same to the next committee if they care to make use of them.
The activities of the present committee have been directed principally to the education of the public and as to how it may travel on elevators
Public Safety Section
789
with safety to themselves and others. There is no question, but that the
lack of care on the part of some of those who are injured or killed is largely attributable to their own thoughtlessness or recklessness. In this respect they share responsibility with the car operator if he is of the indifferent or careless kind, and are a menace to those who are inclined to be careful.
The Committee which preceded the.present one dealt very thoroughly with the operators of elevator cars, by means of a series of lessons de signed for their instruction. To each lesson was appended a question naire to test the student's retentive memory on the subject and to bring out the knowledge acquired of the various parts which enter into the proper operation of the complete elevator..
Elevator accidents originate from different causes but there is no doubt that the large .majority are due to carelessness either on the part of the operator or the injured person. It is tr^ie that some accidents are dne
to poor construction and inadequate protection at the shaftway entrances, lack of proper upkeep maintenance and also lack of proper inspection. But where periodical inspections are made by state, .municipal, insurance or other qualified inspectors, elevators are fairly well maintained and taken care of. It is usual for a person reading about an elevator accident to assume that the cables supporting the. elevator must have broken, there by precipitating the car to the bottom of the hoistway, but such cases are remarkably few considering the number of elevators in use, and the new types of machines of modern installation are likely to proportionately re duce the number of accidents.
The secretary.of this.committee has on file some statistics from various Middle and Eastern States which, upon analysis, bear out the foregoing statement, showing that the very large percentage of accidents occur at the shaftway doors, and this .condition seems to hold true regardless of vicinity or location.
I think it is the opinion of your-committee that there is still opportunity for improvement in the safety of elevators and that there must be some positive means provided to prevent the movement Of -elevator cars while at the floor landings until after the shaftway doors and the car gates have actually been closed and locked.
At the present time several bodies of men well qualified to devise and create rules bearing on the construction and safe operation of elevators are at work, and when they have completed their labors, there should be in existence something worth while, and to which I have no doubt the National Safety Council will lend countenance.
(Motion made, seconded and carried that the report be accepted.)
APPOINTMENT OF NOMINATING COMMITTEE
Chairman Van Schaack: It is the duty of' the chair at this time to appoint a nominating committee. I will ask Mr. C. M. Anderson to act as chairman, and with him JVEr. A. H; -Bints and Mr.' J. H. Goldie, and I suggest that- the committee have its report at the opening of the session tomorrow afternoon.
790 Twelfth Safety Congress
The first address on the program this afternoon was to have been given by the Honorable Barron Collier, of New York City. Mr. Collier found it impossible to come and asked Mr. Dow. executive secretary of bis de partment, to give the talk. It is unnecessary to introduce Mr. Dow to the National Safety Council.
PUBLIC SAFETY WORK BY THE POLICE DEPARTMENT IN THE GREATEST CITY IN THE WORLD
Marcus A. Dow, Executive Secretary, Bureau of Public Safety. New
York City Police Department
If there is any doubt in the minds of any one as to the very great neces
sity of a Bureau of Public Safety in the great City of New York let me
tell you that last year 964 people were killed by moving vehicles in the
streets of five burroughs of the city, and when you stop to consider the
great amount of human suffering caused unnecessarily by preventable
street accidents I think you can realize the situation that-caused Police
Commissioner Enright, one of our progressive public spirited citizens, to
create within the Police Department of that city a Bureau of Public
Safety.
'`
He appointed as a special deputy commissioner, in charge of the work,
of this bureau. Mr. Barron Collier, one of the outstanding basin*** men
of the city, a wealthy citizen who is at the head of probably the hrneest
advertising organization in the world.
It was Mr. Collier's idea from information that he bad already nt-*4v*d
in regard, to safety work that a combination of tbe principles
adver
tising with the authority of the Police Department in a great city (fler
New York would bring forth the best kind of results in tbe reiiecthwo af
street accidents. The first step that was taken after this bureau had been, organized
was Mr. Collier's sending for me and asking me as a man vbe bad bad experience in safety work to come into his organization and re prevent him in the Bureau of Safety and assist him in putting on this experiment.
Let me say that Mr. Collier is himself, out of his own pocket, aapporting financially the work of this bureau up to date. We hope next year to get some assistance from the city, because of the demonstration we have made of the practicability of the work and the results that can be accomplished.
The first work that was undertaken after the bureau was organized was to begin to make an analysis of the causes of street accidents. We got up what we called a precinct sheet, classifying all motor vehicles and highway accidents in the city under 21 specific headings, and separating them according to school districts, precincts and locations. We found
some very remarkable circumstances in connection with street accidents as revealed by these statistics.
We found that in one month, the first that this record was kept, out of
45 persons killed on account of being struck by vehicles in the city streets,
35 per cent were struck by crossing streets away from the regular street crossing.
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791
VISUALIZING CAUSES FOB ADVEHT1S1NO
We desired, from an advertising standpoint, to pick out the cause or
accidents that we could visualize in a manner that would appeal not only
to the adults but to the school children in some sort of advertising char
acter, and so we hit on the subject of jay-walking and anti jay-walking,
as the thing that should be developed in the minds of all people as a
basis upon which we could develop our advertising for the public safety
campaign.
The art department of Mr. Collier's organization created for us a char
acter that we can use for a sort of safety advertising slogan. I will get
down to this particular character and the use we have made of it a little
later on.
.
After the work of compiling these statistics and analyzing the causes
of accidents in the city had been started -we selected from the great uni
formed police force of the city of New York sixteen men of the rank of
lieutenant who were assigned to us by the Police Commissioner and who
are now devoting their entire time to the safety work of the Bureau of
Public Safety. These men have been doing wonderful work in spreading
the gospel of safety among chauffeurs and drivers, and particularly among
school children.
For instance, during the spring months of the present year, they made
a special drive in the garages throughout the city, appearing there in
uniform and in a heart-to-heart and man-to-man sort of way conveying
concrete and definite safety instructions and'messages to the drivers of
motor vehicles in the city.
In New York with our six million Inhabitants and 315.000 registered
motor vehicles within the city it Is a difficult proposition to try to organize
drivers' schools that would be anything but a mere drop in the bucket
among the great number of registered chauffeurs and drivers in that city,
but we have been able with this force of trained lieutenants who have been
trained to talk on the subject of safety to go into the garages at any time
that might be convenient to the owner or proprietor of that garage, some
times as early as six o'clock in the morning, and get together fifteen,
twenty-five or a hundred chauffeurs before they go out on their day's
work and give them a half hour's lesson on safety. These men have
conducted several hundred of these meetings in garages during the spring
months of the year and conveyed their message to approximately 30,000
chauffeurs and drivers in that period.
Then we took up the subject of going into the public schools. We
trained the lieutenants of public safety especially ajong the lines of con veying the message to the children in language that would appeal to that
type of an audience. We got the cooperation of the Board of Education,
of course, without any difficulty whatever. The lieutenants then went
to the public schools and, arranging through the district superintendents
and principals, held large, and are still holding, large assembly meet
ings for the children in the public schools throughout the city.
Lrp to date (we started this work in May and had to discontinue it
during the vacation period) the lieutenants have delivered a 20 minutes
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Twelfth Safety Congress
safety lecture to approximately 300,000 children in the state of New York. We hope next year to have reached every one of the 1,250,000 school chil dren in the greater city,
ABBE8TS MADE FOB BEAKE DEFICXEET'CXES
We have taken up another feature of the safety work which seems to me one of the most important things we have done. There is no question
in my mind from our experience that a great many of the accidents oc-
curing in the city streets due to the use of motor vehicles might be pre
vented if the braking apparatus were always in the proper order. So we put out on the streets of the city what we call our brake inspection squad in charge of one of the lieutenants. These men work in pairs; they go out with a motorcycle with a side car into certain sections of the city and stop vehicles, get up on the seat and make a running test of the brakes.
If they find that one brake on the car is defective the driver of the car is given a ticket and required to come back within a period of three days to a designated garage, meet the inspection man and show that that defect has been corrected.
If both brakes on the car are defective under the provision of the High
way Act in the state of New York, which requires motor vehicles to be
equipped with adequate braking power, the driver is given a summons to
court.
.
Up to date that squad of ours has inspected. 50,000 motor vehicles largely of the commercial vehicle type. .Of that number they found 24 per cent of them with at least one brake on the car defective; 2,000 convictions of drivers who were operating cars on the streets With brakes that were so defective as to be an absolute menace to human life have been obtained. It seems to me, and I believe that you perhaps will agree, with me, that the man who will operate a motor vehicle on the congested streets of a great city with brakes that are a menace to human life is just as much a danger to the safety of humanity as the speed maniac, and should be delt with accordingly.
Now, then, we are continuing this campaign against defective brakes.
We also have out on the streets of the city another squad of uniformed
men who are going about and marking the streets with lines that at the
street crossing indicate the proper place for pedestrians to cross. An
arrow is stenciled on the sidewalk at these corners pointing across the
street for the proper, place for the pedestrian to cross, with the words
printed "Cross Carefully."
'
More than 10,000 street corners were stenciled during the summer in this manner. We also put out on the streets a special squad of men called accident investigators. Now, of course, every member of the uni formed force is expected to make a report to his superior officer, giving the details of any accident that has occurred. The great trouble, how ever, has been that a great many times, these accidents occur when the patrolman is not on the ground. He gets there after it is all over; he
Public Safety Section
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Sets the names of witnesses, it is true, but finds'-that these witnesses re fuse to give information. He therefore fills out the accident report card, and it shows very little that will be of value to the Bureau of Public Safety.
When a report of that kind comes in the lieutenant in charge of the district in which the accident occurs goes to the patrolman who made the report. If he feels that patrolman is in position to get further in formation he sends him back and instructs him as to the information he desires. If he feels it is a case that requires special investigation, it is given to one of the special investigators of the Bureau of Public Safety, who goes out and investigates that case the same as a detective would run down any criminal case.
APPEAL TO WITNESSES AS GOOD CITIZENS
He goes after the witnesses, and ascertains whether these witnesses have facts they are hiding; he appeals to them from the standpoint of good citizenship to come across with the information that will help us to make the streets of the city safer for human lives. We have found any number of cases where information had been withheld and where these men were able to help us to get convictions that would not have been procured in any other way.
That very briefly tells you of the work being done by the uniformed police force. Now, let me say something about this advertising part of our program. I have brought here two or three charts of the advertising placards that we got out on our jay-walking campaign. This little char acter Is "Auntie Jay Walker" and this is the placard I referred to as being plastered all over the city. Nothing was shown that would give an idea of what it was intended to convey; it simply created curiosity on the part of the public; that was allowed to stay up for a period of five days and then we had twenty thousand boy scouts out on the city streets delivering into the hands of one million people a small card that gave the picture of Auntie Jay Walker and gave the message to the public.
We followed that up with other placards of similar nature. We created, during the last two months of the school period, what is called a safety hour. At three o'clock in the afternoon 1,250,000 school children in the 836 schools of the city were required to stand at attention for a period of one minute while the teacher gave them safety admonitions before they were discharged from school.
At the same hour, three o'clock, through an arrangement we made by sending out one hundred of the police officers to interview beads of manufacturing associations, etc., we got the factories to blow their whistles telling the city that the children were about to be dismissed from school and warning folks to be careful. The psychological effect was tremendous. This is a brief illustration of the character of the work being done by the Bureau of Public Safety, with the most expert advertising we can secure.
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Twelfth Safety Congress
What has it accomplished? Let me say that during the first six months of 1923 as compared with last year, in spite of the fact that there were 45,000 more motor vehicles registered in the City of New York than the previous year, there were 852 fewer injuries.
Sight hundred and fifty-two children saved to live, grow to maturity and serve their fellowmen and their country as it was intended that they should live and serve! And I want to say to you that this sort of a campaign, the Police Department enforcing the law with all the author ity of the city back of it, and with an advertising campaign that will appeal to the public, you can save human lives and get the best results, as I have stated, by going at it through the cooperation of the public schools and the drivers of the vehicles in the garages.
If there is none, we will proceed to the next address on our program.
We are privileged in having as the next speaker the Honorable Robbins B. Stoeckel, Commissioner of Motor Vehicles of the state of Connecticut, a man who has been a pioneer in bringing the attention of motor vehicle departments of states to coping with this public safety problem. Mr. Stoeckel.
REGULATING MOTOR VEHICLES AND PREVENTING ACCIDENTS
Hon. RoBBrxs B. Stoeckel, Commissioner op Motor Veiiici.es. St/.te or
Connecticut, Hartford, Conn.
The trafiic problem of the United States, viewed from the safety angle can only be glimpsed in its entirety when it is thought of in the same light as any other great problem which affects the health and welfare of all people. There is a familiar analogy available.
History and experience show that the problem arising from any great epidemic of disease goes through several phases before It Is conquered. First there is a single case, endangering a small number of fadlTldaa)*. a family perhaps and neighbors; then a group of cases eoda&gerfeftg * community, and finally a spreading, virulent epidemic breaking out and destroying, no one knows when and where. In the first phase, ao alarm is raised; in the s.econd, there is a little apprehension but no fear. Sat in the final phase the people, in numbers large enough to constitute a public, become alarmed and apprehensive, the danger feeling spread*, everyone worries and, as a result, the urge for a remedy comes and cor rective forces are called into being and set to work. Forthwith expertments begin, scientists search for specifics and the public exercises its mon sense for self preservation.
So with danger in trafiic. In the first phase, beginning with It* advent, the automobile caused no alarm except, a slight stir in its immediate en vironment. In the second, with moderate enlargement of numbers and consequent increase in opportunity for injuries, it began to bring fear tote the group and community and finally, in the last phase, traffic danger hs> grown into a great spreading epidemic, the end of which is not yet.
Public Safety Section
795
Danger in traffic caused through automobiles always has as its cause either one of several elements, or a combination of-elements. Of these elements, one or more are always present, others are usually present and still others are rare and unusual. One element always present is the
PERSONAL EQUATION
The direct use of an automobile is an expression of the personality of a man or woman. If he or she possesses characteristics of consideration for others and of caution and care, these will be expressed in driving. Again, if his or her character be dominated by selfishness, rudeness or
recklessness, those will be expressed. This element is as wide spread as humanity itself and rings the change through all the degrees and diverg
ences of character. The mechanical control of a car is simple. There are a few, if any. people who cannot learn it. The actual qualification of fitness to operate Is one of mentality. Operation of a car is an expressed act of the mind. Therefore the first qualification must necessarily be
a good enough mind- to drive.
EXPERIENCE IN DRIVING
Granted a suitable mind and disposition, no man or woman can hope
to become a driver without experience, but the degree of experience de
manded as a sine qua non need not be great. It is self-evident that the
danger point with a new driver will not come, mechanical control ad
mitted, until he gets over being super-cautious--until he needs no longer
to be careful about the co-ordination of his hand, foot and eye. and becomes self-confident- All drivers pass through this stage and the extremes, while
in this frame of mind, are the most disagreeable and dangerous. Expe
rience, it is strange to say but none the less true, causes hazards as' well
as prevents them, but only in combination with personality. How often
a very expert driver with an excellent eye for distances will thoroughly
alarm others who do not know he is so blest! The too-experienced driver
with a grain of the quality of lack of consideration in his make-up
causes more accidents and mishaps than any new and inexperienced
driver. Experience is necessary. If taken as a teacher and not as an
instrument for speed In traffic, it will fit a driver rapidly and well. Expe
rience is also needed to anticipate the action of other drivers.- Nothing
will so soon teach a driver what to expect, as the unexpected.
'
TUB ELEMENT OF IIIOHWAV CONDITIONS
Now put a well-dispositioned and experienced man or woman into an automobile to drive along a highway and at once the element of the physical characteristic of the road asserts itself. Every road has hun dreds--yes, thousands of traps which are all set. This is because it has never been and probably never will be possible to build an entirely safe road from a physical standpoint. The road building effort has been controlled by other than safety considerations. The needs of business transportation and, to some extent, scenic advantages have determined when, where and how a highway shall be built. There are also, in con- . nection with the building , of highways, many complicated engineering
796
Twelfth Safety Congress
problems, most o which have to he compromised, so there are short curves, steep and slippery hills, underpasses and grade crossings in large numbers. Past construction for durability has made the high center, low shoulder road the common form. The tendency of this road is to turn a car off because its grades are not adapted to straight driving.
CAB EQUIPMENT
The element of our equipment enters into every hazard, but again in combination only. Brakes, springs, steering wheels,, signals, must all on all occasions be serviceable enough to command approximate perfection in starting, running and stopping, but again the original quality of mind enters in. The good mind adapts itself to its equipment almost without conscious effort, so that a wide latitude is possible. As a factor for danger, poor, run down and imperfect equipment looms large, but ordinarily such defects must be extreme to be dangerous. In short, a good mind with poor brakes is better than a poor mind with good brakes.
OTHER ELEMENTS
'
There are many other elements which are found to contribute to danger. Included among them are some which are fundamental and others which are spectacular. It is perhaps only natural that the spectacular ones first call for remedial measures. Among the most prominent of these other elements are speed, bad passing from the rear in bad locations, bad sight tines, and lack of caution in passing street cars; in equipment--poor lights, including bad use of good lights and "especially the poor use of spot lights; running with one lamp; unlighted rear lamps; bad parking and many others. Law after law and rule after -rule has been made and more or less enforced on these defects.
Such is the traffic situation today. The giant of public opinion has been asleep, is now barely shaking off his coverlets. Soon he must arise in his might to fight the light and win the victory. "What are the weapons' he must have and how shall'he use them? In the first place--
tAW
Law is fundamental in the sense of being directed to the root of things. To direct the personality of the driver a preventive law of selection for fitness, by an examination before a driver is qualified.
a license uw
This means a law by which each driver is licensed by a state and so is qualified by and responsible to a state authority. Any United States legislation to accomplish this object would not provide the necessary intimate knowledge needed for control. It must be by small, intimate units, preferably by states. Such a license law. with power of suspension and revocation in a central state authority and properly exercised, will eventually cull out the improper mentality, punish the willful breaker of rules, and gradually bring order out of chaos. As an adjunct to such a law the examination for qualification must be strictly used. As a part of the licensing law and system, there must be rules for conduct, "rules of
Pxiblic Safety Section
797
the road" providing safe practices to follow as nearly as these can be
prescribed.. Willful breakers of such rules must be promptly and severely
punished. All these rules relating to willful cases such as driving while intoxicated, evasion t of responsibility, and continued cases of reckless
driving, must carry disqualification by loss of license. The'discipline must be just; good natured in corrective instances, severe in willful cases. The willful offender must be blotted out.
' As a .concrete example of what discipline can do, consider the case of Connecticut, forced sometime since by its great conglomeration of traffic statewise, to adopt a law like, that indicated with all of its ramifications and appendages. This state has as a part of its preventive system, statis tical files showing each accident as to its location, with descriptive details, each with its causes analyzed and the blame placed for the purposes of its own discipline by loss of license. In that state there are five large cities. In 1922 to July first there were in those five cities 1800 accidents of a major nature. Now the state, by its applied statistics and discipline, by pointing out the causes and locations of accidents to the police, has se cured enforcement along aggressive, intelligent, understanding lines so that in the corresponding months of 1923 there are only 714 such acci dents. A continuation of its policy and application will undoubtedly further reduce these. The same principles, coupled with town enforce ment, are expected to make a reduction in all towns of the state.
Proper law and discipline alone can reduce danger from accidents at least 60 per cent.'
EDUCATION
But there is. also the great weapon of education. There are classes of
persons who are dependent for care upon others, whose intelligence and
minds are not fully developed into ability to care for themselves. Chief
among these are children.
.
In another state in the East, where there had been an intensive educa tional 'campaign for children, this danger was diminished 30 per cent over the year following. Education in safety must eventually be taught in schools. It must be part of the school curriculum. But it is a fact that teaching must not be limited to the children. Parents, guardians and those in charge generally need teaching fully as much as the children themselves. So, motion pictures, publicity in newspapers. Boy Scout
movements, posters, placards and every possible occasion and means must be used. Perhaps a generation must pass before educational labor will begin to show, but the child, a generation hence, with education in these hazards will be more fitted to survive than the child of today, and the child is father to the man. Education must also extend to all those having to do with motor vehicles in other capacity than that of driver. There is no greater fallacy in practice than the law of today that "the pedestrian owns or has a right to the highway and that all vehicles must look out for him." Education' and discipline as well must be extended to him. He must be reasonable and right just as the auto driver must be reasonable and right. In fact he must of necessity be the one to give way in a close
798 / Twelfth Safety Congress
case. "He may be right, dead right, as he walks along, but just as dead as if he'd been wrong." So education in care Is his portion and he must
do more than his share.
Law and discipline through control of the person, helped by education and publicity, all welded together by public sentiment, will do the work.-
If a concrete general program for combat with highway dangers should at this time be laid out for use, it must include:
1. An adequate law fitted to the state where made, thoughtfully drafted, with consideration for the laws of other states having the same problems. Essential features of this law are a state operator's licensing system and a state statistical system, together providing proper and ade quate control in a state authority.
2. State and city highway construction, with especial study of and
care applied to safety for both the pedestrian and the automobile driver. A safety engineer in each state highway control.
3. State and city supervision by adequate police, as widespread and well
covered as possible, so that as much of the state and city traffic as may
be will be directed- traffic or supervised traffic.
''
4. A constructive plan of safety education beginning with a good safety
text book and aided for years to come by the efforts of every safety or
ganization and citizen through every available agency. As a part of this
plan are the efforts of this Safety Congress; organized conferences of
states; meetings of civic organizations; pictures, posters, publicity and every means at hand.
5. Public sentiment. Wake the giant up and make him work.
There is great hope for the future. No similar problem has long held Americans, and this one will not.
THE WARNING OP PUBLIC ACCIDENT STATISTICS
Report op the Committee on Pdbuc Accident Statistics, Public Safety
1923.Section, National Safety Council for the Tear
During the year 1922 there probably occurred 75,300 fatal accidents in continental United States. This was an increase over the estimated number for the year 1921 (73,500), and was almost equal to the. accident fatality record of the year_ 1920. 75.900. Although there has been a some what halting decline in the accident death rate during the past 10 or 12 years, the absolute number of fatal accidents in the United States has not been less than 70,000 In each of these years. The slight benefit of a slow downward trend of the fatal accident death rate is more than offset by the natural increase in the population.
The fatal accident record of the United States suggests that our people have not yet realized what these facts mean. That between seventy and eighty thousand lives of our fellow citizens are extinguished each year by accidental violence should arouse the interest and active cooperation of every citizen who has any pride whatever in the place bis country should occupy among the advanced civilizations of the world. Again your com mittee wishes to emphasize the disparaging comparison between the
Public Safety Section
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fatal accident record of the United States and that of England and Wales. Here in the United States we have between 35,000 and 40,000 more fatal accidents than we should expect from the record of England and Wales!
The estimate of your committee is that each day, during 1922, 206 American citizens were killed by accident. Of this daily number, 38 are automobile accident fatalities; 35 are caused by.falls; 19 by drownings; 16 by burns; nine by machinery accidents; five by street-car accidents and the remainder by a varied assortment of special hazards. Each week there are more than 1,400 fatal accidents. The automobile takes a weekly toll of 266 of our fellow citizens; falls are responsible for a weekly average of 245 accidents; drownings for 134 and burns for 115! Street-car acci dents take a weekly toll of 34 lives on the average^ throughout the year.
TJSrAVOBABLE FtTBUC ' ACCIDENT BECOBD
Some fifteen years ago, following the introduction of workmen's com
pensation laws, the American people began to study and to prevent indus
trial accidents and injuries; the rising toll of fatalities from accidents
ou our public highways was also- brought to public attention, and in cer
tain respects there have been pronounced achievements in the control of
hazards which lead to accidents on our public thoroughfares. But with'
the increasing congestion of our population in cities, the increased use
of the automobile, the toll of deaths from public accidents has continued
to increase from year to year until at the present time the safety of the
person on our public highways is one of the outstanding civic problems
which faces the nation.
.
Your committee estimates that during 1922 there were 14,000 deaths in continental United States which were due to automobile accidents and injuries alone. In 1911, this number was only 2,061. In the former year
automobile accidents accounted for 2.6 per cent of the total deaths from accidents. -In 1922, the automobile was the chief cause of fatal, accidental Injury and accounted for 18 per cent of the total accident .mor tality budget. In the following table your committee presents a compari son of the estimated accident fatalities in continental United States during 1922 and for prior years.
Estimated Fatal Accidents in Continental United States 1922 and Prior Years
Cause of Accidental Death .
All fatal a^denta...........................................................
Accidental burns.......................................................... Aecides'-al drowning.................................................. Accidental falls........................................................ Traammtism by machines....................................... 'Railroad accidents* *................................................. Automobile accidents................................................ Street-car accidents.................................
1922
75,272
6,009 6,992 12,782 3,168 6,883 -13,875 1,748
Estimated deaths in:
1921
73,542
6,362 7.872 12,293 1,941 6,362 12,293 1,725
1920
75,983
8,088 6,066 12,557 2,660 7,769 11,067 2.128
1911
79,255
7,214 8,806 14.052 1.967 12.179 2.061 2.998
PUBLIC ACCIDENTS AND THEIR PREVENTION
Effective action will be taken by American communities to control public accidents only when facts become available on where and- under what conditions such accidents occur. Accordingly, in its report for
800 Twelfth Safety Congress
1922 the committee made available a set of record forms for the use of American cities in reporting:. and describing their public accident prob lems. During 1922 and 1923 the committee has endeavored to have these forms introduced in American cities. While it cannot report that the forms have been widely adopted, still, some progress was made in respect to acquainting safety and police officials in a number of cities with the nature and uses of the forms. The committee hopes that the continuation of this educational work will eventually result in the adoption of these forms or of forms similar thereto, by the leading cities, and that current and annual reports will eventually become available so that the public hazards of the several cities may be studied comparatively and histori cally and the appropriate lessons drawn from this experience. The local organizations of the National Safety Council should be urged to study these forms carefully and to work for the introduction of these records in their cities.
Local councils are requested by the committee to introduce before boards of aldermen and city councils or commissions, the resolution given on pages 13 and 14 of this report, and to urge on every occasion the scientific, systematic study of local hazard conditions.
UMFOBSI RECORDS EBSENTTAT. IK PREVENTION OF PUBLIC ACCIDENTS
The record plan Of the committee consists of five forms. Each form is In two parts. The first is a preliminary, condensed record for the use of the police or safety officer reporting the accident;* the second is a some what more detailed form for the use of court and headquarters clerks in abstracting the more complete information obtained in court proceed ings up to the disposition of the case. The committee planned that the latter form should be used in preparing statistics for local purposes, a carbon copy being sent to the National Safety Council for use in publish ing comparative statistics for the cities included in the Council's registra tion area for public accidents. Copies of the forms may be obtained upon application to the National Safety Council, 168 North Michigan Avenue, Chicago, Illinois.
Mr. A. W. Koehler of the committee, has succeeded in securing the con sent of the commissioner of public safety, Rochester, New York, to have the forms outlined by the committee used in that city. At the present time, Rochester Is experimenting with a group of forms outlined by the chief of police of that city in general harmony with the forms suggested by this committee. Monthly reports are submitted to the chief of police by the inspectors in charge of safety supervision in the several districts and these reports are consolidated in the annual statement. The developments of this reporting system in Rochester will be observed with great interest by the committee and by students of the public safety problem.
A PLAN FOR THE STUDY OF TRAFFIC MOTXMINT AND TRAFFIC ACCIDENTS
in American aim
The committee feels that the practical arfatiOB of the public safety problem depends upon a comprehensive analysis, first, of the facts for
Public Safety Section
801
tragic movement in. cities, second, upon adequate facts on tragic accident occurrence, and, third, upon the intensive study of localized traffic move ment and traffic accident problems.
. The traffic problem is too complex to be solved by a few formulas or generalizations based on half-information. No one can say how the traffic situation in any locality is to be treated unless, with basic principles in
mind, he thoroughly studies the problem and gets rock-bottom facts. Thus he secures and organizes the facts which suggest their own best remedies. Few municipal officials, have attempted a thorough investiga tion of traffic conditions because of the mass of detail and the obstacles arising out of legal, financial, commercial and political conditions. "Since these obstacles can only be overcome by adequate and complete presenta tion. of the facts, it is essential that each city make a study of its own problem and present the data and conclusions to the public. The com mittee suggests in the following section of this report, prepared by Mr. Kelcey, avenues of investigation by municipalities in order that this may lead to development of a plan of action which will take advantage of every existing opportunity to improve traffic conditions with the least expense. The committee has suggested that such study of traffic, and of traffic accidents, should be considered under three main heads and the detailed consideration of these important factors is given below.
TBAFFIO MOVEMENT STUDIES
Your committee urges that the first effort of any city should be to
describe the facts for traffic movement within the city. As an aid to such procedure the committee recommends that each of the cities prepare a "traffic-artery" map. This should show the main traffic arteries Of. each community into the heart of the city, with its entrances which drain adjacent areas. Such a map- (see page 17), would show how traffic should be directed in definite channels, how traffic control can -be sim plified and conditions greatly improved. The map will show which areas
are sources of, or which receive, large volumes of traffic, what the flow is between such areas into and out of the city, the location of congested areas and of critical traffic situations such as bottle-necks or heavily congested points. The map should show the main traffic arteries in one color with heavily traveled secondary streets in another color. With a
third color it should be possible to indicate routings not at present avail
able, but which can be used if improved. Your committee feels that traffic
congestion in most cities is due to the ineffective use of street areas
rather than the lack of them,
-
The business sections of nearly all cities are used as distributing points by traffic en route to all sections. This traffic map would indicate that the movement should be,-routed around the business section because it interferes with the necessary use of such streets. As an example of what an adequate map can do, your committee found one city to have little used streets, which, when linked up, served to carry about 10,000 vehicles a day between two areas in twenty minutes less time! Such a map would enable a city to develop right-of-way stop plans for main arteries, block
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Twelfth Safety Congress
.
systems and one-way streets.It also wouldsuggest the further develop
ment of safety zones, the regulation of parking, the supervision of street
car traffic, the economic dispatch of commercial transportation, with the
consequent reduction of delivery costs for business establishments, and
would, in other ways, pay for itself many times over in beneficent end-
results. (See Chart VI.)
_
TRAFFIC ACCIDENT SPOT-MAPS
As part of its function of recommending ways and Weans for gathering
information on municipal traffic problems, your committee recommends ` t
CHAJIT I
!'
Public Safety Section
803
tbat each city maintain spot-maps of traffic accident occurrence. By means of a map of this hind it would be possible to identify conditions such as the lack of traffic discipline, the location of troublesome, specific situa tions and the need for intensive study of these local problems. Few of the cities have accident spot-maps which show where accidents occur, the type of accident and the degree of their gravity. If each of the cities were to start a new spot-, or pin-map each year, it would be possible by watching the locality distribution of the accident record to begin imme diate investigation of localized problems. There is hardly anything quite so important as this graphic method for locating specific situations which call for intensive' study and control. In one city, for instance, it was found that almost 30 per cent of all serious accidents were concentrated at 87 points. In' another city 28 per cent of all recorded accidents were at 64 points; in another city, 46 per cent of all accidents were at 57 points. Information of this character points the way to definite and effective action. When cities begin to maintain maps of this kind, the need for proper traffic accident reports will be realized. Since the com mittee has already outlined a plan for effective traffic accident records, cities have at hand the means for making the sort of studies which will, eventually, lead to a decided improvement, not only in traffic movement which is essential to the economical conduct of business, but to the reduc tion of the regrettable record for fatal and other sorts of traffic accidents. Today from 80 to 90 per cent of all traffic accidents usually occur outside of congested districts and approximately 70 per cent of these accidents are found at street intersections. In the lack of proper record control, the committee observes that under prevailing conditions traffic can be counted upon to follow lines of least resistance in spite of all general regulations to the contrary. What is needed is specific information on local situa tions! The committee, accordingly, has drawn up, for the information of cities, charts showing how local traffic movement and traffic accident prob lems should be studied and solved. In the charts on pages 17, 21, 22, 23 and 24, the committee has shown, first, a traffic movement map; second, a traffic accident spot-map and third, a chart showing typical, or key, traffic problems with their graphic solution. This interesting and important subject has been fully developed by Mr. Kelcey in his paper, which is appended to this report.
It is earnestly hoped that American cities will seriously consider this plan for a more comprehensive study of problems of traffic movement, of the distribution of traffic accidents and of the solution of typical or key
problems.
THE AUTOMOBILE ACCIDENT BECOBD OF AMERICAN CITIES IN 1922
Mr. Stellwagen of the committee, has again made available his study of automobile accident fatalities in American cities.
The registrars of 109 American cities reported on the automobile acci dent situation for the year 1922. It was found that for this group of cities the automobile accident death rate increased 11 per cent over the figures for 1921 for the identical cities-. -The cities included in- the survey
804
Twelfth Safety Congress
ranged in population from 25,000 upwards and were scattered over the entire United States. Their estimated midyear population as of July 1, 1922, was 28,499,032.
Applying these figures to continental United States, Mr. Stellwagen estimated from his sources, as did the committee from other information, that there occurred during the year 1922, approximately 14,000 fatalities arising out of automobile accidents. Based upon the number of automobiles registered there were, in 1922, 11.4 deaths per 10.000 cars registered and 12.8 per 100,000 of population; this may be compared with the figure of
CHART II
Death Rate per 1000.000 c/Population U. S. PEG!STRATION AREA
and
Public Safety Section
805
11.8 deaths per 10,000 cars registered in 1921 and 11.5 per 100,000 of population. The details of Mr. Stellwagen's compilations are given in tables 1 to 15, in the appendix.
In 91 of the 109 cities, facts were available on the automobile fatalities by two age groups--under 15 years of age and 15 years of age and over. Out of a total of 3,204 persons killed in the 91 cities, 1,180 or 37 per cent were children under 15 years of age. In New York City 50 per cent of those killed by automobiles were children.
Table 7 ranks the cities of 100,000 population and over according to their automobile accident death rate per 100,000 population. Cities of less than 10,000 population were not included in this population com parison because the number of accidents in them was too small to be indicative. Los Angeles had the highest death rate, 32.5 deaths per 100,000 of population, and Jersey City the least, 8.2 per 100,000.
With respect to the number of deaths per 1,000 automobiles registered the facts are shown in table 14. This would indicate that Chicago has the highest ratio of automobile accident deaths per 1,000 automobiles registered, and Spokane the least. Los Angeles, which had the highest death rate, based on population is twenty-second in rank when its death rate is based on automobile registration. Memphis has the third highest death rate based on populations, but is thirteenth in the list of cities ranked according to the death rates per 1,000 automobiles registered. Spokane is next to the last in table 7, and is last in table 14. We show several graphic charts with this text which may be of interest to our readers.
CHART III
BATS..
AUTOMOBILE DEATH HATE IN THE U. S.
per 10,000 AUTOMOBILES REGISTEHED .
1015 24.0 1016 20.8 10IT 18.2 1918' 15.5 1919 15.0 1920 12.0 1021 * IliO 1922 11.6
25
806 Twelfth Safety Congress
Automobile fatalities in the cities continued to increase at a greater
rate than fatalities caused by other vehicles. In table 13 we show that
there was no increase in a group of 103 American cities (1922 over 1921),
in the death rate from steam railway accidents and that there was an
actual decrease of nearly nine per cent from deaths in street railway
accidents. The classification "other vehicles" where the deaths are caused
by motor cycles, bicycles and horse-drawn vehicle accidents shows an
increase.
.
EXCLUDING DEATHS FOLLOWING AUTOMOBILE ACCIDENTS OUTSIDE CITY LIMITS
When the report of the committee was circulated in 1922, a number of safety officials and health officers of the cities remarked- to the committee that the intercity comparisons were not entirely fair, because the fatal accident records of the respective cities do not always reflect the traffic hazards of those cities. In many instances deaths reported for a city arose out of accidents which occurred outside the city limits. In its 1923 report, the committee accordingly made an effort to divide automobile fatalities according to the place where accidents occurred. In table 15 we show for 48 cities the automobile accident deaths which arise .out of .accidents occurring (a) within the city limits and (b) outside the city limits. Out of the total of 912 deaths ascribed to the 48 cities listed in table 15, 141, or 15 per cent, resulted from .accidents which occurred outside the city limits. On the other hand, many accidental deaths of residents of these
CHART IV
1906
isoe 1910 1012 1014
1916 1918
1920
1922
is,oog
12,000
11,000 10,000
9.000 8.000 7.000 -6,000 .5,000 4.000 5.000 2.000 1,000 o
Ptiblic Safety Section
807
very cities probably occurred in other places. It is, therefore, not really so unfair, for the want of a more accurate figure to use the official death rates tor automobile accidents as fairly indicative of the truth.
' CHART V i-------- 1--------------------------------------------------------- ;--------------------------
DISTRIBUTION OF
VEHICULAR FATALITIES in
AMERICAN CITIES FOR 1922.
.
i: _____ I
ECONOMIC ASPECTS OF THE AUTOMOBILE HAZARD
.
One of the major expenses devolving on an automobile owner is the cost
of his public liability insurance. Automobile public liability insurance
indemnifies the motorist against loss by reason o his legal liability to
members of the public for bodily injuries, including death, caused by the
operation of his automobile. Most motorists recognize the necessity of .<
taking out public liability insurance before operating their automobiles.
The data on collision and property damage insurance costs are not con
veniently available at the present time.
The following tabulation' shows the automobile registrations- separately
for private passenger and commercial cars, together with the average auto
mobile liability insurance rates charged in 28 out of 33 cities, which had a
population of 200;000` or over in accordance with the 1920 census. On the
assumption that all of the automobile owners in these 28 cities take out
public liability insurance, the annual outlay for that one item is
$107,363,000.
atAirr points in. general accidents statistics compiled
'
.
BT THE COMMITTEE
Now, automobile accident insurance rates are based on the accident experience of insured cars in individual cities. If the number of auto mobile accidents in any one city increases, then the losses which the Insur ance companies are called upon to pay increases in proportion,- and the
808
Twelfth Safety Congress
CITIES
1. New York Gty...................................................... 2. Chicago........................................................... 3. Detroit............................................................. 4. Cleveland................................................................... 5. St. Louis. - -................................................................ 6. Boston. -........................................................................... 7. Lo* Angeles....................................................... S. Buffalo............................................................................. 9. San Francisco. ................................................1 lO. Milwaukee.................................................... 11. Washington, D, C.................................... 12. Newark........................................................... 13. Cincinnati.......................................................... 14. New Orleans................................. 15. Minneapolis.................................................................. 16. Kansas City.................................................................. 17. Seattle, Wash.............................................................. 18. Indianapolis................................................................. 19. Rochester........................................................*............ 20. Portland......................................................... 21. Denver................................................................................. 23. Toledo.................................................................................. 23. Providence.................................................... 24- Columbus...................................................... 25. Louisville.................................................. .. 26. Oakland.............................................................................. 27. Akron.*.......................................................... 28. Atlanta...................................
No. Cars Registered
Passenger
216,516 175.000 248,424
82.065 76,763 41,037 175.000 40,000 67,844 31,500 43,509 45,000 36,851 21,258 55.000 55,000
53.000 47,000 35,000
37,351 42,971 37,653 24,281 32.577 26,748 21,122 29,815 16,200
.
Trucks
67.397 30,000 21.178 16.461 14,409 10,963 21.000 10,000
5,616 7,900 6,723 5,000 . 8,607 7,218 15.000 7,500 7,000 9.400 7,000 5,773 2,878 7,435 4,260 5,432 5.257 1.800 5,525 4.000
Average Liability Premium per Car
Passenger Trucks
9119
45 34
56 45 56 27 56 27 27 27 .34 34 27 34 34 27 27
27 27 27 34 45 27 34 27 34 27
*220
80 62 105 80 105 44 105 44 40 40 62 62 40 62 62
44 40 44 44 40 53 80 40 62 40 . 53 44
increased cost is passed on to the public in the form of higher insurance premiums. If. on the other hand,'automobile accidents decrease, then the losses for which the insurance companies are liable also decrease, and the public enjoys a reduction in the insurance premiums it is called upon to pay. Thus, it appears that If the number of accidents and, consequently, the amount of losses incurred in the 28 cities was reduced ten per cent, there would be a net saving of $10,736,300 to the automobile owners con cerned.
In the appendix, the committee has shown certain facts on the general ccident mortality record of the United States. These data are given be cause they are not readily available in published sources and because there was such a' favorable response to the data In the committee's report for 1922. The committee felt that not only should It endeavor to present ways and means of studying public accidents, but that it also was under obliga tion to publish concentrated data on general accident occurrence.
Table 1, in the appendix, shows the committee's detailed estimates of accident fatality in continental United States.. The table given in the introductory pages of the report shows only the more important causes of fatal accidents, for which an estimate could be made for the year 1922. In table 1 of the appendix no 1922 estimates are made, hut more details are shown for the year 1921, the latest year for which mortality data are available at the Census Bureau. Table 2 gives an estimate of accident fatalities per week and per day in 1921 and 1920.
A comparison of crushing accidents in the United States and in England and Wales during 1921 is shown in Table 3. Tables 4 and 5 give various age statistics, which were requested by several students of the accident
Public Safety Section
809
problem after the 1922 report of the committee was published. These data will be of Interest to a considerable number of readers of the present report. The percentage of fatal accidents at the various age groups Is shown In table 4. Trends of accident mortality are indicated in table 10 for both the United States Registration area and the industrial depart ment of the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company over the period 1911 to 1921. Certain data on the age distribution of the several broad classes of accidents according to origin of hazard are set forth in table 8. In table 9, for certain titles of the International Classification of Causes of Death, a distribution of accidents, according to origin of hazard is shown.
Mr. Stellwagen's data on automobile accidents In cities follow In tables 12 to 15.
CONCI/USlOIfS BX THE COMMITTEE FOB 1923
1. That each community prepare maps showing traffic movement along main arteries and subsidiary channels in order that traffic distribution and control may be made effective.
2. That each community prepare spot-maps of the occurrence of traffic accidents, so that local centers of hazard may be identified.
3. That intensive study be made of such local centers, graphically, and proper solutions indicated.
That local councils endeavor to have introduced by their police and safety officials the uniform- reporting cards prepared by the National Safety Council and that the resolution herewith presented be adopted, on the initiative of local councils, by boards of aldermen, common councils of cities and by city commissions.
RESOLUTION
The committee urges local safety councils, wherever possible, to have
the following resolution, adopted by boards of aldermen, common councils
and city commissions:
.
Whekeas : More than 14,000 of our fellow citizens were hilled by auto
mobile accidents on our public highways last year, and probably 15,000
will lose their lives in 1923 for this cause alone, and
*
tyhebeas : The prevention of these accidents depends upon accurate records of facts on when, where and how these accidents occur, and
Whereas: Such information can he obtained only if cities use uniform
and complete schedules for the recording and cooperative reporting of
such accidents,
'
Therefore be it resolved: That the....................................................................................
(Board of aldermen: Common council)
of.......................urges that the uniform reporting cards for public accidents,
(City)
?
as devised by the National Safety Council, be used by the Police Depart ment of the City of......................................................................... beginning with the
first day of
,192____
810 Twelfth Safety Congress
THE ATTITUDE OF THE MOTORIST TOWARD TRAFFIC REGULATIONS
Stephes S. Termm, ViCE-CirArKNtAJV, Brooklys Safety Coukoil, BBOosa.visr, N. Y.
This subject Is loaded to tbe muzzle. I, myself, am highly charged with convictions based upon a two years' intensive study of the whole problem of street traffic regulation.
If I wished summarily to dispose of this subject, I should simply suggest that you stand for five minutes upon any unpoliced street corner anywhere in this land, or tbat you sit beside a traffic court magistrate, as I have frequently done, or examine the records of our
New York City traffic courts, or, the greatest .indictment of all, that you squarely face the automobile death and accident statistics of this country, now registering at the rate of 15,000 deaths a year, or one death every 50 minutes, and 1,700,000 injuries a year. This means that one person out of every 70 of our entire population will be' killed or injured by an automobile during the current year.
What makes' this statement so tragic is the fact that it can be prac tically eliminated. The public cares not for the ratio of automobile deaths and accidents to the population; it demands that these killings and maimings cease.
Gentlemen, it is not my intention thus summarily to dispose of this subject; it is, on the contrary, my purpose to strike from the shoulder.
Our press and our public speakers talk a great deal about "bleeding Europe." Is it not time that they took up the question of "bleeding Americans" and how to stop "bleeding Americans?"
Let us get a proper perspective.
A well-known safety engineer recently said that fifteen years ago a majority of the owners and drivers of automobiles were citizens of some means and responsibility. Today, the millions of low-priced cars man ufactured and the enormous number of second-hand cars thrown on the market each year make possible the ownership of cars by a class of citizens, especially of young men, who are of the more reckless type. People of this class easily become victims of what is known as "Gasoline rabies," or "Gasoline madness."
Since this subject was assigned to me, I have discussed it with chauffeurs and with all classes of owners. I have also discussed it with the pedes trian. It is surprising to see the changed viewpoint of the motorist when he becomes a pedestrian.
As a general rule, the motorist resents any infringement of his so-
called "personal liberty" and views lightly his obligations to the public
upon whose sufferance he operates.
.
Today, the differences between Capital and Labor are no more- marked
than are the differences existing between the motorist and the pedes
trian.
-'
Public Safety Section
811
DIFFERENCES ABB PSYCHOX.OGXOAZ.
.
It is the law of psychology that those who are in a superior position
always press their advantages. and maintain it to be their right to do
so. It must be admitted that the man awheel occupies the domineering
position over the man afoot.
Fast driving seems to bring on a delirium and beclouds the instinct
of caution and sense of justice.
.
Another factor is the existence' in nearly every state of the union of
not only a marked disrespect for law but also a woeful lack of enforcement
of law.
The pedestrian, as an American citizen, naturally resents any in
trusion upon his prior constitutional rights, and especially if that in
trusion be by force.
The driver calls the pedestrian a "jay-walker;" the pedestrian replies,
"auto-hog," and the conflict goes merrily on, while the death and accident
roll goes disgracefully upwards.
I might say that the term "jay-walker" is a misnomer in more ways
than one, for, if the so-called "jay-walker" did not hop, skip or jump,
he would more than likely find himself in the hospital or in the morgue.
Let me read and editorial published in the "New York Herald" of
August 23d:
.
"The prior right of pedestrians to the use of the streets continues to
be upheld by the courts. In the Homicide Court, Magistrate Norman J.
.Marsh, holding a motorist in bail for the Grand Jury, expressed him
self as follows:
" `Pedestrians are not required to cross streets at the usual
crossing, although they should exercise greater care when they
do so elsewhere.
.
" `It is not enough for an automobilist to blow a horn.
" `When pedestrians are endangered the automobile should
be brought to a stop'."
.
-
"The burden of avoiding running down a pedestrian remains on the motorist even though the pedestrian has placed himself in what might easily become a. dangerous situation.
"The legal basis for this view has recently been set forth in detail by Magistrate Frederick B. House of the Traffic Court.
"I want to say to you that Judge House is without doubt the highest authority on street traffic regulations in this country."
Judge House said:
" `As a matter of fact, nobody has any inherent right to run an automobile at all, astonishing as this statement doubtless is to many people. The courts have held that the right to operate a motor vehicle is a privilege given by the state, not a right, and that privilege may be hedged about with whatever limitations the state feels to be necessary, or it may be withdrawn entirely. -
812
Twelfth Safety Congress
" `As a matter of law, it the legislature were in session today It could pass a law absolutely prohibiting the operation of motor vehicles in the State of New York, and if the law were signed by the Governor that would end the operating of automobiles. If it were more generally understood that the operation of an auto mobile is not an Inherent right people might be more ready to listen to the reason as to how they must be operated in order to protect the rights of the public'."
The Herald 'editorial concludes: "This doctrine should be expounded so often that no motorist could miss its meaning. The state has power to withdraw the privilege of operating an automobile from any individual who offends against traffic laws drawn for the public safety, or to pro hibit entirely the use of automobiles on the highways. When fines and even jail sentences fail to check the rising tide of street accidents the state might well have recourse to a broader use of its power to cancel licenses. Under the procedure recently suggested by the special com mittee of the grand jurors of Kings County, New York County and Bronx County that would appear to be the most effective weapon the state can employ in defense of pedestrians against reckless persons."
Brooklyn Traffic Court Magistrate Lawrence C. Fish is another jurist who publicly subscribes to this view of the prior right of the pedestrian.
At the formation of the Brooklyn Safety Council, President Arthur S. Somers, of the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce, who presided, said that while at one time Magistrate Fish was one of the most cordially hated of our judges, he had finally earned for himself the respect and regard of
the entire borough by his uprightedness and integrity on the bench.
In a number of our states this prior right of the pedestrian, is upheld by statute and by court decisions. Any modification of this prior right
of the pedestrian to the use of our streets would be in contrary to the common law of the land. '
Why, may I ask, does the great American Railway Express carry a
sign on its motor and horse drawn trucks, reading: "Safety First:
pedestrians have the right of way; in case of doubt, stop: take no chance
of injuring anyone."
-
THE IBBESPONSIBILITY OF MOTOB UW8
Now that we have. analyzed the position of the two always interested parties in the attitude of the motorist toward traffic safety regulation, let us go ahead and talk about the others who are even more responsible for this attitude of the motorist which is contributing so disgracefully to our record of street killings and. maimings in a land where we are supposed to be able fully to enjoy life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
The present New York State Motor Vehicle Law, not unlike the motor vehicle laws of many other states, is responsible for more deaths and injuries than any law ever in force in time of peace.
'Public Safety Section ,
813
Iiet me say that public opinion will demand .at the next session of the legislature an adequate motor vehicle law, and that one of the principal requirements will be that more of the state revenues from automobiles shall be used for the enforcing of such a law.
So far as licensing is concerned, we shall never have a proper state motor vehicle law unless it places the issuing supervision and control of the licenses absolutely in the hands of the police authorities of our municipalities.
Spealcing before Mayor Hylan's special traffic committee early this year, I said, and it was not contradicted, that within one week the auto* mobile killings in New York City could be :reduced one-half and its auto mobile accidents two-thirds.
But before this could be done, the Board of Estimate and Apportionment of the City of New York would have to sanction an increase of the police force sufficient to police the more than 4,000 now unguarded dangerous crossings in that city.
With all due respect to those who are working from other angles on this greatest of our civic problems, there is positively no substitute,
mechanical or otherwise, for the individual policing of the street crossing.
Before this could be done, our police departments would have to sub stitute the word "effective" for the word "practical" in their traffic lexicon. This is not a question of business or of dollars; it is a question of human life.
It Is the death rate* not the tax rate, which should concern everyone of us, no matter what our other Interests may he.
Before this could he done, some of our grand jurors would have to be con verted to the fact that an automobile killing is not justifiable or excusable homocide.
Before this could be done, some of our traffic court judges, too sympa thetic and too apologetic for such red-blooded work, and would have to be replaced by men who would not hesitate to put the fear of God into the hearts of smirking defendants, to whom a fine is only a joke.
We need more traffic judges like Judges Fish (Brooklyn), Mouse and Marsh (New York), Bartlett (Detroit), Chambers (Dos Angeles) and
Corlett (Cleveland)--judges who. will not only fine flagrant violators of
our traffic laws, but also jail them or revoke their licenses for adequate
periods.
. '.
.
Judge Bartlett said to me; "Jail sentences, in my opinion (and about
80,000 cases have gone through my hands of large and small violations)
do absolutely stop the reckless driver."
He also says that "the record of our Detroit traffic court shows that only three men who have been sent to the County Jail or to the House of Correction have ever been brought to the court on a second charge."
Judge Bartlett also contends that "human lives are more important
than anything else in the world, and no methods can be too severe to
save life and limb.".
.
814
Twelfth Safety Congress
MCST ESFOBCE EXISTING UWS TO THE LETTER
I maintain tbat before trying to change local traffic ordinances or reconstructing any part of a city, we should try to enforce the existing
ordinances to the letter, with the view of determining their sufficiency
or insufficiency. Why not universally visualize safety for the motorist and for the
pedestrian by marking all dangerous corners with broad white lines, and
then guard them adequately?
,
Parsimony and greed are the foundation-stones upon which will rest
the monument to the 15,000 killed and the 1,700,000 injured by automobiles
in this country in 1923An authority on the subject says: ` The total of American Casualties
in the World War--1917-1918 were 317,387; our total automobile casualties in the same period were 427,000; leaving to the credit of the automobile as the destroyer of life and limb 109,613.
By no means am I going to overlook the automobile industry, its allied industries and its affiliations.
Now, who should be more constructively interested in the attitude of
, the motorist toward traffic safety regulatiion than these Industries and
associations?
*
You know, as well as I do, how highly organized for defence is this
third most important industry of this country.
'
Despite the educational work of the admirable trade associations of the automobile industry, the death rate continues steadily to climb. Bet me suggest that these gentlemen endeavor to convince the motorist
that he is bound legally to operate his car so tha*. pedestrians may safely
cross our streets and highways, or that there may be a day of reckoning
for all concerned.
.
If necessary, and it will be necessary, let them spend some of the time
they devote to legislative work not only in protecting the automobile, but also in protecting the defenceless walking public.
One of the sanest men in the automobile industry is Glenn A. Tisdale,
President of the Franklin Motor Company. It is reported tbat Mr. Tisdale believes in cutting down the speed of the automobile, not only because it is bumane, but also because it is good business. He also believes, it is reported, that it is time for the automobile owners, manufacturers,
dealers and all others interested in the industry to stop fighting any and all legislation for the regulation of automobiles and to unite upon some means of bringing to an end this reign of killing and maiming.
Right here let me sound my warning to the men named by Mr. Tisdale.
If they do not get on. the job and keep on the job of changing the attitude of the motorist toward traffic safety regulation, so tbat our streets. and highways may be made safe for both motorists and pedes
trians, they will shortly find themselves under federal regulation, and
eventually in the position of the brewing and distilling- interests at this time. Increasing consumption at the expense of the public good sounded the downfall of the liquor interests, and history has a habit of repeating
itself.
.
Piiblic Safety Section
815
The pedestrian public Is Cast passing from an unvocal, unorganized and unheeded majority In this matter.
More and more are they saying that no man or government has the right to place so potential an instrument of destruction, as is the motor car, upon our streets and highways and in the hands of a man or woman who has not been rigidly and thoroughly examined to determine his or her fitness and moral and financial responsibility in the premises.'
THE GROWING DEMAND FOB SPEED CONTROL
Another growing demand is for a mechanical controller upon the speed
of motor vehicles, now built and sold with more than twice the speedwhich is presumptive evidence of recklessness. Another glimpse of the
popular mind on this subject is that the walking public Is beginning to resent being "public-safety-weeked" out of their prior rights in our streets.
Safety weeks are all right if you only have enough of them in the course of a year, and 52 Is not one too many.
Never was the help of the press more needed than in this emergency.
Here and there .we find a newspaper, like The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, taking hold of this traffic question without gloves; but the supineness of
the newspapers of this country in the face of an 'American automobile annual death-toll of 15,000 and an American automobile injury list of 1,700,000 is a blot upon the escutcheon of the Fourth Estate.
For several years the Kings County Grand Jurors' Association, of
which I am also a member, has been working upon the question of street safety. This body of public-spirited citizens, at their own cost, carried
through Safety Week in 1922. In that week they reduced the automobile death rate In Brooklyn from 23 to 6. Realizing, however, the immensity of this work, they contracted with the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce, resulting in the Brooklyn Safety Council, now organized. Already many
of our streets have been marked by broad white lines, traffic' towers
are in the course of erection and the police department is backing the movement to the limit of its available resources.
To be effective, we found, the safety education of the motorist and pedestrian, and that, of course, includes the children; must be constant,
impartial and closely tied in with the press and with the authorities charged with the administration of the traffic and education laws.
'The National Safety Council is. doing a splendid work on the industrial
safety side.
_
It is better fitted than any other organization to undertake the wiping out of these blood-stains upon our civilization.
This it can do by promptly calling in each state a council of the rep
resentatives of all the Interests which I have named, and tben and there determining upon and carrying through a plan of concerted action, having
only one end In view, the conservation of life and limb upon the streets
and highways of the United States of America.
, _ Gentlemen, while self-preservation may be the first law of nature, for
God's sake don't let us forget that the preservation of the lives of our
fellow-men is the first law of civilization.
816 Twelfth Safety Congress
HOW SAFETY ACTI VITIES FOR CHILDREN REDUCE
ACCIDENTS
R. CLew
Palheb, onservation Engineer, Equitable Lite Assurance
Society op the United States, New York City
On a recent trip made in the interest of National Life Conservation in general and Public Safety in particular, it was my privilege to study some of the work being done by the local safety organizations in Omaha, Denver, Salt Lake City, Spokane, Portland, Tacoma, San Francisco and Los Angeles, and- in every instance the subject of Child Safety was upper most In the minds of those directing the public safety work in these various places. This was to be expected; first, because there is nothing more tragic than the accidental death of an innocent child, and, second, it is coming to be recognized that in the education of the child lies the hope of success for our Public Safety work.
In order to indicate the importance of this phase of our Public Safety work your attention is called to the following startling records:
From information obtained through National Safety Council head quarters we learn that in 62 cities there were, in 1922, 3,372 automobile fatalities, of which 1,334, or 40 per cent, occurred among children.
It has been estimated that there were 14,000 fatalities in the United States resulting from automobile accidents during the year 1922; and on the basis of the 40 per cent ratio above developed we might assume that there were 5,600 children killed in "peaceful America" from this one cause in a single year.
From the 62 cities from which 1922 data Is available we have selected two groups, designating them as the major and. minor leagues. This sounds a bit more civilized than the big and little arena.
CHART I.
City
Popula tion
Num Number of
ber Children
of killed by
Chil
Auto
dren mobiles per
Killed Million
Population
1 Wilmington, DeL,
110,168 _ 3
27.2
2 Omaha, Neb.
191,601
7
36.5
3 Louisville, Ky.
234.891 10
42.6
4 Springfield, Maas. 5 St. Paul, Minn.
129,563
6
234,505 ' 11
46.346.9
6 Dallas. Tex.
158,976
9
56.6
7 Grand Rapids, Mich.
s New Bedford, Mass.
137,634 121,217
9 9
65.4 74.2
9 Bridgeport, Conn.
143,538 12
83.6
TOTAL
1,453,183 76
52.3
Public Safety Section
CHART II.
817
E Popula Num Number of
ber Children
of killed by
City
tion
Chil Auto
a dren mobiles per
Killed Million
Population
1 Portland, Ore.
258,288 7 27.1
2 Milwaukee, Wis.
457,147 15
32.8
3 Washington, D. C.
437,571 16
36.6
4 Kansas City, Mo.
324,410 13
40.1
5 Minneapolis, Minn.
380,582 16
42.0
6 San Francisco. Cal-
508,410 24
47.2
7 Newark, N. J. 8 Baltimore. Md.
414,216 733,828
23 43
55.5 58.6
9 Detroit, Mich.
093,730 63
63.4
10 New York City, N. Y. 5,621,151 413
73.5
u Cleveland, Ohio
796,836 65
81.6
12 Chicago, Illinois
2,701,705 248
91.8
13 Pittsburgh, Pa.
588,193 ' 71 120.7
14 Denver, Colo.
256,369 45 175.5
TOTAL
14,472,443 1,062
73.4
In the major league we have included all of the cities (14 in number)
which have a quarter of a million or more population, and which reported
to the National Safety Council for 1922. For the minor league we have
selected all other cities on the National Safety Council list (9 in number)
which have a population of 100,000 or more, and in which there is a
local of the N. S. C. It is regrettable that the Council did not receive
reports on children's fatalities from the following cities, in whom there are
local councils: Boston, Buffalo, Spokane, . Philadelphia, Providence,
Rochester, St. Louis, Seatle and Worcester.
*
Charts 1 and 2 have been developed on the number .of fatalities to chil dren per million population, due to the automobile. It is interesting to note that the city holding first rank in the major league is a Western city, and the city holding first rank in the minor league is an Eastern, city. Furthermore, their respective fatality rates are almost identical, with the honors slightly in favor of Portland, Oregon.
Having geographically located our highlights, we take pleasure in assisting the Oregon and Columbia Basin Division of the National Safety Council, and the Delaware Safety Council to bring their light out from under the bushel.
To Mr. Hugh H. Herman, general manager of the first-named Council, we are indebted for the following record of how children's safety activ ities are being promoted in Portland, Oregon:
81S Twelfth Safety Congress
OREGON AND COI.UMBLA BASIN DIVISION REPORT
Automobile Drivers' School: Every year we conduct a school for auto
mobile drivers. The course consists of* seven lectures on the basis of the
outline prepared by the national organization. The subjects covered last
winter were: the engine, lubrication, traffic accidents, electric system,
brakes, clutch, transmission and tires, the violator of law and common
sense. The best available experts in these lines present the subjects,
and each stresses throughout the subject of accident prevention. The
lectures were well attended.
_
School Safety. We have a permanent, continuing organization in the
public schools of the city. Each half year we reorganize the safety com
mittees in each of the 72 grammar schools of the district. In each school
committee is a subordinate committee, known as the Safety Patrol, whose
duty it is to pay particular attention to the street hazards before and
after school and during intermission. The committees combined con
stitute the Portland Junior Safety Council. Each member of the com
mittee is supplied with a button bearing the universal safety emblem,
and each member of the Safety Patrol Is provided with a green band
with the words, "Safety Patrol," in white letters. During the school
year one of our men, H. p. Coffin, devotes practically all of his time
to making the rounds of the schools, meeting with these committees, and
addressing assemblies of the pupils. Of these there have been 156 meet
ings during the year. In which the 49,000 school children heard safety
talks.
-
In addition we have organized the Junior Safety Officers, consisting of three boys from each school. Mayor Baker invests these officers with a metal badge, or "star," which is the symbol of his office. They are
known as the "Mayor's Junior Safety Officers." It is their duty to report through their principals violations of the traffic laws In the vicinity 'of their schools and in general to help prevent accidents on the streets and on the playgrounds.
The text used in this work is "A Course of Study for Safety 'Education in Oregon Schools," prepared by us, issued and made a part of the Com pulsory course of study by the State Superintendent of Schools.
In the school bulletin, issued each week by the City Superintendent and distributed to every teacher in the district, we have; a column in which we outline the work of the committees to be taken up during that week. We also have in each school an. accident chart on which all acci dents to school children are recorded. The interest of the children in each school In keeping their chart free from red discs, denoting' accidents to pupils of that school, is aroused, and a healthy spirit of rivalry is thus fostered. On this chart are recorded both traffic and school accidents. For each month during which there occur no accidents to children of a particular school, a green disc is pasted on the chart.
Junior Safety Rallys: A general rally of the Junior Safety Council is held once a year in the auditorium of one of the large high schools. All committee members and their principal or teacher advisors are in
Public Safety Section
819
attendance. The mayor of the city, superintendent of schools, members
of the school board, representatives of the police and fire departments,
and of course, officers of the National Safety Council, are present and give
short talks. Playlets, pantomimes, moving-pictures, etc., are also parts of
the program.
',
Playground. Safety. We have organized in each of the supervised public playgrounds of the city a safety committee among the children. _ The supervisor acts as chairman of the .committee. This is the third year this plan has been in operation and'it has proved very effective in con tinuing the work conducted in the schools during the school year. We have on each playground a chart similar to the one used in the schools. On this playground safety rules are-printed. Other instructions regard ing safety off the playgraund are also printed on this chart. Spaces are provided for discs representing accidents that occur on each playground. This also is an extension of the school accident chart. We keep up con tinuous rounds of visits to these committees so that their interest is not permitted to lag.
Public Safety Bulletins: We have made arrangements whereby we are now posting 200 public safety bulletins each month In various prom
inent places throughout the city. These are changed every two weeks.
These places include the City Hall, Court House, Police Headquarters,
Auto Camping Grounds, prominent corners, and auto garages. We have
been doing this about a year.
'
Go-operation, of Other A.gencies: We have had hearty cooperation on the part of the newspapers. Police Bureau, Fire Department, The Auto mobile Club, Garage Owners Association, and other similar organizations.
STATISTICS
The record of fatalities in Multnomah County, in which Portland is
located, for the years 1919 and 1922, is given below:
"
1919 Total fatalities ...................................................................... 179 Automobiles ..............................r............................................ 42
1922 125 37
Of the 37 automobile fatalities in 1922, seven were under 21 years of age.
This division of the National Safety Council was organized late In 1919, and did not really begin effective work until 1920. Hence, we may say
that during the first three calendar years of its existence, 1920, 1921 and 1922, this Division was in large measure responsible for the reduction of 30 per cent in the number of fatal accidents. This, in view of what we all recognize to be a rapidly increasing hazard, and a post-war attitude of disregard of human life, is a record of which we feel justly proud.
School Children Statistics are: -
Traffic Accidents.from slight to fatal
Fatalities ............................................................
Dec. 1, 1920, to
Sept. 1, 1922
1Z 3
June 15, 1922, to
June 15, 1923
37 -3
820
Twelfth Safety Congress
During the past year, we have had 156 meetings with school safety committees with a total attendance of approximately 3,500. We hare held 90 assemblies of school children with a total attendance of approximately 49,000. We have conducted 54 playground meetings, with an attendance of approximately 10,000. Other meetings at which safety was presented from the viewpoint of public accident prevention reached an additional 2,500 people.
DELAWARE SAFETY COUNCIL'
Whenever we speak of the Delaware Safety Council we at once asso ciate with it the dominating personality of Lewis De Blois, who, I am sure all agree, has been very largely responsible for the splendid organiza tion developed and the very creditable results obtained.
REPORT OF DELAWARE SAFETY COUKCrE
Safety instruction in the schools has been very effectively carried out under the supervision of Superintendent of Schools D. A. Ward, our Vice president in charge of education. Instruction in. safety subjects is now given in all the city schools and in many schools of the state. The school supervisors committee, consisting of eight instructors in local schools, has accomplished very good results. The members of this committee have met on an average of once a month and each supervisor has taken active charge of safety work in three or four schools. Dr. Payne's book on accident prevention has been supplied all schools and with the aid of this manual, bulletins, copies of the National Safety News and other publications supplied by the Council, safety instruction is being given in part of a period each week in every school of the city.
School safety officers were appointed and. served at each school. The more competent boys were selected for this work by the principal and a
designated teacher. The Safety Council provided each junior officer with
an arm insignia which designated him as an official school safety officer.
These officers went on duty at hours when children were either coming
to. school or were being dismissed. They assisted the smaller children
across the street, kept them from playing in the streets, or hooking on
to passing vehicles, supervised the play around the school, eliminated dangerous objects and conditions and in every way assisted in safe
guarding the lives of school children. Two or more of the safety officers
at each school were provided with band signs, similar to railroad watch
men's "stop" signs which bear the inscription "Slow-School Zone." The
boys were stationed a short distance away from the school on the curb
and by raising the "Slow'' sign warned approaching motorists of the
presence of school children. This work has proved very effective in teach ing the need of greater caution to all pupils. It gave the boys serving as
safety officers an incentive for better school work and also gave them
training in responsibility. The general public was favorably impressed
with the work of the school safety officers, and with very few exceptions all auto drivers appreciated having their attention called to the school
zone.
'
Public Safety Section
821
A mass meeting was held at the Queen Theatre, April 21, 1923, through
the courtesy of the management of the theatre. Short safety talks were given by Superintendent Ward, Sergeant Hahn of the Police Department, and plans for using school safety officers were explained by the Council's secretary. The safety film "The A. B. C. of Safety," secured through the
National Safety Council from the Detroit Board of Education was shown (this film was also shown at a school rally at Pennsgrove, N. J.).
General safety talks were given in all schools throughout the year by the secretary, assistant secretary and Sergeant Hahn of the Police De
partment. Talks explaining the plan for using school safety officers were given by the secretary in 10 schools and the junior officers were instructed in their duties at 15 schools.
Arrangements have been made to hold a final mass meeting Saturday,
June 16, 1923, in the Queen Theatre. Certificates of merit signed by' the Superintendent of Police, President of the Safety Council and the prin cipals of the schools, will be awarded the boys who have served favorably as School' Safety Officers. Bronze medals will be awarded the Safety Officers who have performed their duties in the most meritorious manner.
A safety playlet will be given by the pupils of No. 9 school at this meeting. Demonstration Centers: In recognition of the excellent safety work
accomplished in the local schools the National Safety Councii has selected
Wilmington in which to establish demonstration centers for safety work. Schools No. 2 and No. 9 have been chosen for these centers. The Edu cational Section of the National Safety Council has provided material and
methods so that safety instruction can be made a part of the regular cur riculum studies. The secretary of the Educational Section, Miss Mary N. Arrowsmitb, visited Wilmington several times this year and has assisted in arranging for the work. When the safety instructions in the two
centers are functioning properly, invitations will be sent throughout the state and surrounding districts inviting teachers to inspect the demonstration here. Arrangements have been made to exhibit samples of school safety work and the methods explained so that every visiting
teacher may obtain the information necessary to incorporate safety in
struction in all their curriculum studies.
'
Highway Essay Contest: We were again given entire supervision of
the National Highway contest which is conducted annually by the National Highway Board of Education. A large amount of material explaining the purpose and rules of the contest were distributed throughout the state by us. The completed essays submitted by the school children and
the safety lessons submitted by the teachers were judged by a commitee of three appointed by this Council. L<. A. DeBlois, vice-president of the Delaware Safety Council, George Heath, head of the Wilmington High School English Department and Charles Bush, principal of the Friends School judged the essays. Miss Dorothy Yearsley of Port Penn, Delaware, won the first prize, Evelyn Hahn of this city won second prize and Virginia Griffith of the Harrington, Delaware, public school won third prize. In addition to the state prizes awarded by the National Highway Education Board, this organization awarded five bronze medals. These were won
822
Twelfth Safety Congress
by Fred Francis, Claymont Public School, Frances A. Smith of Clayton
Public School, Mina Hopkins of A. I. du Pont. School and Frances Hay
Hullihen, Newark Grammar School, Anna McGinnis of the Wilmington
public schools. Miss Ethel Wilson, one of the teachers at No. 9 school,
Wilmington, won first prize in the safety lesson contest. No state awards
were given for the teachers' contest. However, Miss Wilson's lesson
and the .first prize essay were forwarded to Washington and entered
In the National contest.
.
Continuation School: A series of .Saturday morning safety talks were
given in the Wilmington Continuation School this spring. The pupils of
the continuation school are employed in local industries and attend this
school every Saturday morning. Talks on general safety, automobile
hazards, traffic dangers and safety in the home were given by represent
atives of the Council and Sergeant Hahn of the Wilmington Police De
partment. By this series we were enabled to reach a class of children
not ordinarily reached by school safety activities.
.
Publicity: This report would not be complete without giving credit to the newspapers for the splendid, effective cooperation given the Safety
Council. Practically every day of the year the local press carried safety
articles and pictures. The newspapers gave liberal support to all school
safety campaigns and every activity carrie'd out by the Council. They
prepared many safety articles themselves and wrote ^hundreds of strong
editorials on accident prevention. As a majority or all accidents are
public accidents and as the public is probably most effectively reached by the newspapers the value of the assistance rendered by the local press
is evident. No exact record of this amount of publicity given the Safety Council throughout the year has been' kept, but in recent months under
the direction of J. B. Humbf we have given about 500 column inches of
space every month. Pictures have been used freely and cartoons which
have made striking appeals to the public have been printed at various
times.
TACOMA SAFETY COUNCIL
At this Congress we will hear mainly of the activities developed in the eastern and central sections of the country, and I am sure it will be interesting to hear from another Pacific Coast Council that has been doing things in truly western style.
Information obtained in' Tacoma sets forth the following record for that city as to the number of traffic accidents for the past two years, in which children of school age were either killed or injured:
Year 1921 1922
Accidents ' 53
37
' Fatalities 6 2
Upon inauiry as to whether the two fataities for 1922 were automobile fatalities, this telegram was received from Tacoma:
"Your telegram this date regarding two street accidents last year one child was killed by automobile and the second while playing in street dashed suddenly in front of street car."
Public Safety Section
823
On the basis of the 1920 census, which save a population of 96,965 to Tacoma, the one child killed in the automobile accident gives them a rate of 10.3 per million population. It is unfortunate that this information was not included in the statistics supplied to the National Safety Council, as it would seem that Portland is not the only city in the West that is setting an example to the country at large in how to protect the child.
Outlining briefly, it might be said that safety work in the Tacoma schools was started 10 years ago and sponsored by Colonel H. G-. Winsor,
a staunch supporter of the National Safety Council. At that time the
program consisted of safety talks only, but the following year there was
organized what is known as. "The Tacoma School Safety Scouts."
.
At the close of the school year 1922-1923 there were issued 2,422 Safety Scout buttons to pupils of the 4th to the 8th grades inclusive. Of this number 435 earned scout commissions and 12 of them received prizes for the best essays or reports.
Nineteen of the 28 schools in Tacoma went 100 per cent this year, which means that every pupil from the 4th' to the 8th grade inclusive
in each of the 19 schools had qualified as Safety Scouts. '
The Safety Scout Pledge of the .Tacoma School Safety Scouts is as follows:
1 will work for the Safety of others as I would want them to
work for my Safety.
.'
I will try to be careful all the time, everywhere.
I will not take unnecessary chances of getting hurt and will
warn others against doing so.
I will do my part to help reduce the number of accidents this
year.
.
All this I will do for the sake of humanity and the honor of my school.
`
This is a pledge that could well be taken by all, and it is interesting to note that the progressive Kansas City Council has just adopted this same pledge for the members of their Junior Safety Council--another tribute to the leadership of the Tacoma Council.
The Safety Scout Guide developed for the Tacoma School Safety Scouts can be obtained either through National Safety Council headquarters or from Colonel EL G. Winsor, direct-
It has come to be so generally recognized that the Boy Scouts of
America is one of the greatest agencies for Safety in this ,country today,
that it is not necessary to more than mention the fact in closing this
paper bn How Safety Activities for Children Reduce Accidents. Scouting
prevents accidents by teaching the Scout to think, then act. What
greater precept is there than this?
-
824 ' Twelfth Safety Congress
Here's to the Safe Scout!
"Keen clean face of the embryo man, . Above the kerchief that shows your clan; Conquer the world as you will and can! We dip the flag to your long, long file. And the whimsical vim of your Boy Scout smile."
If it is ordained that the child shall lead us, then why not follow their lead?
' DISCUSSION
Mr. Pond: I am from Minnesota. I understand Connecticut has laws licensing all drivers. If that is true, I should like to ask in what pro portion of the examination does the matter of ordinances and laws of the state and city enter into the examination.
Mr. Stoeckel: The whole matter of licensing drivers is a state law. Every driver has to he licensed and the new driver has to be examined before he can be licensed, and has to pass an examination. The state law governs all management of automobiles in city and country districts, but there are certain phases not covered by state law covered by ordin ances in the cities. Matters such as stopping alongside a fire hydrant, or things of that kind, hardly ever extend to the ordinances, but are covered by the actual driving directions in the law, and the examination is mainly into the personality of the merL
Mr. Pond: I should like to ask whether, when that law was enacted, there was any confusion in the original examinations of those who already operated cars.
Mr. Stoeckel: We didn't have examinations of those who were already operating cars; we started with those who came after the law was enacted.
Mr. J. P. Maloy (General Accident Insurance Co.) : I would like to ask Mr. Dow if in his recording of accidents in New York City he has any information relative to the number of machines coming into New York for other parts of the country that are the cause of accidents?
Mr. Dow: The records do not show the proportion of accidents due to out-of-town vehicles. We do have a registration; approximately IMiJM come in from the outside.
Mr. Maloy: You have never tried to find out what part of the state they come from?
Mr. Dow: The greatest proportion of that number is from aahazhaa districts around New York.
Mr. Maloy: It occurred to me that would be very valuable data. The Statistics might show that a great many accidents are caused by people going from rural districts to the cities.
Mr. Bradley (Milwaukee Electric Railway and Eight Co., Milwaukee. Wis.) : Mr. Stoeckel, among his recommendations, included the provision of some speed governor for automobiles. I wish to ask the comment of members present as to whether it would seem to be at all possible or
Public Safety Section
825
practicable to bare a governor provided for automobiles to limit speed.
Would it be possible to set it at say 35 miles, and would that prevent
large numbers of accidents?
'
Major Havens (Grand Hapids): They use the governors on all their
cars; they have about 30 automobiles now. They set that governor at
25 miles an hour. Of course, going down hill they cannot regulate speed
by the governor, but they tell me that they are having fewer accidents
since they put governors on their cars than they had before that time.
Mr. F. P. Walker (Detroit) : Mr. Hanrahan of Chicago gave a- paper
in our session this morning that illustrates very clearly what can be done
with governors on their trucks. I understand that in Chicago their trucks
are governed, down to a maximum of twelve miles an hour.
WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON SESSION
Chairman Van .Schaack: We have been requested to ask the Nom
inating Committee to present its report first, in order that we may have the Chairman selected who will be able to attend the meeting of Chairmen
tomorrow.
Mr. Anderson: Your nominating committee presents to you the name of the present chairman for reelection, Mr. David Van Schaack; for first vice-president, Mr. L. H. Palmer, general manager of the United.
Railways and Electric Company of Baltimore; for second vice-chairman
Walter C. Boynton, director of publicity of the General Motors Corpora tion, Detroit; for the third vice-chairman, Mr. A. B. Wright, Buffalo, and
for secretary. Julian Harvey. Chairman Van Schaack: I would 'suggest that, as it is asking too
much for a man to put his own nomination to a meeting, Mr. Anderson take the chair. Mr. Anderson took the chair.
Chairman Anderson: What is your pleasure?
'
(Motion made, seconded and carried that the nominations be closed.)
(Mr. Van Schaack took the chair.)
PUBLIC SAFETY FROM CITIZEN'S VIEWPOINT
A. S. Goldsborough, Manager, Merchants and Manufacturers'
Association, Bai.timoke, Md.
There isn't any man in this country who gives to personal rights a stronger status than your humble servant; there is no man who believes bhk In the value of personal rights than your humble servant, but I have no patience with any man or with any woman or any combination eC men and women that undertakes to preach the falacious doctrine that the item of personal right is the supreme possession of the American
If you and I went on the theory that personal right was to be the controlling and dominating influence with each and every one of us there wouldn't be anything in the way of restraint on the action of men, women and children. I merely allude to this that you and I at the very twt may understand that it is my belief that man has got to regard
826 Twelfth Safety Congress
the restraints of civil, social and religious influence in order that he may
fit in to what you and I call the civilization of this modern time, and
when I say "civilization" I don't mean the educational phase of mental
development, but that great complex machine that you and I fit into every
moment, and which you and I know from our observation and experience
is getting more complex every day.
When I talk to you about the ..attitude of the citizen I am here to make the statement that every citizen has the right to demand safety,
it matters not where we go.
Why, it is appalling, if we leave our own home and have no sense of
security after we have left it in fear that if any of our family, our chil
dren or those who are dear to us, wander beyond the security of their
own premises, it is impossible to tell what is going to happen! Yet, you and I are face to face with that situation every day, because the accidents
we are piling up as the results of indifference and neglect are becoming
so manifold, the world itself is beginning to stand aghast when it reads
the statistics.
'
I sat this morning in one of the sectional meetings of the taxicab companies, and I was appalled to hear a man there say that the prob abilities were that in Chicago this year there would be nearly 1,000 killed
by the automobile.
.
If you and I were to learn on the morrow that an epidemic had attacked
a certain city in this country and had swept into eternity 1,000 souls
there. 24 hours wouldn't pass, before all the public opinion and power and force of men and women in action would demand the municipal author ities to enact laws that would hold In check the possibilities of a repeti tion of that thing.
Down in Galveston many years ago the city was overwhelmed by a
tidal wave. Everybody knew that it was serious, that it was tragic, that
it was murderous in Its effect and instantly there came into the brains of everybody there ways of preventing the repetition of that particular experience, and Galveston got busy and built bulwarks that stand like fortresses between them and danger.
The reason I call attention to that is, my friends, because I think you and I might understand we are face to face with, a crusade that is no longer a fantasy of somebody's brain, but you and I are playing with
blood; you and I are playing with life; and you and I are certainly play
ing with possibility of mutilation and mangle, unless we perform our part and unless we are conscious of the fact that there is an incumbent duty on each and every one of us I can hardly feel the crusade can make
Its proper progress. We play with danger so intimately that we hardly
realize it. The tragedy of it!
.
' FAMTLTABITX WITH DANGER BREEDS CONTEMPT
Let me give you an illustration. You take a little child about ten or twelve years of age who has been accustomed to living in the rural sections surrounding a city, take it into the vicinity of the railroads, where there is a complex network of the railroads and the puffing of the locomotive
Public Safety Section
827
is heard every minute and all the activities of that kind of life are
portrayed, and attempt to take that little one's hand and lead it across
the track. Instinctively, the child will hold back and will repell the
idea of your leading it into a network of danger like that. It is not
a subconscious but a visual demonstration that along those tracks are
running machines that might mangle its bones if it made a misstep.
You take a child that plays in and around those tracks every day. To that child the locomotive and moving cars means nothing. They play hide and seek around the freight cars. They do this for the simple
reason that they are utterly familiar with the situation day after day,
and it robs the child of the sensitiveness or consciousness whereby it
believes there is real danger there.
Let me give you another illustration, but somewhat far-fetched. Have
you ever watched a child play with a lion's cub? I have. I have seen it fondle it as it would a kitten, the two rolling around the floor playing
together. I have seen a child with its face illuminated with the joy of
being with this animal that seemed harmless to it, and as the years rolled by and the cub became the strong king of the forest nobody ever dreamed that there might be danger there, particularly. for the child,
because the child was reared with the hazard. Yet when one would
least expect it some little thing would anger and arouse the lion force and, before anybody was aware, the strong jaw of the king of beasts
would crush the bones of the little child.
Now, my friends, these examples may seem to you extreme, but the. fault that I have to find with the average citizen it that you and I play with these same lions every-day, and because of our familiarity with them, because of the fact that we come in touch with them almost every moment, because of the fact that we see them and they do us
personally no harm we delude ourselves into the belief that there is no possible hazard to be found there. And yet, what do the statistics tell us?
People trust to luck! What do you mean by that? Simply because
you go out of your house 364 days in the year and nothing happens
you come to the conclusion that you are immune from danger, that some guardian angel you don't see with your eye, is holding the wing of protection over your head so that you can move along absolutely conscious
of perfect security; while you are thus deluding and congratulating your self upon a- sense of this kind some careless man in the sixth story of the building beneath which you are walking knocks from the window
some kind of commodity that strikes your head and crushes your brain,
and there is no reason why it should ever have happened, no reason why
your life should have been snuffed out. There is no reason why your
consciousness and security should have been a real security, but it was
not, because somebody was not thinking.
VXGir.ANCE IS OUR SAFEGUARD
There is only one kind of luck you and I can depend. on so far as my limited observance as an average citizen would declare; the one thing I have reference to Is the much used and abused word "vigilance," wide
828 Twelfth Safety Congress
awake observation of everything that is going on, and feeling, each man and each woman, for himself and herself, that each is definitely respon sible for everything that happens.
Have you ever stopped to think, my friends, that if every man and woman was careful as to how, we could reduce the matter of accidents almost to zero. Take this crowd here, for example. If every man and woman in this particular assemblage during the remainder of his or her days should so conduct himself that neither by act nor neglect, so plan his life that not a single force would be put into play to cause damage to somebody else, think of the supreme knowledge of joy that would come to all of us under a consciousness of that kind. That is just exactly the character of the campaign that is needed, that we should place first upon ourselves, and when we are conscious of the fact that we have converted the individual ego, or unit, into a dependable security watching human being, then he can spread his influence to the next human beings with whom he comes in contact and by geometrical progress of spreading out like a fire, it grows larger and larger and larger until the great impact of an impulse like that goes infinitely further than you or I dare for a moment to dream of.
Every unvigilant, negligent, careless man handling any instrumentality or any commodity which, by negligent handling may mangle, may destroy another human being is an incipient criminal and we must talk about this in plain English, because the mere matter of pussy-footing on anything that involves the safety of life and limb or the joys of physical existence is absolute cowardice on the part of us all. I don't believe half as much in incriminating, punishing, locking behind the prison bars the man who is negligent and indifferent in causing death and damage as I do in the policy of prevention, because one damage prevented is worth fifty lockings of a criminal behind the bars.
The greatest general is not the man who is greatest in offensive war
fare; history tells us that the greatest generals are the men of defense,
the men who can place themselves and their armies between hazard and
the people depending upon them, and so when it comes to all of the mul
tiplied perils that surround you and me every day, and we begin to think
about the seriousness of it all and understand it is getting worse by the
minute instead of better by the minute, it is a definite lesson that the
time has come when you and I as an obligation have got to find the ways
of prevention and move the forces that form an obstacle between danger
and those whom we love or respect.
.
I'know some people say, "Goldborough, when any man makes a state ment of that kind he is presenting a difficult problem," but God pity the man who has not the nerve to act when he sees the difficulty face to face. The difference between the man of red blood and real vigor and the pusillanimous type is the man who when difficulty presents itself, draws himself up like a man and asks for the opportunity to act.
Public Safety Section
829
If the Safety Movement has a meaning that you and I believe men and
women should be guided by, then I am here to make the further state
ment as a citizen that some instrumentality must be utilized in order to
accomplish that.
-
. MOULDING PUBLIC OPINION
Public opinion is the great thing. No individual can arouse it alone. What is needed Is some strong, persistent, subterranean force working on the minds and consciousnesses and selfishnesses so as to consolidate men into a resolution that they will work, work and work, until public
opinion ripens into that situation where it won't stand for any condition such as the one we are confronted with.
It is a mere matter of the mental attitude of the public. You and I may organize these bodies all we please. I think the National Safety Council and all its coordinate parts is absolutely indispensable to the work in this country. There is no need to say otherwise, because it is in harmony with what I said a moment ago. It is one potential factor stimulating and stirring and rousing and flaming public opinion so that it has a definite view and a definite purpose.
Just one more word by way of illustration, and I have finished. I have great faith in sentiment. I believe anything can be accomplished if we feel right. I think anything is in the grasp of achievement, the mind and the heart working in unison.
You don't need anything better than what you can draw from the events of the late war to show what X mean. Go with me Just a moment to the fields of Verdun. You remember the tragic moment! You remem ber when it seemed as if the last hope of the world was there about to
be crushed! You remember how the ponderous hammer of the adversary was striking the lines of the allies every minute until it seemed as if by virtue of those strokes the line would be penetrated and Paris captured and the whole hope of the allies gone? Do you know how the adversary poured out gases that seemed to come from the mouth of hell itself, hoping that, by overcoming the foe, matters could be brought to a crisis? Not a matter of reinforcement! Not a matter of more artillery! Not a matter of more shot and shell! Not a matter of multiplication of the materialistic weapons and instrumentalities, but down in the trenches one of the men started to say to himself, "They shall not pass," and it was caught up, "They shall not pass," and then it spread from company to regiment, "They shall not pass," and then it spread from corps to corps and from division until the boys on the English Channel and the
boys in the Adriatic were singing in unison with the French, "They shall not pass!" Exaltation that seemed to petrify the bodies and make of each human unit something solid as rock of the earth itself, and you could not budge them! You could strike with a hammer, pour your sul phurous gases out, use all the forces you pleased, but something In the mind had taken possession of the men that had made them more than men, because they felt, not simply heard the command, "They shall not pass."
830 Twelfth Safely Congress
Oh, what a glorious motto for us engaged in this very crusade arcrurul us! You men will find it in your work; you will find differences, scoffings, discouragements, laughings, all kinds of people who will try to betrifle your cause, but behind that barrage are all these multitud inous manglings and mutilations, the forces of danger. Are we going to stand by idly" because someone laughs, and let them come? Are we going to stand by and let them break through our lines, and the civiliza tion of our land become one . of blood instead of safety? I am here to say that the motto for you and me, men working with the National Safety Council and the citizens who are cooperating with them, is that these dangers must not pass.
If you men do your duty, if other citizens do their duty, and we all do our duty and live like men and fight like men the day is coming when instead of a thousand deaths from one death-dealing instru mentality alone in Chicago we will find the thousand reduced to such a small number that the world will say that that army of safety workers is entitled to the gratitude of the American people and the whole world.
Chairman Van Schaack: I find it necessary for me to ask your toleration. I must absent myself from this meeting; I have another engagement which, makes it necessary to turn the chair over t,o someone else, and with your permission I will ask Mr. Remmers of St. .Louis to conduct the meeting from now on.
(Mr. Remmers took the chair.)
METHODS OF STUDY OF TRAFFIC MOVEMENT IN RELA TION TO TRAFFIC ACCIDENT PREVENTION
G. G. Kelcey, Manager, Traffic Engineering Division, American Gas
Accumulator Company, Elizabeth, N. J. The traffic problem is too complex to be solved by a few formulas or generalizations, based on half information. No one can say how the traffic situation in any locality is to be treated unless, with a Tew basic principles in mind, he clearly studies it and gets down to rock bottom facts. Organize the facts and they will suggest, their own best remedies. Find the cause and treat it, and the effect--the traffic conditions which trouble us--will be relieved. Getting basic facts involves sucb a mass of detail and there are so many variables to bring into line that few municipal officials have attempted a thorough investigation of traffic conditions. On the other hand, officials are always hampered by obstacles arising out of legal, financial, commer cial and political conditions against which they feel helpless. Since these obstacles can only be overcome by an adeauate and complete presentation of the facts and a definite and convincing plan of action, it is essential to make such a study and present the facts to the public. From every standpoint traffic is an administrative and not just a depart mental problem. Its treatment calls for the coordinated activity of almost all municipal departments. The purpose of this paper is not to outline the scope of extensive traffic surveys which are the work of experienced
Public Safety Section
831
investigators with ample funds and time. It is intended rather to suggest
avenues of investigation which can be' studied by any municipality and
which will lead to the development of' a plan of action which will take
advantage of every existing opportunity to improve traffic conditions with
the least expense.
.
. For convenience the discussion is divided into two parts, the first of '
which is Traffic Movement and the second. Traffic Accidents.
'
TBATTIC MOVEatettT
*
Traffic Artery Map. Main traffic arteries connect the heart of a city
. with its entrances and drain adjacent areas: Concentrate traffic through
definite channels and the problem of control is simplified and accident conditions are greatly improved.
Select a large city map and block out areas which are sources of or receive large volumes of traffic. Traffic flow is between -such areas and
into and out of a city. Show clearly each congested area and all traffic
bottle necks or heavily congested points.
Mark main traffic arteries on the map in color. With a second color
trace heavily traveled secondary streets or connecting links. If the city
is well planned the map will now show all areas adequately linked up by
traffic channels which afford easy passage with least interference. Mark out with a third color desirable routings not at present available, but which can be used if improved.
Congestion in most citieq. is due to inefficient use of street area rather than to the lack of it. The business section of nearly all cities is used
as the distributing point by traffic enroute to all sections. This traffic
should be routed around because it interferes with the more necessary
use of business streets.
.
As an example, one city was found to have little used streets which,
when linked up, served to carry about 10,000 vehicles a day between two
areas in twenty minutes less time with great relief to the business area
through which these vehicles formerly passed.
"-*
The City Flan Committee of Buffalo is planning a circuit traffic boule vard around its business area that merits consideration by all municipali ties. The cost of tearing down buildings and other expense for this im
provement in Buffalo will be great, but it will be nothing to the cost of
present conditions which-the improvement will correct.
To by-pass traffic by routing is merely to distribute the peak of the load of heavily traveled streets over less used, but convenient routes. The question of routing is so important that it justifies exhaustive study to
determine what conditions require it and how it should be done. One slow moving truck holds up a long line of vehicles. Truck and other slow
vehicle movement should be studied and routings provided which will
be convenient and yet leave other routes clear for faster vehicles. It is impossible to mention all methods and possibilities of routing in a paper
of this length. If the suggestions outlined above are carried to this point,
careful study of the traffic movement will show what additional routings
can or need he arranged.
832
Twelfth Safety Congress
Without accurate and effective, directional information any system of
routing will be useless. Complete directional information, properly placed,
is a courtesy to visitors and a means of breaking down established habits
of local motorists to the end that they will take routings by which they
can reach their destinations most quickly even though they may not
always go by the shortest distance.
As a traffic survey develops it will be found that some streets selected
for a main flow of traffic are not in proper condition or that short con
necting links have to be cut through. If funds are not immediately avail
able, such streets should be given preference in the regular paving pro
gram because of their importance in the plan. With the traffic movement
map developed to this point it is now possible to consider how traffic
movement may be further aided.
'
Right-of-Way stop Plan for Main Arteries. In Chicago the right-of-way
or boulevard stop has been in successful operation along the boulevards
which checkerboard all portions of the city. All side street vehicles are
required to come to a full stop before entering or crossing a boulevard.
With right-of-way for main traffic, vehicles can reach distant points at a
high average rate of speed.
Side street traffic is rarely delayed more than a moment. This it
quickly makes up because of the uninterrupted ease with which it can
then proceed to its destination.
'
A tremendous flow of traffic passes over these Chicago boulevards at
an average speed of about thirty miles an hour and there are remarkably
few accidents. Traffic safety may be illustrated by automobile accident insurance rates, which for 1922 in Chicago were approximately 60 per
cent lower than in Mew York and about 40 per cent less than in Buffalo,
yet the traffic in Chicago is very dense and there are many difficult condi
tions to contend with.
Block System. Great interest has been manifested in the`Fifth Avenue,
New York, block system, by which all north and south traffic is halted to
permit the movement of all east and west traffic, and vice versa. This
system is good where it can be applied, but it does not always flt. If
conditions are right, a simple test of the plan can be made. Install an
inexpensive system of bells or buzzers along the street to be tested so that
an officer at a central point can give an indication of ono ring for move ment in one direction and two rings for traffic movement in the other to
all officers on duty along the main artery under consideration. This test
meets all the requirements without the rigidity of a more complicated system of signalling and in many cases can be indefinitely continued with
complete satisfaction. ~
'
One-Way Streets. One-way streets, well worked out, are an excellent
solution for many congested traffic conditions. A study of traffic condi tions should show where congestion or narrow width of streets require
one-way traffic. One principle which should be followed Is that each one
way street should have an adjacent one-way street to carry traffic in the
opposite direction; that is, each must balance the other and one-waystreets as a system ought to produce a rotary movement of traffic.
Public Safety Section
833
One-way streets are, in the beginning, frequently subject to a great deal of criticism. For this reason it is absolutely necessary to be right and to defend the plan so that it remains in operation for at least a year. At the end of this period, if it is right, those who criticized in the beginning will oppose reversion to the old two-way traffic plan.
Safety Zones. Without safety zones, vehicles may not pass a stopped street car except under conditions of street width which are rare. They
834
Twelfth Safety Congress
may, however, pass a car stopped at a safety zone. One has only to watch
a- line, of vehicles unable to get by a street*: car to realize the congesting
Influence of stopping traffic at each car stop. Safety zones materially
speed>up traffic movement. Careful study of traffic conditions will indicate
where such safety zones are necessary.
'
Parking. It is obvious that, when street storage of vehicles Interferes
with traffic movement, vehicles In transit have the superior right. 1 Our
streets must not be garages. The cost of street space and Interference
with business frequently exceeds the cost of drastic measures to eliminate
parking. In many cities storage areaSi in vacant lots or buildings must-
be developed even though great: expense is involved.
The first step in solving the parking problem is to eliminate from con
gested streets, vehicles of the half or all-day parking variety. Many
cities have reduced parking on congested streets to twenty minutes or
one-half hour, and some of them have eliminated parking altogether
from such streets.
Street Cars. Street cars must interrupt vehicular traffic as little as pos
sible. As a means of speeding up the movement of street cars, the skip-
stop plan, put into effect in Buffalo some years ago, is interesting. Cars
outside of the business district stop at every other corner on the outward trip. Incoming cars stop at corners skipped outbound. This has materi
ally improved vehicular movement.
The outski'rt plan of fare collection is also an aid to traffic movement.
By this plan the passenger pays his fare getting on on the inbound trip
and getting off on the outbound trip. This permits cars in the congested area to load and unload quickly at both entrances and makes fare collec
tions a matter of a few passengers at a time as they get on or off at out lying points. In some cities the time of street cars through the business
area-has been improved from 30 to 50 per cent by this method of fare
collection.
.'
A careful study will frequently indicate street car stops which can be
eliminated and which unnecessarily hold up traffic in congested areas.
The matter of street car routings Is a whole study in itself. Such rout
ings are often inefficient and study frequently brings out great relief to
traffic movement by street car reroutings which also benefit street car
service. The basis for study of street car movement should be a separate
map which should show street car routings, directions, important stops
and loading points, and switch backs. Improvements of the proper sort
usually prove profitable both to the public and to the traction company.
It is important to demonstrate such advantages to both sides.
Another important phase of the street car situation is the equalization
of the load. Employment hours can often be arranged to spread the morn
ing and evening peak- over longer periods. Distribution of the peak load
is to everyone's advantage and helps to reduce accidents.
Economic Aspects of Traffic Delays. The function of transportation is to
carry goods and passengers from one point to another with greatest
economy, dispatch and safety. The cost of bad traffic conditions always
exceeds the cost of correcting them. One or two examples are given with
Public Safety Section
835
the thought that they may be useful in developing the economic consider
ations which must' be presented if recommendations for improvement of
traffic conditions are to be approved.
Trucks frequently cost their owners considerably in excess of $3.00 for each hour of service. On-the other*-hand-, few vehicles with drivers have a value of less than $1.00 an hour. The average certainly exceeds that amount. A vehicle delayed one minute a day represents a loss of
six hours or at least $6.00 a year. If the average vehicle loses ten minutes a day, which is usually low, the annual loss per year per vehicle is $60.00.
This amount is the Interest at 6 per cent on $1,000. In other words, the
loss of one minute a day per vehicle justifies a capital expenditure of
$1,000 per vehicle for the correction of the conditions which caused the
delay. If there are a thousand vehicles in operation, the justifiable ex
penditure is $1,000,000.
v.
-There is another aspect to traffic delays and congestion. Each city has its trading or buying area and each large or small business district
in a city has also a trading area. In the days of the horse and buggy, trading areas were small. With the- automobile, trading areas expanded.
Congestion is now contracting them. The result Is that cities with least congestion are gaining commercial advantages and are absorbing other
cities' customers because many people living between prefer a longer
drive rather than suffer traffic inconveniences. Similarly, new business sections are growing up in the outskirts of cities because congested con
ditions of the downtown or business area. Congested area business men should approve rather than oppose traffic improvements. Congestion Is an important factor in the volume of trade; it can stifle trade and it has already shown evidence of stifling the growth of some cities.
' TBAFFIC ACCIDENTS
' Traffic accidents are due to general conditions such as carelessness, lack
of traffic discipline, and to conditions, local to troublesome points, which usually invite accidents.
It is obvious that the only way to correct accidents is to find out where they occur and what causes them. It is easy to find 'in 'cities that there have been accidents at certain points, but how many and what caused them is rarely recorded. Few cities can state the high points of their accident problem.
A few cities have accident pin maps jipon which are shown, by various colored pins, where accidents occur, the type of accident and the degree of its seriousness. As a cluster of pins begins to develop, it immediately shows up- and Is the basis for prompt and effective remedial action. Such cities start' a new pin map each year and- the old ones are held intact for reference:- This tack record'should'be on a very large wall map'of the city. For the correction of accidents there is hardly anything else that-is quite so important as this pin map picture, which any city can- maintain at practically no expense or trouble. ' .
As a basis for a preliminary.- study - of accident conditions, it is sug gested that a complete tabulation of accidents, of various types be made
836
Twelfth Safety Congress
for a year. Select a large map of the city and, by means of a dot or pin for each, accident, spot the information. Accident concentrations will immediately show up.
To Illustrate accident concentrations, it has been found that In one city of 600,000 almost 30 per cent of all serious accidents on record con* centraled at 87 points, and in another approaching a million in population 38 per cent of all recorded accidents were at 64 points, and in another of 100,000, 46 per cent of all accidents were at 57 points. Such Information points the way to definite and effective action.
now INTERSECTIONS FIGURE IN ACCIDENTS
It is unpossible to go into all of the causes of accidents and their treatment. However, a major portion of the accident problem Is at street intersections and it may be interesting to state a few of the facts involved. From 85 to 90 per cent of all accidents usually occur outside C usisrstwl districts and approximately 70 per cent of all accidents wUZ he focad at street intersections. It is obvious that the major prnhlism sC accidents is at street intersections in the areas outside of the business asettea.
Close observation shows that approximately 68 per owt eC entK-- In eastern cities turns from one street into another fnrfclc r Ce Che left of the center of the intersection. This illustrates the rale tta nfle can be counted upon to follow lines of least resistance in sptte sC aS ngahtioiis to the contrary. At street Intersections a short left bend cans, which can be made without reducing speed, is a course of least xaaiMSfhCt which the greater part of traffic follows. Such traffic gets oa the wreac side of two streets and unexpectedly intersects all other traffic end paAastrflaas at an acute and dangerous angle.' When traffic intersects eft l>,*r** aagles accidents rarely occur. This is clearly demonstrated by soismspwnj lux illustrations.
Street intersection accidents can be almost entirely diahaied by properly placed obstructions which block out lines of least rosfrrvnre which are wrong and which will establish low resistance paths which make the proper course the only convenient one. In other weeds, make the line of least resistance the right thing to do and most traffic problems can be automatically solved. Obstructions used for the correction of traffic problems must be signalized; the important point to bear in mind, however, is that an obstruction and signal are both necessary if the work is to be properly done without an officer constantly In attendance.
Another element which produces accidents is low visibility, due to projecting buildings or objects at points of traffic hazard. Bad curves, grades, railroad crossings and frequently, also, the type of pavement, all claim their toll of accidents. Pavement which gets t slippery in wet weather, for example, should never be used on grades.
Safety zones are necessary in business or congested areas for the con* venience of street car passengers. They are also necessary where it is found that accidents occur due to lack of safety zone protection. Su.ch places are usually at heavy transfer points.
Public Safety Section
837
An investigation of this sort will indicate a regrettable lack of accident information. In conjunction with a pin map and a study, such as the one suggested above, there is nothing so important as good accident data. To secure this, the report of accidents should be compulsory and the pre liminary report, either by the motorist oc by a patrolman, should be the basis for a thorough investigation of each accident by a special man or men who are trained for the purpose. Such information should be organ ized and studied so that the causes and concentrations of accidents may be determined and eliminated as they develop.
838
Txcelfth Safety Congress
CHART VIII
A TRAFFIC PRINCIPLE
ILLUSTRATING THE PRINCIPLE
If InCe mrcli a( a rtfbt angle there is no coofim*n. If it iatmcds at an acute angle, the canfmion area multiplies as tlae ancle and speed increase.
PATHS OF LEAST RESISTANCE
This principle is illustrated by the safety of those who use the normal cross walk and those who cross trafic diagonally.
EFFECT ON PEDESTRIANS
About 68 per cent of trafic follows ibis shortest and easiest course despite all eon* trary regulations. Note vehicle moves fast
and pq *rong side of two streets*
Pedestrians, looking for vehicles in opposite directions, might as well eross corner diag onally. This condition grows worse if view is cut off by buildings.
`
Public Safety Section
CHART VIII--Continued
839
effect on other vehicles
RIGHT ANGLE-CONTROL SPEED
peeled intersection with other caw. Danger* oas eddy currents extend considerable dis tance beyond intersection.
TREATMENT OF NARROW OB CAR TRACK STREETS
If all vehicles turn around center* trafir intersects at right angles and under control. Note right angle at cross walks. Accident* rarely occur under these conditions*
WIDER STREETS PERMIT CENTER INSTALLATIONS
must effectively mark the obstruction and have strong moral value on traffic.
SPECIAL TREATMENT FOR WIDE STREETS
that traffic cannot disregard or pass over them. They must make the right path easi est to follow and wrong paths difficult.
BLOCK OUT PATHS THAT ARE WRONG
Use low iron markers painted white as an aid to keep traffic in proper paths. White linej are useful* hut not as * effective as markers.
840 Twelfth Safety Congress
CHART VIII--Continued
ACUTE ANCLE STREETS DANGEROUS
CREATE SAFETY AREAS
Trafie always lakes the shortest cut across an area. Wade flare of acute angle streets as particular!; dangerous to pedestrians.
RECULAB INTERSECTIONS
Traffic can be channelized and made orderly if proper areas are marked out or curbed. Two methods of treatment shown, one crosshatched and one dotted.
CIRCULAR TRAFFIC
When several vehicles take short cuts at the
same time, accidents are frequnt. Condi
tions shown above invite accidents.
.
TRAFFIC DISORDER
Circular traffic, where it arstav. m thr ndt solution. Rotary aMmaret iW mfc ideal.
TRAFFIC 0&8CI
It took four officers to handle this situation. Accidents were frequent and there was much congestion.
eliminated. easiest.
Right paths were made the
(Copyright August, 1923, by Traffic Engineering Division, American Gas Accumulator Company.)
Public Safety Section
841
Accidents at street car stops involve a triangle of circumstances. When a street car slows down, motorists behind rush to get ahead to avoid delay. This coincides with the effort of pedestrians to signal and to reach a street car. During hours of darkness and even in daylight, the danger to pedestrians under such circumstances is obvious.
Traffic Discipline. Traffic discipline - is the necessary respect for the rights of others and for traffic regulations. It develops as a result of impartial and strict enforcement of regulations' which are simple, reason able and just. Traffic discipline in any city reflects the quality of all who have to do with it. There are few factors in the solution of the traffic problem so important as discipline and few so hard to accomplish.
Safety Education. There is no more essential work in the solution of the traffic problem than that of education of the motorists, of the pedes trian public, and most important, of school children. This subject has been exhaustively gone into and there are a number of excellent treat ments of the traffic and safety educational movement. These are referred to in the bibliography at the end of this article.
The Cost of Traffic Accidents. Figures given out in 1921, and since con firmed by various investigators, place the average loss per person in the United States at approximately $15,00, or $1,500,000 for each 100,000 of population. Recent reports from England indicate a similar loss to the population of London.
All cities can secure lower insurance rates by reducing accidents. One city which has been investigated can, by the correction of less than 30 per cent in accident conditions, and this is within easy reach, reduce insur ance rates so that there will be an annual saving in insurance premiums of over $30.00 each, or of $2,207,000 to its 60,000 motorists.
The cost of traffic accidents is briefly reviewed above with the thought of establishing an annual cost which -each member of the population must bear. The average cost per individual in the United States is undoubtedly in excess of $15.00, and this represents six per cent on $250.00. All cities could, therefore, expend $250.00 for each individual for the correction of accidents, assuming that such accidents could be reduced 100 per cent. If only a 30 per cent' reduction is secured, then $80.00 is the justifiable expenditure.
Cost of Handling the Problem. From work which has been done so far in the development of engineering treatment of traffic conditions and properly installed signal systems, it is evident that traffic at most trouble some points can be handled mechanically in terms of twenty-four hours a day rather than during a single eight-hour shift. Men at $1,600 to $2,000 a year are too expensive to maintain at any point of traffic danger which can be as well handled mechanically. Men are necessary to maintain discipline and there are many points at which a man must be stationed.
842 Twelfth Safety Congress
The problem, must be solved and it does not involve the use of less men so much as it "does to avoid the addition of many more. Present forces are adequate to handle the situation and to maintain the necessary traffic discipline.
The cost of mechanical correction is one-tenth to one-twentieth the cost of additional men. An officer prevents all accidents at a point during his eight hours of duty. At least 50 per cent of all accidents occur during the other sixteen hours. On this basis, mechanical correction, which can certainly average 75 per cent twenty-four hour improvement, should be applied wherever it can be effectively used. This phase of the problem requires good engineering and proper signalling.
Busmess and. Political Antagonisms and Jealousies. When anything
new is done with a local traffic problem public attention is immediately
focused upon it and, since traffic is one of those subjects upon which
everyone has an opinion, it is important to do whatever is necessary to
have everyone come to the same conclusion. The question of proper
publicity, by which the public's ideas on traffic can be properly guided, is
very important.
.
Little can be done with traffic without stepping on the toes of a business man, merchant or political group. Nothing should be attempted, therefore, which is not carefully studied and known to be right and once put Into effect, it should have all the defense necessary to make it stick. A half hearted attempt usually does serious harm. In many cities the only way to work effectively with the traffic problem is to organize a group of local business men who work with the city officials on the traffic problem. Of course, care must be exercised in the selection of this group and such a committee must have punch and power.
If possible, the best method of overcoming financial, commercial and other antagonisms is to make a complete survey and to present the sub ject in such a fashion that everyone's advantage overbalances small group or other antagonisms. One of the strongest things to be presented is to show the cost of conditions as they are and to establish that the losses which result so greatly exceed the cost of improvement that there is only one course to pursue and that is to correct the conditions.
In two municipalities within the last three months local groups inter ested in traffic have defeated in local elections their town administrations on the basis of inaction or adverse action to traffic improvements. The time is not very distant when one of the most important planks in any municipal program Is going to be a program of improvement of local traffic conditions. The presentation of definite evidence of loss due to traffic conditions properly made compels action.
Public Safety Section
843
SOURCES OF INFORMATION'
The following sources of information contain many valuable suggestions for traffic improvements:
"XJnchoking Our Congested. Streets," Robert H. Whitten, Advisor, Cleveland
City Plan Commission, pamphlet No. 194, American City Magazine, Tribune
Building, New York. N. Y.
__
"Speeding Up Traffic at Intersections," Herbert S. Swan, city planner, 15 Park Row, New York, N. Y., Engineering News Record, March 1, 1923.
"Our City Thoroughfares, Shall They Be Highways or Garages t" Herbert SSwan. American City Magazine, December, 1922.
"Bay and. Night Storage and Parking of Motor Vehicles," Hugh E. Young,
engineer, Chicago City Plan Commission, American City Magazine, July, 1923.
A series of articles on traffic: "Traffic Engineering," "Traffic Engineering in Trenton," and "Traffic Engineering in Buffalo," by Or. G. Kelcey, Traffic Engi neering Division; American Gas Accumulator Company, Elizabeth, New Jersey.
Proceedings of a Conference on Highway Traffic Regulation at Yale Uni versity, May, 1921, under the auspices of Highway and Highway Transport Committee, Washington, D. C.
"Pacts and Figures on the Automobile Industry," National Automobile Cham ber of Commerce, New York, N. Y.
Traffic data and reports. National Safety Council, Chicago.
"How Are Your Driving Manners," Motor Magazine. May. 1922.
Traffic Map. of Downtown Boston, Parking Spaces and One-way Streets, Boston
Evening Transcript.
'
"Adequate Parking Facilities," William P. Eno, Eno Foundation for Highway
Traffic Regulation, Washington, D. C.
"Science of Highway Traffic Regulation," William P. Eno. Washington, D. C.
"Relation of Electric Railways to Traffic Regulation," W. H. Maltbie. Traffic
Officers Journal, New York, June, 1922.
"Traffic Restriction and Segregation/' Engineering and Contracting, Chicago. December, 1922.
Information on the success of one-way streets, Traffic Departments of Pitts burgh, Detroit, Philadelphia, New York.
A Bibliography on Education and Accident Prevention and other material. National Safety Council, Chicago.
A course of Study in Safety Education, Detroit Public Schools, Harriet E.
Beard.
-
Public Education and School Safety, Safety Council, Chamber of Commerce,
Rochester, New York.
,
Safety Instruction Manual for Cleveland Public Schools, Board of Education, Cleveland, Ohio.
The following magazines publish important articles on Traffic: National
Safety News, Chicago; American City Magazine, New'York'City: Traffic Officers
Journal, New York City; Engineering News Record, New York City, and Engi
neering and Contracting, Chicago.
_
REPORT OP MOTION PICTURE COMMITTEE
David S. Beyer, Chairman, Vice-President and; Chief Engineer, Liberty
' Mutcal Insurance Company, Boston, Mass.
The Chairman of your Motion Picture Committee is pleased to be able to report real progress this year in the completion of the first safety film ever produced directly by the National Safety. Council.
Because the novelty of the motion picture in safety work has a strong appeal, and because the impression seems to prevail that the National Safety Council has unlimited resources, there has been a very insistent demand from our members for new films.
The matter of supplying these films has not been a simple one, how ever, for the yearly dues that you pay to the Council are on a "service
844
Twelfth Safety Congress
at cost'* basis, and before any additional features, sucb as the production
of safety motion, pictures can bp undertaken, the funds must first be
provided. To produce a good motion picture with a^ professional director
and cast and standard studio effects, costs real money.
.
How your committee started a finance campaign for six pictures that first fell short, and how the committee then revised the plans and finally came through with a fund sufficient to begin the production of three films is a long story, and I shall not attempt to relate it in detail.
FELH COMPLETED EST SHOE! TIME
On June 18, however, we received a telegram from headquarters saying the way was clear for the first film, which it was hoped could be ready for showing at the Buffalo Congress, October 1st.
We had already been in touch with a director of national reputation, and we engaged him at once and instructed him to hire the cast. He was able to sign up such talent as Stanley Walpole, Ruth Gale, Jimmy Ward and Madeline Ford. The scenario was thoroughly gone over, the studio was hired, property man, carpenters, electricians, boys and girls for the "mob scenes,'' etc., were employed, and actual shooting of the picture began on July 16th. Five weeks later, the film was given a pre liminary showing before the executive committee of the Council, at Atlantic City. A number of changes were made following this showing, and the result is the completed film, "Ask Baddy," which is being given its first public exhibition at this Congress.
It is hoped that one or two additional films may be produced this fall or next spring, and that the sales and rentals of these films will bring in enough revenue to finance succeeding films, and so on "ad in
finitum." A number of orders have already been placed with the Council for copies of the picture, and if you want a copy I would advise you to place your order promptly, while the negative Is new and unworn.
Sale and rental prices for the film can be obtained from the Council headquarters in Chicago.
How a perfectly good auto robe was sacrificed in- the cave scene to
make a costume for the leading lady, who, as she first appeared, would
have made a hit in the front row of the "Follies"; how the cave man
wearing a wig, a beard, and a small piece of leopard skin was chased
through the woods by our wolves; bow Frank Morris played a part that
ranged from chief turtle-catcher to the pompous-looking M.D. in the pic
ture; these and similar incidents helped to lighten the long days of
hard work.
.
As to the success of our labors, you can judge that for yourselves, if you will watch for the next showing of "Ask Baddy."
Mr. Bradley (Milwaukee): In viewing the picture last evening I was impressed with the possibilities of its use for starting off clubs which would continue and be effective with something more than merely a little flash in the pan, and the plan of Mr. McBrayne in using the A. B. C. button as a kind of reward for effective work appeals to me greatly.
Public Safety Section
845
SAFETY IN PLAYING THE PUBLIC'S NEW SCIENTIFIC
GAME-RADIO
S. E. Whiting, Chaibman, Radio Hazabds Committee, Pdblio Safety
Section, National Safety Council
The report of the committee has been published iu the September issue of the National Safety News. We have decided that there isn't any very serious hazard in radio work. There Is practically none in receiving set operation. There is some in receiving set installation, if you con sider the erection of out-door antenna, but that hazard is almost obvious,
yet needs a word of caution, because there have been eight to ten death cases from the installation of out-door- antenna.
The use of the batteries has not been particularly hazardous but when you get into the charging of a battery by connecting it through trans forming equipment to lighting circuits remember that' when you are handling the regular lighting hazard that is not particularly harmless.
There are rules given in the draft of the code^of the report for such installations, and also for out-door antennas, and those rules should be followed.
There is also a chance when you get up to rather elaborate sets where you use a battery that runs high in voltage perhaps over a hundred volts, that serious or fatal shocks might result.
.1 don't _ think you are particularly interested in the transmitting stations, although his report goes into them somewhat. It is quite a technical matter, and we can leave it to the expert putting in transmission sets.
The troubles I bad at first in that work were due to the ignorance of the
possibility of getting currents in neighboring electric circuits, but those
hazards were more fire hazards than accident hazards.
.
.
This report should be credited not to the committee, but to the National
Safety Council headquarters, and to Mr. Roseland who supervised that
preparation. The committee itself merely O. K.'d the matter, and the
real work was done by National Safety Council itself. We wish to reprint'
the code in pamphlet form for distribution, and on that account we
would like to get any criticisms or suggestions for alteration in the
report before that reprinting is done.
FACTS ABOUT A COMMUNITY SAFETY ORGANIZ
ATION AND ITS WORK
C. M. Talbest, President, St. Louis Safety Council
The avowed purpose of a local Safety Council should be the prevention
of accidental injury to every human being, either through the agency of
himself or of others, within the geographical scope of the Council. From
the very nature of the community In which a Council may be organized,
its work divides itself quite naturally into two classes, namely, industrial
and public safety. The problems of industrial safety are such as make
their solution comparatively simple, and there has been, for some time,
an established standard of principles and methods.
'
846
Twelfth Safety Congress
PUBLIC SAFETY' WOKK MOKE COMPLEX
The matter of public safety is, however, more complex; has been studied
and worked upon for a much shorter time and is yet probably far from an
established standard. The matter has been much in the public press and
mind and much theorizing has been done, with a tendency to do still more.
For these reasons, it has seemed worth while to present, in as concrete
form as possible, just what has been done by one local Council in the hope
that it may serve as a guide to others, having in mind that reference is
made principally to its work in public safety.
'
Without reciting the history of public safety work or enumerating the
various phases through which it has progressed, it may be stated that the
following have been proved true, viz:
'
That no business interests acting alone can do successful public safety
work.
That no single organized body can do effective work outside of its own membership.
That no group of municipal officials working alone can do so.
That it must be by organized effort of representatives of business, com mercial, industrial, civic, school, church, municipal and other active interests.
That a local safety council must establish itself in the eyes of the com munity and particularly in the minds of the newspapers as an unselfish, stable, permanent body.
That results must be achieved through education of the individual him self and all effort must be to this end of individual thought and care for himself and for all others with whom he may come in contact.
RELATION TO NATIONAL SAFETY' COUNCIL
It is assumed, of course, that all local councils shall be chartered by
the National Safety Council and shall conduct its affairs in conformity
with its general principles. Without touching the details of the desir ability or necessity of this connection, it may be stated that human expe rience has shown that humanitarian work of a general character must,
to be successful, have some central, governing and directing body. The experience of the Red Cross, Y. M. C. A., Salvation Army and many others
proves this.
` "" ,
However, the details of planning and carrying out the local work must of necessity be left to each unit as follows:
SCHEME OF. ORGANIZATION
...................
Placed in the order of their relative importance," th'e" fundamentals " of
a Council would be:
" ' "'
1. Executive Organization
2. Financial Support
3. Working Committees ... .
Public Safety Section
847
Consider in detail these present the following:
Executive Committee: This Is the dominating unit; for, upon it, de volves the duty of determining all matters of policy, finance, methods, and, in fact, all activities of the council. It must consist of men and women who, for some reason, have an active interest in the work;, who have such standing in the community as will reflect a credit upon the council, who fairly represent the different interests of the city, who have been at least moderately successful in their own business, and who will give the time necessary to study and understand the problems and to pass a fair judgment thereon. They should number at least twenty; should meet once a week; hear reports of all working Committees; discuss such matters as may be presented and be prepared and let the majority rule. There should be on the committee representatives of at least the follow ing: organizations and interests that give financial support, municipal, authorities, police, schools, churches, improvement associations, etc.
Executive Officers: These should be men, not only of sufficient ability to conduct the affairs of the council but of such standing in the city as to. be a credit to it. No individual should he 'selected unless he can and will give of his time and energy so much as may be needed. -
Secretary Manager and Staff: One of the very first facts developed in
public safety work was that while the executive committee might devise
a plan, yet the actual progress must be through some individual or in
dividuals whose first and only duty is this work; in other words, that
while it was absolutely necessary for non-paid individuals to act as
executive committee members, it was equally necessary to have a salaried
officer to see that the plans of the committee were carried out, thus was
developed the Secretary Manager and subsequently his staff. The staff, as
the council progresses, increases to include an Industrial Engineer, a Pub
lic Safety Engineer, a Membership Secretary, a Financial Secretary and
necessary clerks and stenographers.
-
The successful secretary manager needs to be a careful selected in dividual; he should he a man of vision and enthusiasm,----a good talker, of presence sufficient to meet properly the man of affairs on his own ground and yet hard headed enough to conduct his own office in a busi ness-like way, and particularly to keep clear of financial rocks.
The industrial engineer should be a practical mechanic and familiar with shop practice and operation. His duties are to canvass industries for membership, to visit plants of members and to give practical help in advancing safety therein.
The position of public safety engineer is rather difficult to fill, for it is he who must be the practical man, with considerable experience in the diversified problems of traffic, capable of compiling and analyzing statistics of accidents^,'suggesting remedies where bad conditions are shown, and capable :at properly representing the council in traffic conferences of busi ness and -other interests.....................
' '`Finances: ^hefinancial support of public safety work was one of the very early problems and one which of necessity must be solved if a- Council
848
Twelfth Safety Congress
was ever to reach a point of stability and permanency. Without reciting the trials and stages of development, it may be stated that the following definite conclusions have been reached:
That to be even fairly successful, there must be a definite and depend able income.
That any attempt to provide this by a system of voluntary contribu tions, either through a small number of contributors of large sums, or a large number of contributors of small sums, or a combination of these two, while it might serve to help a temporary situation, was neither dependable nor desirable as a permanent system.
That the matters were of such universal concern that some scheme should be devised of presenting to each business and personal interest a request for a definite sum, based upon the logic of the work to be done, the manner of doing it, its cost in dollars and cents, the interest of the party in question and the proportional part that they should pay.
This was done in our case by preparing a budget showing just how
funds were to be. expended. Next, by tabulating the various interests to be approached, such as public utilities, commercial bodies, etc., and assign ing to them their proportional part of this budget and requesting them to pay it into our treasury as their--not contribution--but proper propor tional part of an investment for: the reduction of public accidents. A proof that this can be done we cite that our largest St. Louis utility--- the street car system--has been for four years, in the hands of a receiver appointed by the United States Court. The company was told that their proportional part was $4,000 per year. To obtain this, the entire matter was presented in turn to their claim adjuster, the general manager for the receiver, the receiver himself, the referee appointed by the Court and finally to the federal judge, as well as to the attorneys representing the
owners and bond holders. For three years, this appropriation has been annually approved by all those mentioned and paid to the council.
This type of membership has been designed as Class A and, in 1922, paid into the Council Treasury $10,153.60. Class B is composed of busi ness and professional men who voluntarily pay a $10 fee for a member ship certificate amounting in 1922 to $4,017.50. Safe Drivers' and Safe
Pedestrian Clubs contributed $4,592.00.
-.
At the end of each year, a financial statement is prepared by a certified public accountant and a copy furnished to each Class A member and given
such other publicity as may be possible.
COMMITTEES-----EXECUTIVE, ADVISORY AND GENERAL
The first committee of the council and the one' of final authority in all matters is the executive committee. As the interests of the St. Louis safety council developed, and an increasing number of matters were pre sented to the executive committee, it was found necessary to supplement
this with others and to adopt a method of procedure that would conserve
Public Safety Section
849
the time of the executive' committee and allow it to be concerned more with principles than with details. There developed first, the working committees, under each of which was to be carried on the active work assigned to it under the following provisions:
That the work of these Subordinate Committees should be outlined by the executive committee.
That the method of carrying on this work should be subject to the approval of the executive committee.
That matters presented to the executive committee and pertaining to any specific committee should be presented to and reported upon by the committee before any final action should be taken by the executive committee.
That details of matters within the province of a specific committee should be presented to such committee and should not be discussed at executive committee sessions. This for the purpose of conserving the time of the executive committee.
These general committees have reached the number of twenty, and a complete list of them and an outline of their duties is appended hereto. Some of the more important of these will be discussed further on.
Advisory Committee: As the council has, in the course of its develop ment, assumed a more important place in the community, an increasing number of matters have been presented to it and more numerous requests have been made for its participation in affairs. For this-and for other reasons, it was deemed advisable to form an advisory committee, which would consider and report to the executive committee upon all matters affecting the policy and finances of the council. It was felt that this com mittee should be thoroughly conversant with the history, growth and pur poses of the council, as well as its financial situation. Its membership was made up, therefore, of all past presidents, whose interests and council it was desired to retain, and its then existing executive officers.
General Committees: As stated, these are the results of a gradual de velopment and did not always follow in logical, sequence, some of the later ones being found to be of far greater importance than some of the first to be organized. They number, at the present time, about twenty, and it is altogether likely that some of them will be discontinued and their work merged into others. Too many committees may easily present too complex a system. These relations of these to the executive committee has been partially noted. Their further relations are as follows:
The chairman is ex-officio a member of the executive committee. They must submit their general scheme of work to the executive committee for approval and must receive such approval before putting them into
practice.
Matters within the scope of any committee must be referred tp it and
In turn, must report to the executive committee with a recommenda
tion thereon before final action may be taken by the executive com
' mlttee.
.
8f>0
Twelfth Safety Congress
No committee may exceed its budget without a further appropriation by the executive committee.
The principal working committees are: Membership, Finance, Legis lative, Law Enforcement, Foreman and Superintendents, Plant Visits,Playgrounds, Police, Publicity, Safe Drivers' School, Schools, Statis tical, Traffic, Vigilantes, Women's.
The duties of these are, in most instances, evidenced by their title. What was actually done by each of them and the others not herein enum erated is given in detail in one of the accompanying exhibits. As evidence of what may be accomplished by these committees, a few specific instances are given.
Traffic Committee:
At the instance of the Council, the Mayor called a meeting in his office
of representative citizens and business men, the result of which was
the appointment by him of about 25 to act as an unofficial body to study
the traffic needs of the city.
'
Legislative: At this same meeting, it was agreed by those present, that three men, viz: the City Counselor, a representative of the Safety Council and a representative of the Auto Club should revise the traffic code of the city.
Law Enforcement:
.'
A complete digest of the court situation, for the past four years, was made and given to the press.
Playgrounds :
When the School Board, the present summer, voted to close all school,
grounds and cease all recreational work for financial reasons, this committee organized public sentiment to such an extent that the Board-
rescinded its action and continued the work in a modified form. A
great many such instances may be given but these will serve to illus
trate what may be done.
.
deccauatiox or prixcxpai.s :
As the council developed, it was soon evident that there must be some definite declaration of its purposes and its methods of pursuing them and that there must also be some statement made of the matters in which, it would not participate. In a short form, this Declaration of principles, as it came to be known, was stated in the last published report as follows:
"The aim of the Safety Council is to reduce industrial, public and home accidents and fatalities through educational activities carried on in the factories, schools, churches, public utilities, on the streets, and in the homes; also for the promotion of health and the avoidance of danger and waste from fires. Its functions with City and State authorities, assisted by civic organizations and other agencies to further the principles of safety. Its endeavors to accrue co-operation between-the
Public Safety. Section
85X
police, the courts and public, in an earnest effort to obtain better laws and proper enforcement of existing laws and regulations affecting traffic conditions on the streets--all vitally necessary to a safe com munity. It endorses no private commercial interest or candidate for political office."
TRAFFIC STUDY AIDS PUBLIC SAFETY WORK .
Of all the hazards that affect personal safety that of the automobile has become the dominating one, and it is certain that, as the number of ma chines continue to increase, so will the danger from them also increase. The hope of all engaged in safety work is that this danger shall not in crease in the same proportion. To^this end, much thought and study is being given to this particular problem in all of its phases. These include:
City Planning, with particular reference to providing highways of-the proper location and physical condition.
Traffic regulation, by the enactment and enforcement of the proper laws for the control of the movement of vehicles. Traffic direction, by means of traffic policemen, signs, signals, lights and mechanical means.
Education of drivers to the end that they may help through the con trol of the machine, knowledge of the traffic laws, and through their desire to prevent any injury to themselves and to others.
Each of these phases are distinct in themselves and each requires its
special study.
City planning is, in most large cities, being done by commissions under
municipal authority.
.
'
Traffic laws and regulations are usually the result of a composite of
Municipal authorities, business interests and such organizations as- a
Local safety council.
x
Traffic direction by officers is, of course, a function of the police
department.
..
Quite recently, much more attention is being given to direction by
mechanical means, some of them operated by officers and some of which
are either stationary or are. controlled..by internal mechanism. This last
is of such a nature that it can be undertaken only by business interests,
who expect, by their general use, to make a profit upon their manufacture
and installation.
,
'
While, a local safety council can, should, and does co-operate in these
three items, its most definite work lies in the fourth, viz. the education
of the driver and of the public generally, to do`the thing first mentioned
in this paper, that is, endeavor to prevent accidental personal injury in
every1 possible way. '
*
''
-
There accompanies this paper several exhibits, being the annual reports
of the St. Louis Safety Council, including financial statements by a
certified Public Accountant, samples of the annual, budget, lists of sup
porting organizations and. their quotas and., lists of .committees with their
work. Those desiring more detailed, information may find it in these
Pape*?.
-
. . - .- . _ .
.-
852
Ttpetfth Safety Congress
THURSDAY AFTERNOON SESSION
Chairman Madden: This is the first time in the history of the National Safety Congress in which a separate section has been devoted to women and their part in the safety movement.
I don't believe any of os 6m call to mind a big movement which is fundamentally sound, which has been a 100 per cent success, unless women have been in cooperation with that movement, and it seems to me to be most sensible and most logical that the National Safety Connell, through its officers, should reach the point where they think it is time to organize a Woman's Section of the National Safety Council.
A MOTHER'S INTEREST IN ACCIDENT PREVENTION
Mas. J. P. Thomy, St. Loots, Mo.
.
The most vital cause for the existence of this great and good organization is the mother.
To woman is given the exalted privilege of ever re-creating, continuing
stud improving the race; and God Himself has so ordained that no man
or organization can deprive her of this honor.
1
Many of us present may not believe in heredity in a general sense. But we recognize the effect of pre-natal influence.
Reflect with me for a moment with what care and love the mother and babe-to-be are protected by the family.
Could any interest In Accident Prevention be greater than the mother's?
Dr. Tigert of the Bureau of Education in Washington said at the Safety Congress last year: "Man's dependency is the longest of any of God's creatures!"
It is first and foremost upon woman--mother, teacher, wife. Some of you men in this gathering, in the seclusion of the home, if nowhere else, will ask of woman's sixth sense, intuition, what he ought to do under such and such conditions!
' The bigger the man, the more freely he acknowledges this fact because he knows it Is true love guiding him and for no material consideration.
The very first instructions are from the mother. Even the foster mother watches every movement of this little creature given into her care. Think how tenderly she heeds each cry to discern, if possible, the trouble or cause of the discomfort, and how zealously she guards against any fur ther development from the condition present.
Love also teaches the mother; develops mother instinct, and out of this condition arises the first rules or laws toward safety--called "Home Hazards."
SOME HAZARDS VERSUS HOME SATEIt
It is at the early period--in the Home. Period--that the parent must not give way to child-will but must firmly lead that will toward unselfish ness and better citizenship. In this generation, child-will has become dominant through the selfishness of the parent. I mean the shirking of
Public Safety Section
853
responsibility toward teaching the child, and also the over-indulgent love of parent for child. Through this parent inertia we are now in a seem ingly distressing condition of disobedience and lawlessness.
it is the duty of this Council to bring to the attention of the mother
at home attending her family the things which men and women of sound
reason out in the world have learned, because the mother must instruct
the child. She must inspire constant alertness and instill the Safety
spirit.
'
You Safety men. have come to believe that all accidents .are avoidable and many people- agree with you. Professor Drake of Vassar College affirms: "Only babies, feeble-minded' and insane are unaccountable." A person, trained from the cradle to be careful will not meet with an acci dent nor cause one. Nothing but the mother influence can perfect this training of the thought in the child.
All reforms, to remain universal, must begin with children.
Health is Opportunity! There is no limit to the heights one may climb if no accident cripples mind or limb, and we mothers have the dominant right to assist in saving all the loved ones of our communities through
the knowledge of experience obtained in the work of the National Safety Council and its branch councils in our respective cities.
Every woman who has borne her babe wants it to share in the world with other whole-hearted and whole-bodied children.
Conceive the overwhelming disaster that is brought about by the des
troying of a child--the irreparable loss to the mother, the possible loss
of a great mind to the world, and the economical loss to the State--e. I., the
support of some family for, I believe, the great majority of accidents are
to males.
.
SAFETY IK SCHOOLS
Safety is becoming a study in the schools throughout the country by the educational system advocated in the hooks of the pioneer in this work. Dr. E. George Payne, who although residing at present In New York, be longs to us of St. Douis. Teachers are doing their duty, in the schoolrooms of the cities where the boards of education have seen this great light of the ages.
Until Safety becomes characteristic or habit, it will never become an established fact. We add more safety appliances and we legislate to no avail if we have not established character. In this day of lavish spending there are still a few things one cannot buy, and character Is one of these.
The foundation stones of this most necessary possession are, obedience, respect, consideration, discretion, and these can be laid best around the hearthslde under the supervision of mother.
In the not far off days I sincerely hope to see the glorious Golden Rule,
the ancient royal law, re-established. "Love your neighbor as yourself."
Real Safety is something you cannot bear, taste, eee, smell or touch, but a
spirit of protection brought into existence from a mother's Interest in
accident prevention.
'
.
.'
354
Twelfth Safety Congress
Chairman Madden: It' would stem to me that this might be the
opportune time to invite suggestions as to the organization of a Woman's
Section ot the National Safety Council. Has anybody any suggestions
on that?
' Mr. Remmers: Z make a motion that a nominating committee be appointed.
{Motion seconded and carried.)
Chairman Madden: I will appoint as chairman, Carl L. Smith of the National Safety Council, Charles M. Anderson of the Memphis Council, Paul F". Strieker of Baltimore, Julian Harvey of Kansas City and J. H. Goldie of the Detroit Safety Council.' We would like to have you adjourn now and report as promptly as possible, so the result of your efforts can be made, known to this meeting.
A MOTHER'S RESPONSIBILITY IN SAFETY EDUCATION
Dr. E. George Pavnk, Professor of Education, New York University,
. New York City
.
The achievement of the aims of accident prevention have gone far more slowly than would have gone if women had become more vitally interested (because they have been supremely interested) but if they had become vitally active in the history ot the movement.
I am thinking of two persons here in this room from St. Louis that I know and with whom I have worked there, Mrs. Thorny and Mrs. Stuart, who have been actively identified with the work there, who ought to be giving as much time as possible speaking to women's clubs and organizations and bringing this message ot safety as they can do it and as you see it has been done in Mrs. Thorny's address this afternoon, yet there are few. who have been up to the present time, doing this sort of thing, either in a national or in a local way.
. Miss Beard has taken the eminent position of leadership among the women in the work of safety education, and has done a splendid piece of work in Detroit. I was called to the Indiana State Teachers' Associa tion last fall and one of the addresses I gave there was to the convention of mothers' clubs... They were meeting with the State Teachers' Associa tion and some 500 women representing the various clubs of various parts of the state were there. I put over, to them in half an hour's talk the best I could, the problem of education in accident prevention, and the duty of women's clubs and the mothers in carrying out this great work, and those people became Interested. They called upon us for material; they raised money to put it into the hands of every club member in the state and they undertook in that state as one of the features of the women's club program last year the promotion of education in accident prevention, and there are hundreds of women's clubs in the country that would be ready to undertake a similar kind of work if the message was brought to them. There are too few of us who have been giving our time to bringing the people of the country to the realization of the situation.
Public Safety Section
Soy
This is the sixth convention I have been actively participating in, and I have had intimate connection with the safety work of the National Safety Council. I remember when we attempted to have' a meeting in Chicago just about four years ago. The National Educational Meeting' there had about eight or ten thousand superintendents and principals and college teachers from all parts of the country that had come there to hear the latest things that were taking place in education.
OBGAMZATIOX OP EDUCATION SECTION
We got out placards and placarded the hotels tolling that there was a
great meeting of educational and accident prevention workers in one
of the hotels there, and I can count on my fingers the persons who were
there. No educator would come.
That was the beginning, and when I spoke to those people about the
work of education in accident prevention and its possibilities, they would
simply smile and say the problem of the elimination of accidents is not a matter of education, it is not a matter of the schools, it is a problem
of the policeman, it is a problem of the courts, it is a problem of industry,
it is a problem of everybody else except the school-teacher.
It is one of the most interesting achievements with which I have been
connected or have known, the development of interest in education in
accident prevention since that time, and the way the public school people
themselves have come to look upon it.'
Let me enumerate just some of the things that will make this con
crete and indicate to you what has been achieved In these few years
along this line.
A year ago one. of our leading universities established a position for
the purpose, as part of that work in instruction in accident prevention
and methods of teaching prevention in public schools.
This year I have in my classes some five hundred teachers representing
all the principals and superintendents and those--who are entering into
the work of education, representing many of the state unions who are taking courses, that are giving their whole time to the consideration of
education in accident prevention as a school problem or a part of the
time will be devoted to a consideration of that problem.
I arranged, just before I left New York, to go to Paterson. New Jersey, a town of a hundred and twenty thousand. The Board of Education at
the urgent request of the mayor, provided out of the expense of the Board
of Education's funds, to have me hold 15 two-hour conferences with the
whole Board of Education, and the whole teaching body in which we can work out for that city a program of education and accident prevention
and education in'health.
SECURING THE COOPERATION OF TEACHERS
New York is doing somewhat simitar things, and it is only because my time would not possibly permit that I did not go to Bridgeport where the Board of Education proposed to do exactly the same thing they are doing in Paterson. There is the change that is coming about, not only among boards of education but among -educators who are ready to take hold
856 Twelfth Safety Congress
of this work and carry it oat in the schools. X tevt toM before at this
convention of addressing the Schoolmasters' CMb te New Toxic City,
a club made up of principals and super! ntettdents tn Kce Toxic's hdmtrial
area representing one in every ten children in tlM* TTliWd acntes. and
at the close of that meeting those TOO pveiplu h egr% nw> ran fill r for
the education of one in every ten children of the Ea38ed <ras arooe and
pledged themselves to undertake eflwcnrt-- *a asilwiH
as a
part of the curricnlum and their **??**>** WswrtoCSCTwfe, Zt*m. that is some
thing of the achievements. W hne fesf shhwm SHOertads that have
been prepared in Oregon, in Wtoowartn. In fimiirhiwiKk &NKTMC. Chicago,
Kansas City and Cincinnati aaxi Ammh f dwr m, tmr the purpose
of instruction In accident prevention wed t3My lore pvepanud thrtr own
syllabus, for the purpose of hagraghs in nnffWMnt preteliden and they are prepared by teadiers within their on 1'tCtM.
New York state is just sow calling a xwfcMt for the purpose of preparing one for the state of New Tech, send those is a great deal of
material that is being prepared.
This indicates something to yon of the momentum to be gained In this movement that began only in an organised way some five years ago and has been going on and going on with increasing force until the thing has readied the point where there is, it seems to me, no need for propaganda. There is need for assistance in helping to carry out this program in an effective way, and that Is where the women of this day have their opportunity.
Now, as Mrs. Thorny pointed out, there is no one who is so definitely responsible for the children as the women themselves. They are respon sible for, in the education of the child, the mother is largely responsible. She is in the home, she is there when the children are there and the father is not, because of duties tbat be has to perform and from which he cannot escape, and so the large problem of education, so far as the home is concerned, belongs to the mother. The mother has felt this keenly.
The mother has felt strongly the necessity of preventing accidents hut why has it not been done? It is very obvious. The development of acci dents is a matter of very recent history.
TRAFFIC MENACE IS NEARLY 25 YEARS OLD
In the celebration of the twenty-fifth (anniversary of the establishment of greater New York in 1923, they showed moving pictures of New York in 1898, and while, that is not very far hack and most of us here can remember it, those pictures on 42nd and Broadway showed the fastest moving vehicle was a street car pulled by horses. They had no trolley.
They had no automobile. The highest houses in that vicinity were five and six stories high and there were pictures of these people moving across the street. They were walking across the street, some of them with hats in hand, unconscious of anything taking place In the street, and did not need to be, because of the fact that horses would not run over them if they had gotten in their way, and since it has become so congested with thousands of automobiles and moving street cars, etc, it
Public Safety Sedw
857
means death whenever ooe te MC MtM **
daMpenr #g the situation.
That is just 25 years: wt km awe Ima-Bog y**, Ife ;irt* Iwe made a
statistical study of tbe itrssrtm, kwe ftm&smf mem' am eertsfs things
we cannot do. There are currant PhWMfW ms mmm b amt thugtg are certain
types of behavior on the tearr ct flw am igioiua1!E ear
protection,
but that knowledge baa awe weefe anww
4m hhk--ltD' g taw taiany.
When the mother sends bar ttck*
* 4 wwaweat
so pta#-, she says.
"Be careful, keep out oC the mgp> eg mmtmammm MB lMK-hiH <fgpgr eawt state
ments of that kind are *he**aa9pt eemwtma ** Wm eSlkff sun He- cornea
into the presence oC a PauglLWiffi; QBMHIlWwm. WMHkMM
i*tr the
domination of impulses. fcagwiMar WMf am BMgkMBktnjF hr
ury develop
ment, he is under the desamawsHS- eg VMPHv OF kriWPlW SW& hew not the
intelligence, the sptcMc hadlpMHS MaWmiueiPE. !W off iwMBWtt.
Mothers can organise an# WW h
msshsp auk h the- United
States that there are carpal 141 WWi mMg.rv> ff amt-->. att fie children
under six years of age. aad them m a he dMtur fiar rii Chet are caus
ing accidents to children tret ** * iffiMn# yeans eg iffpr. and it you
want to prevent accident te uhildr'iM eg Bkmiu aw yew amt aot rely on
general warnings but must develop h the tfeOi the feekie eC action when
he is on the street or out from nsder the care at the mother so he will
automatically take care of himself with reference to the situation.
We have learned from the statistics in Connecticut that 92 per cent of all the accidents' occur at other places than the designated street crossings. The statistics month after month in New York City this year show that 85 per cent of all accidents that occur in that city occur at other places than the designated crossing, in spite of the fact that a check-up shows that only three or four per cent of the people at the most at any time cross in other places than, the crossings. If you could eliminate that three or four per cent you could eliminate 85 per cent of the street accidents to children, and yet does the mother take the child down to the crossing and say, "This is the way to cross," and practice
with that child or train that child to the point of always crossing at the crossing? No. When they are in a hurry they don't even go to the crossings themselves, and the same thing is true of looking in the right direction, which has been featured here this week, and I might run
through some dozens of causes of accidents to children, each one just as' simple as that. These could be brought home if we had somebody t.o be the messenger,' to go about the country and tell the mothers Who
have the children and the responsibility for them what they can do in the elimination of accidents and the other things.
WOMEN MUST BACK UP EDUCATOES
The Other thing women can do is to back up the educators who are now deeply interested in this problem by the discussion of the matter in the mothers' clubs, the Parent-Teacher's Association and every place that they can be heard with reference to accident prevention, and to let the teacher* know that they are back of them in their endeavor to teach those things that are essential for life and that are essential in life.
858 .
Twelfth Safety Congress
Do you know the situation in the United States? There are 800,000
school teachers with 20,000,000 children in the public schools today. There
are 1,000,000 teachers in public, private and parochial schools and 25,000,
000 children in the public, private and parochial schools today in the
United States, and we. have a problem that means that every home,
every family, virtually, is represented either directly or indirectly by some
child in the schools that is being educated at the present time.
How long would it take if we could get the concerted action and effort
of those million teachers? How long would it take to develop in those
children control over these few simple situations that are necessary to
prevent accidents? In -a month's time, if we could get these one million
teachers concentrated upon it, we could do the trick, so far as almost
every acident is concerned, but it means enormous intelligence to be
distributed. The average teacher is unaware of the causes of accidents;
she is aware in a general way, but does not know the specific causes
and the specific means of prevention, and that is not saying anything in
disparagement of the American teaching profession.
`
A few years ago, no teacher regarded this problem, as I said before,
as her problem, or very few did. The situation is so new that it is a
serious matter, and furthermore, we are not.going to.be through with this
problem when we havte taken care of it so far as the condition npw exists.
I congratulate the women who are gathered, here today in the begin
ning of this movement. We ought not merely to have a section of the
National Safety Council, we ought to have so many women coming to
gether every year that it would over-shadow the council, because of their
numbers and enthusiasm for this great movement in the protection of
human life, and I know that the women are able and interested and
under the leaders you will select this afternoon can do great things
for the work.
REPORT OF NOMINATING COMMITTEE
The committee nominates Mrs. J. P. Thorny, of St. Louis, as chairman
of the Women's Division for the coming year; fbr first vice-chairman.
Miss Harriet Beard, of Detroit; for second vice-chairman, Mrs. Joseph R.
Wilson of Philadelphia, and for third vice-chairman, we thought it only
right to ask the Buffalo people to name some one woman from the many clubs and organizations here to represent them on this committee, because
the Buffaloans have had the inspiration of this Congress.
For fourth vice-chairman is Mrs. B. W. Nutt of Cleveland,.and for our
secretary, Mrs. Louis H. McBrayne, of Boston. (Motion made, seconded, carried and report accepted.)
*
(Mrs. Thorny took the Chair.)
TEACHING THE CHILD TO BE CAREFUL
Miss PntticHarriet Beard, Supervisor of Safetx. Educatios, Detroit
Schools, Detroit, Mich. .
The massacre of 20,000 children in the United States might lead any pagan nation to inquire as to what our civilization consists of. The
jPublic Safety Section
859
menace of accidental death under present conditions is steadily increasing. Not a home anywhere in the United States is immune, and not a parent is exempt from fear and dread. Worry and lamentations and talking about it are of no avail; they will not result in meeting a situation like this, and yet that is what most people are doing. Prompt and vigorous action is necessary. Everybody in the community must be enlisted for safety. Time, labor and money must be spent without stint if the saving of lives is any .consideration. Now, all who have given any serious study to this problem and all who are working to bring about a reduction in the accident death rate arrive at the same conclusion, that safety educa tion offers the only solution to the problem. It is the only effective and practicable means of meeting the situation and reducing the death rate.
Wherever safety education has been tried In St. Louis and Detroit and all the other cities where the schools are working on this thing it does bring about results promptly, it does result, without a doubt, in reducing the number of accidental deaths of children. It takes only a few moments to show that, safety education pays from. every point of view. In safety education lies the final solution of the accident, and in that lies the hope of the future in school safety in the situation in in dustry and safety viewed from any aspect. Education is the only means of meeting this terrible problem.
People think sometimes that the safety education of the child begins
in the school. Unfortunately, it does; it should begin in the home In
the earliest years and should be carried along steadily in a manner - that
will be adapted to the understanding of the child and to his activities.
It should tend to develop instinctive care and caution and a feeling of
responsibility for the protection of others rather than to instill fear. It
can be carried on in a constructive way, avoiding all the morbid details
Of accidents.
'*
The chief aim of safety education is the formation of safety habits in the child. By the time the child enters school he should have a knowl edge of the fundamental principles of avoiding home accidents such as falls, scalds, burns, shooting, cutting, poison, etc., and should have ac quired habits in the use of his toys and contact with other children out side of the four walls of the home. He should by the time he goes to school know how. to cross the "street, how to cross the corners and he should know how to play in safety and be provided with safe places in which to play. I think we can't stress this too strongly, and especially in the cities where the crowds are-so great and places to play are so few. We cannot expect to limit accidents unless we provide playgrounds ' for the children.
TKAIPTING J2f THE HOME IS VALUABLE
\
If the child has had this training in the home and is taught care in playing with other children and is told to keep out of the street and cross
in the proper way and look before he steps off the curb, when he goes to school he will have a good foundation and the teacher will have some thing to work on and will not have to begin at the beginning of things.
860 Twelfth Safety Congress
Fathers and mothers can encourage the school boards to. include safety
education in the curriculum, and they should not only encourage but
should insist on having it. They are paying the taxes, and the education
of the child should fit him for the needs in which he finds himself.
.
The parents also can take an interest in what the children are doing
and ask them when they come home what they are learning so the train
ing will be dignified and not laughed at. The children are all eager to
go home with these messages, and if the parents can take time to hear
what they have to say, and say "That is fine; let's do that at home," I
think safety education in the school would be greatly helped.
We have had children go home with fire inspection blanks they made at school. In some of our most favored neighborhoods where the homes
are comfortable, the children have gone home and said, "Mother, I am
going to be a fire marshall and help the firemen prevent fires. I am
going to inspect the house and see how many fire hazards we have." In those neighborhoods many children will not bring back' the reports for
they are so ashamed. I say let's make the inspection blanks amount to
something in the child's mind. If a child comes home and says, "I am going to make an inspection," say, "Isn't that fine that you are going to
help us discover whether our home is safe/'
What a different attitude it would make on the part of the child. He would not come back ashamed and refuse to show his report. The parents can do so much towards helping with these things.
Through the united efforts of the Parent-Teachers' organization and all
women's clubs and different organizations you can do a tremendous amount to boost safety. If you club together and provide playgrounds- or fit up
adjacent lots in some neighborhood where the children have playgrounds,
spend just 25 dollars and get a few things, some apparatus, and have a place where the children can play we will have an outlet for the energy and if we do not provide a place for them to play and let out their
energy we can't expect to have a decrease in the number of accidents. We must have those things if we are going to save children from being killed on the streets of the city.
COMMUNITY EVENINGS
Another thing that seems to be helpful is community evenings. We ought to open those more for the parents of the neighborhood. They come together and have singing and perhaps the children put on some little stunt, and if you can have the children take some part and have a little safety exhibit tbe parents will turn out and go home with some ideas.
Now, when the children start for school it is well to talk over with the principal the route the child should take. Always insist that the child go by the same route, and the children of the neighborhood coming along together helps them, for a driver will slow down where he sees a dozen children together where he sees boys helping them, where he won't if he sees one, for he does not know what the child is going to do. If there are a dozen they act with more sense and if they have a traffic patrolman they will go across when the boy tells them to go.
Public Safety Section
861
The main thing is to start them in time. The boy running around the last minute looking for his cap or something else is the one that usually meets with the accident as he hurries to get to school on time. If the children have a definite place for their things they will get started on time.
The most important thing of all is for the parents to know the traffic rules and obey them. When parents are driving they must drive care fully. We have hundreds of children injured and 'some killed in the custody of their own parents, driving in the family car. All our work is aimed to educate the children, but in everything we plan' we think of what effect it will have on the parents. We consider whether it is going to teach the parents to be more careful, and it is discouraging when we train the children and go out on the street ourselves and see a parent dragging two or three children .over the street crossing without paying any attention to the traffic signals. If the parent will only set an example and do the thing that the traffic rules dictate, that will help to train the child to be careful.
ACCIDENT PREVENTION IN THE HOME
H. Walter Forster, Inokfendej.ce Bureau, Philadelphia, Pa.
Those of you who are students of biblical history know that our troubles
really began with a fall in the Garden of Eden. Since that day falls
have been our most serious accident hazard. More people are injured
by falling than in any other way. How do people fall? In the first place
we have stairs. When you consider steepness, lack of light, lack of hand
rails, the placing of runners on stairs and the habits that children have
in leaving obstacles on stairs, it is no wonder that persons fall and are
injured on stairways.
.
A simple thing, a most phenomenally important invention was the
staircase, and the no doubt most hazardous part of your house. You can
provide handrails and illumination and you can preach to the children the
gospel of not leaving things on the stairs.'
_
Supposing you were to say to me that the chance of my falling at the foot of a stair was one In a thonsand. I will accept your figures. How many times does one go up and down in the course of a day? Half a dozen times? That makes four thousand trips a year; 4,000 chances per year.
Make it a ten thousand to one chance; that is once in five years. You have got to get the point of view that if there is a hazard the intelligent person gets rid of the hazard before he or she has been laid low by it. That is one of the fundamental questions in safety and it applies par ticularly in the home, for the average woman does not get the outside= statistical; broad experience point of view.
The ladder is a dangerous device. A very large number of falls from
ladders in homes have taken place. Get a good solid step-ladder. They
are expensive if they are good, but they are worth while.
'
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Twelfth Safety Congress
A woman of my acquaintance fell and sprained her ankle because she stood In a rocking chair to adjust a picture. I must at least mention the bath-tub hazard. Only this morning I came within an ace of breaking my neck because I slipped in a bath-tub. It is really a serious matter, and if I build a new house I am going to have "grab handles" set in the tile.
' THE DANGER OF FIRE
The subject of good housekeeping in an industrial plant is vitally Im
portant from a fire and accident prevention standpoint. The same thing
is true in a dwelling. The degree of housekeeping maintained in the
average residence is line, except In the basement. A match carelessly
discarded or an electric short circuit or coal falling out of a hard coal
heater, such things are far more dangerous in a poorly maintained..base-
inent.
.'
The records show that 10,000, possibly as many as 15,000, persons are burned to death in this country f? ery year, 60 per cent children, 19 per . cent men, and 21 per cent women.
It is astonishing how much mechanical equipment we have in the modern house. We have fans and vacuum cleaners, percolators and grills, clothes and dish-washing machines; even electric ice-cream freezers. Such mechanical .equipment has considerable hazard connected with it in gears and beltings and chains--and while the manufacturers of such equipment are doing a great deal in the way of safeguarding, you can lose a finger just as well on a clothes washer as in a machine shop. Closely coupled with the use of the mechanical devices are the electrical hazards..
Probably most of you did not realize how dangerous, to life a 110 volts
are. People are frequently killed in homes and industry by a 110 volt
shock. Far more people are killed by low voltage than high, not because
it is more hazardous, but more people are exposed to it. Every time you
take hold of an incandescent lamp socket you have a possibility of trouble
and the danger is particularly .acute in a basement, especially in using elec
trical devices, such as irons. If one side of the circuit- is grounded and
you stand on a concrete floor, you have a chance of being killed.
_
The best arrangement for bathroom lighting is to have the switch at
the door, away from plumbing and radiators. Some of us have weak hearts and we die easily from shock. I know of a case in San Francisco where a person was killed-by 65 volts. You should make sure your wiring
Is in good condition. Don't let the small boys in the home be the elec
tricians, and be careful in basements where there is a chance for
grounding..
.
In our household we have very few matches; they are kept up high and we have the children trained, I hope, so they will not want them. We warn them over and over again, just as we preach daily "When you get off the car look both ways." .
s.
Public Safety Section
863
CLEAWISTG CLOTHES
'
The average woman realizes there is some danger in cleaning with gaso
line and she will say that she never cleans with it near an open fire. That
shows a trace of intelligence on her part, especially if she says she never
cleans .with it in the house. But what that woman does not realize is
that she can use it out in the apple orchard, in the shade of the old apple
tree, away from every flame, and yet, because of static electricity, ignite
the gasoline and her clothes and burn to death just as effectively as in any
other way. I have known of women trying to heat gasoline on a gas
stove to make it clean more effectively.
If it is at all possible for you to do so, if you are financially able to-do
it, your cleaning should all be done at a professional cleaning establish
ment. When you can't afford that use a patent chemical that will not
explode.
,
The answer as regards safety in a large number of homes or in a given
home is dependent on the fact that you understand a few of these funda
mental, simple principles, that you bear them in mind, preach the gospel,
set an example and hold to it.
.
STREET SAFETY EDUCATION FOR SCHOOL CHILDREN
J. Wesley Bbowst, Patboi/maiv, Depabtmest of Police, Dbxboix, Mich.
Of the children who were killed last year in Detroit our coroner's juries returned the verdict that 66 per cent of them came to their death through their own carelessness. We could hardly concede that, and when we found , that the children were not the ones to blame 'began to ask ourselves who was to blame for the slaughter of the little one, and instantly we began to see that the Police Department had a responsibility, and we began to assume our share of that responsibility, so we asked and received' from the Board of Education permission to go into the schools and teach the children the danger of the streets, and we laid down to them the correct use of the streets and the principles of right walking.
It might be of interest to you to know just these principles and our methods of teaching them to the children. Of course, the first thing a policeman has to do in going into a school is to win the good will of .the children, because at home a policeman is held up as the bogey man and we have to dispel that,sort of an attitude. I might say for those parents who hold up the policeman as that monster man who gets little children and carries them away in the dark that if you are in the habit of doing that your children as soon as they go to school are going to place you in the Ananias Club for just as soon as they go to school and get out from the home we policemen are going to teach them that we are not bogey men.
Then, because children live so much in the world of make-believe, we ask them to make believe with us, and we make believe we go for a walk with them. It has been found to be an efficient way to get them to visualize the street, to draw a diagram on the blackboard and. along the sidewalk we make believe we are walking together until we' come;
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Twelfth Safety Congress
to the curbstone, and there, because it pleases them so much we per sonify the curbstone and have the curb talk to U3. The curb says "Stop" and then it tells us to look first to the left and then to the right, and we explain to them why, or let them guess why it says to look to the left first and then to the right, and then it tells us to wait until there
is nothing closely approaching.
Now that is not a very great task. It should not be, even for grown-ups. Before we told them that we went out through the city to investigate and we found that never, outside of our very busiest streets would any one have to wait more than 30 seconds for a safe opportunity to cross. So we tell them to wait until nothing is coming from either left or right, and then walk, not run, across the street, because running is dangerous and we explain to them how, if one is walking across the street, a driver will have time to turn behind or in front, but, if running, sometimes the driver can do nothing but run into them. The great principle then is stop at the curb, look both ways, wait until nothing is' coming and walk across the street.
EDUCATION BY STOKV TELLING
The next principle we develop by pretending we are down in the middle of the block and want to cross the street. Then we personify the auto mobile parked at the curb, and the auto tells us to go to the corner and cross on the crosswalk, and we explain to them what a crosswalk is, and the great danger in crossing away from the crosswalk, and how 80 per cent of our accidents to children occur away from the crosswalk.
The playing, roller skating, soliciting rides in the street we develop by stories. If you give some- one something to do that will keep in their mind these things, they will remember them longer, so we tell them about how many policemen and policewomen are all working to make the streets safe, but in spite of the great number of them these accidents do occur. We ask them whether they would like to be a police girl or police boy, because they might do what we didn't do, and invariably every little hand goes up just as high as they can get them, and some raise both hands, and to drill them again we go over it and tell them what a police girl or hoy must know, what the curbstone says and the automobile says and the dangers of playing in the roadway and give them the task of going out and looking around just like a policeman, and when they see some little girl or boy who forgets, they must speak for the cnrbstone and speak for the automobile and tell them about the dangers in the street.
The Board of Education of Detroit realized that it was not the driver's fault always, that it could not be the children's fault, so they assumed a share of the responsibility along with the Police Department, and we organized a Bureau of Public Safety, or a Bureau of Safety Education, and placed Miss Beard in charge. The work of the teachers and the work developed was to impress and keep ever in the minds of the children these principles that we of the Police Department laid down. Mow, their methods have excited our admiration.
Public Safety Section
865
One method was to appoint a. great number of the boys and girls as police boys and girls and give them a badge. They love a badge. They were to go out around the playgrounds and act as a regular police officer and whenever they saw a girl or boy violating a principle of safety they were to warn them about, it and if they persisted they were to bring them in before a court and they have organized, in many schools, a little traffic court and have adopted the principles we laid down of safe walking: The children are often taken down to the court to see how court is con ducted, and I have attended a number of these children's courts and it is a surprise to see the ability that is developed there.
I have heard a little boy deliver an oration that would put our prose cuting attorney to shame, and the audience in those courts, made up of children, show their disapproval. I have no one more embarrassed over his misdeeds than a little culprit brought up for crossing the street in the midle of the block. The lesson will stay with them for life.
You might say, is it possible that these principles can be taught to
children, little fellows with immature minds? Is safety education pos
sible? Does it produce results?
.
DETROIT SAVES 143 LIVES IN TEAR
'
Well, figures don't lie. We will let them tell. In 1919 we had 96 public
school children killed. That was the year we started safety education, and
last year, 1922, in spite of a 30 per cent Increase in the number of children,
and a 43 per cent increase in the amount of traffic, where accordingly we might have expected to kill some 178 children, we only killed 36, a saving
in 1922 over 1919 of a 142 little tots.
..
We teachers and policemen teach these children the principles of safety
and parents all too often unteach them what we have taught them. To illustrate: one morning last winter I got up early and went out and started to shovel the snow off my sidewalk. I saw, coming down the street with long strides^. a big broad shouldered man. In back of him
-
came a little chap about knee-high trying to step in those steps his father was making in the snow, and I thought how like a boy to step in the
footsteps of his father. When they lead a jay walking course naturally that little fellow will follow, and all the policemen and teachers in the world can say what they want but it is nothing compared to the teaching of
the hero and the greatest of all men to that boy, his daddy. I think we
might have saved a large part of these 36 children killed last year had
we had the cooperation of the fathers and mothers.
.
I have actually seen mothers come down town and drag their children
across against the traffic sign. I have spoken in the most diplomatic man
ner possible to the mothers and told them they were teaching that child
dangerous habits, and have had them turn on me with "Mind your own
business, you big brute." -
-
Now, I guess about all of you are killing children in your own towns and
if you want to do something, perhaps a practical suggestion of how to
do it would be the most beneficial.
.
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Twelfth Safety Congress
The first thing is if your Police Department is not laying down the principles of safety get after them. I might say, too, it is difficult.for the teachers to teach these subjects about which they don't know a great deal. Most of them come from small towns and don't know much about these hazards, so if you get your Police Department to lay down the principles of safety you have made a start.
If your chief happens to be a hard-headed policeman who thinks his work consists only of running down hardened criminals, get the ladies after him. A chief may withstand all the onslaught of the newspapers and the politicians and everything else,but let me give you a tip: when the ladies get after the chief of police he generally moves. You can do the same t.uing with your Board of Education, and if your women's clubs will get back of your Board of Education they will put in safety education
ADJOURNMENT.
Public Utilities Section
October 2 and 4, 1923
A. O. MITCHELL, Chairman Adjuster, Northern Indiana Gas & Electric Company, Hammond, Ind.
' H. A. MOTT, Vice-Chairman Illinois Bell Telephone Company, Chicago, 111.
H. J. BURTON, Vice-Chairman
Consumers Power Company, Jackson, Mich.
. E. B. BOBBIN, Vice-Chairman Empire Gas & Electric Company, Geneva, N. Y.
B. B. McCULLOUCH, Secretary
Bureau of Safety, Chicago, 111.
TUESDAY MORNING SESSION
HAIRMAN MITCHELL: There are one or two outstanding things
C that the section has done during the past year that I think perhaps
will be worthy of mention. One of them particularly is the paper that we have had prepared under the able chairmanship of Mr. C. J. Rutland, of the Dallas Power and Light Co., entitled "Accident Causes and Remedies." Mr. Rutland and his committee have done what I consider quite a won derful work in preparing a paper and preparing data on this subject.
REPORT OF SECRETARY
B. B. McCuixoch:
In many respects, the past year has been the most successful In the history of the Public Utilities Section. It is now tbe largest section in the National Safety Council in point of number of members. There are sections, notably the Metal Section and the Steam Railroad Section, which have on their membership list companies employing as many as 200,000 men, so that other sections include more employees; but the Public Utilities Section today has 256 members. Twenty-four of these have been taken in during the past year, while seven cancellations have been received, making a net gain of 17 members. This in itself, I believe Is a good showing, but it is more favorable than the figures indicate, for the
867
868 Twelfth Safety Congress
reason that the 24 members that have been received include 18,700 em ployees, while the seven companies who have cancelled their member ship include only 1,300 employees, so that there has been a net gain of 17,400 for the year.
I believe the service of the section has been improved during the past year, particularly with reference to the Safety Bulletins, three of which have been issued each month, and the articles in the National Safety News.
In this connection, I suppose no section meeting would be complete without an appeal for help in the preparation of the Safety Bulletins. The continued success of the section is not alone dependent on the service it renders the members but equally as well the assistance received from the members, and with the proper cooperative effort of the member ship and the sectional officers, I am sure the coming year will show con tinued growth and improvement in the service.
(On motion duly made and seconded, it was voted to adopt the report oE the secretary.)
REPORT OF BULLETIN COMMITTEE
George Opp
,
The proposition of a bulletin committee is one of real work; there is no question about it. The effort to get the kind of bulletins that we feel we need entails considerable effort not only on the part of the committee but on the part of all members of the section.
Your committee on bulletin reports that during the past year, it has addressed more than 1,000 letters requesting ideas, suggestions, photo graphs, drawings, or any material from the various members of the Public Utilities Section. The chairman has received 101 individual re sponses of which 38 promised assistance; 63 others enclosed or later sent material for prospective use in the preparation of bulletins.
All of those suggestions which were considered at all of general interest and applicable to the hazards of our section have been forwarded
to the headquarters of the National Safety Council. Many other sugges tions have been directed to the particular section of the National Safety Council which has direct interest in the topic or suggestion presented.
To the entire headquarters staff in general and to Mr. R. T. Solensten,
Supervisor of Bulletins, Mr. Sidney J. "Williams, Chief Engineer, and Mr.
F. M. Rosseland, Chief Qf the Public Safety Division, in particular, the committee is deeply indebted for the kindly cooperation that has made
possible the printing of a monthly supply of at least three different bul
letins (in each issue of the National Safety News) devoted to the exten
sion of interest in Safety and Accident-Prevention in the Public Utilities
Section.
'
(On motion duly made and seconded, it was voted that the reports of
the chairmen of the committees be accepted.)
`
Public Utilities Section
869
APPOINTMENT OF NOMINATING COMMITTEE
Chairman Mitchell: Next is the appointment of the nominating com mittee. I will appoint on that committee Mr. William Darlington, of New York; Mr. H. B. Harmer, of Philadelphia; and Mr. Ernest S. Beau mont, of Chicago. They are to report at the Thursday morning meeting.
REPORT OF ACCIDENT CAUSES AND REMEDIES COMMITTEE
C. J. Rutland, Safety Engineer, Texas Power & Light Company, Dallas
The most valuable knowledge we possess is that which comes through making a mistake--through experience. Accidents are mistakes as well as experience. To realize on an accident is collecting revenue from the refuse. Some companies have accidents, deplore them, but keep right on having more. With the thought of getting a closer insight into the root causes of past accidents in the public utilities industry, making a careful and diligent study of these accidents and offering some suggestive reme dies for the possible elimination of future ones, a committee called "Accident Causes and Remedies" was appointed at the Executive Com mittee meeting of the Public Utilities Section following the Detroit con vention. Questionnaires were prepared and mailed out to all member companies calling for complete reports of their 1922 accident experience.
This report, therefore, represents the findings of this committee and is based on a study of the many causes of these accidents.
Only the accidents to the constructing and operating employees .are
included, as no consideration was given to those occurring to the office
or sales employees.
'
Number of companies reporting..............................................................................
119
Average number of employees during 1923..............................................119,469
Total number of accidents reported.................................................................. 25,314 Number of actual days lost from work on account of acci
dents. (Does not include fatalities)......................................................176,941
Deaths reported ..................................................................................................
126
Respectfully submitted.
Accident Causes and Remedies Committee, of the
Public Utilities Section,
C. J. Rutland, Chairman W. H. Mulligan W. R. Loyd
REVIEW OF ACCIDENT PREVENTION SITUATION
Taking these reports as a whole, as a digest of the accident prevention situation In the public utilities industry, your committee believes that great strides have been taken in the movement. The importance of mak ing accident prevention a part of the operation of the business is being felt. Its prestige is greater now than it has ever been. On the other
870
Twelfth Safety Congress
hand accident prevention in a number o member companies is not yet given the proper respect and attention as compared with other depart
ments of the organization. It must be remembered that the working conditions in a public utility
are far different from those in any other industry. The employees are widely scattered, and their work is very diversified. They are not con centrated as in a mill or factory where training is comparatively easy. Neither do the accidents which occur follow the general characteristics of those which happen in other industrial concerns. An employee In a factory may be working day in and day out at a punch press. A lineman in an electric utility may be connecting lightning arresters this hour, stringing wire the next, climbing poles the next, and so on. The factory, employee may get hurt at his job. Possibly the remedy would be a punch press guard. The utility employee may get hurt at his job. Possibly the remedy in this case would be a system of training the employee in his work, the need for an all-seeing foreman to anticipate accidents and to supervise his many hazardous duties, or many other possible cures.
In Public Utilities, the human element, rather than the mechanical safe guard, is the governing factor In accident prevention, and it is the one factor which has not been sufficiently emphasized. Any employee of a public utility can get hurt, possibly killed'in the performance of his job; therefore, accident prevention, to be effective, must be made a vital part of'the daily operation of the business. It cannot be treated as a side-line. A gathering of employees at a safety meeting Is well; it brings about discussions of physical hazards and operating methods and its prime pur pose is to solicit the cooperation of the employee. But it is out on the job where the actual work is being done that these reported accidents have happened.
CLASSIFICATION OF ACCIDENTS
In studying the causes of these accidents. It required only a first glance to classify them according to the original classification, such as Handling Tools, Electricity, Slipping, Tripping and Falling, etc. This classification is possibly the only kind that is suitable for insurance and statistical pur poses, but from the standpoint of suggesting means of preventing future accidents. It is of no value. This kind of classification does not point out why an accident happened or who'is to blame. It does not say whether the foreman had failed to caution or instruct the injured regarding his work, or whether the injured had violated rules. It does not determine the human equation that possibly may be the cause of the accident and which is so often termed "carelessness." Consequently it was necessary" to go far beyond these surface causes and look considerably deeper for the fundamental reasons why these accidents occurred. Many contributing factors began to appear and there was revealed the fact that the root causes, in the majority of cases, were due to the lack of responsibility on the part of either the injured workman or his supervisor.
Having come to this conclusion, it only became a matter of applying a list of fundamental underlying causes to determine the principal-contribut ing factor of each- accident. The following classification of basic causes
Public Utilities Section
871
recommended by the Accident Prevention Committee of the National Elec tric Light Association and recently adopted by a great number of the larger utility companies, not only provided such a list but the very nature of the classification causes suggested remedies for the prevention of sim ilar accidents.
ANALYSIS OP ACCIDENTS AS TO FUNDAMENTAL REASONS
(1) (2)
Class of work beyond physical or mental ability of injured. Improper tools or devices.
(3) Lack of proper instruction.
(4) (5) (6) (7) (8)
(9) (10) (11)
Method pursued not suitable for work. Protective devices not used. Rules for instruction^ not observed.
Protective devices riot provided.
Lack of proper inspection and maintenance. (Defective tools, materials and devices.) Contributing negligence of others. Intemperance. Mechanical manner of .doing work, (lack of concentration).
(12) (13) (14) (15) (16)
Haste. Physical condition of injured. Poor judgment. Wilfulness. Conditions beyond control--(a) elements;
(b) non-industrial.
A report of an accident from one company says an employee received a broken leg and ankle when, in assisting to unload a car of poles, one of the poles rolled off the car and knocked him down, resulting in three months disability. The foreman was on the job, supposedly supervising the work. He was at one end of the car and watched this man walk up to the side of the car to remove the last stake and let the poles roll off. The injured figured he could get away before they fell. This accident is typical of many others. Its cause lies in the fact that the foreman did not shoulder his responsibilities. Certainly the method pursued was not suitable for the work and the issuing of specific instructions for the per forming of certain jobs is most assuredly the duty of a foreman.
A gang of men was overhauling some gas distribution mains, looking for leaks in the system. An old valve was being replaced with a new one. Gas bags were injected into the mains. One of these was defective, which fact was immediately made known to the foreman, but he let them take a chance with it. The bag gradually went down, allowing the gas to escape into the hole. Some school-hoys stopped to see the work going on and this loitering should not have been permitted by the foreman. A lighted match caused the explosion, resulting in bad burns to two workmen and one of the school-boys. One of the workmen died later from the effects. Certainly the defective bag should have been replaced with a new one. Thus it appears that the fundamental cause of this accident was con tributory negligence, or violation of rules on the part of the foreman.
872
Twelfth Safety Congress
In a certain company, a lineman was electrocuted and the safety engi neer was dispatched to make a detailed investigation. The local manager and foreman expressed their regret that the accident had occurred, and added that the accident was purely the fault of the injured, not giving thought to any responsibility that might rest on them. It developed in the investigation that the employee was killed when he was installing some lightning arresters on a pole in the distribution system. His knee came in contact with an unprotected ground wire and his arm with a hot primary. He fell back in his safety belt lifeless from the effects of the shock. He was lowered to the ground and died simply because of the ignorance and incompetence on the part ,o his comrades in not knowing the proper method to resuscitation.
In the first place, the victim was not installing the arresters in accord with specifications of the company engineer. His not doing so was no deliberate violation of the rule on his part, as it was found that the fore man had not acquainted his men with such specifications. In the second place, he was not wearing rubber gloves in handling energized primaries, which is a universal rule throughout this particular company. When questioned as to why he had not required that this be done, the foreman said some of his men had been doing similar work previously, and he had left it to their good judgment about wearing the gloves, and if they got hurt it would be their fault. In the third place, the two other employees who were present at the time of the accident did not know how to revive the man. When questioned on this score, the foreman said that these men had only been employed fifteen days, and while he knew that it was a standard rule with the company that the foreman should teach the new man the Prone Pressure Method of Resuscitation before he assumed any of his duties, yet he had been so busy that he just did not have time and had put it off till a later date. The removal of any one of these three causes might have saved the man's life, and each remedy certainly was not only within the bounds of jurisdiction of the foreman, but should con stitute the elementary principles of a foreman's duties. The fundamental causes of this accident were lack of proper instruction and violation of rules, the result may be classified under electricity, while the effect was death to the employee. Does it not appear, therefor, that the prime need is a correct diagnosis, and that the proper knowledge of causes usually carries implicitly a suggestion of the cure?
ANALYSIS OF ACCIDENTS
;
While the new classification of accidents based on fundamental reasons has not yet been adopted by all member companies, many who have adopted it have found that it is of great help. Chart No. 1 shows an analy sis of a number of these accidents. Possibly the item "poor judgment" may have been overworked, due to the tendency to use this as a sort of miscellaneous item. Nevertheless, It will carry a fairly large percentage, as many accidents which deal with the "human element" cause will come under this heading. Therefore, it presents a new problem to solve--that of dealing with mental causes of accidents. A valuable contribution to ward the study of mental problems in accident prevention has been re
Public Utilities Section
873
cently made by the publication of Boyd Fisher's book, "Mental Causes of
Accidents." Every man one of these books. .
interested in safety CHART NO. 1.
work t
should .
own
and
read
1,2X4 MINOR ACCIDENTS, 724 DISABILITY ACCIDENTS, AND 6,867 DAYS
LOST, ANALYZED AS TO FUNDAMENTAL CAUSES, SHOWING THE PERCENTAGE CHARGED TO EACH.
Minor Disability
Accidents Accidents
Poor judgment........................................................................................................... 29.2
31.8
Contributory negligence of others...................................................... 12.8
11.5
Haste................................................................................................................'................ 6.6
10.1
Mechanical manner of doing work (lack of concen
tration) ............................................................................................................... 13.4
9.8
Method pursued not suitable for work.......................................... 5.2
5.7
Rules or instructions not observed................................................. 3.4
6.1
Lack of proper inspection and maintenance (defective
tools, materials and devices) ......................................................... 6.4
6.5
Conditions beyond control (a) Elements (b) Non
industrial ...............................................................................'....................... 17.8
8.4
Lack of-proper instruction........................................................................ 1.7
1.7
Physical condition of injured.................................................................. 1.2
3.7
Protective devices not provided............................................................
.5
1.1
Protective devices not used........................................................................ 1.2
1.7
Improper tool or device.................................................................................... 1.2
1.2
Wilfulness ...................................................................................................................
.1
.4
Class of work beyond physical or mental ability of
injured ................................................................................................................
.2
.4
Intemperance ...........................................................................................................
Days Lost
30.9 14.4
8.9
8.4 7.6 6.0
5.4
5.1 4.3 2.8 2.4 2.4
.8 .4
.2
Chart No. 3, at the close of this report shows that, under the original
classification, 23.5 per cent of all the reported accidents involving lost
time were charged to "Slipping, Tripping and Falling," 20.4 per cent to
"Electricity," and 28.2 per cent to "Handling Material." A knowledge of.
these facts, however interesting they may be, is not helpful to the safety
engineer in preventing accidents. Moreover, these might properly be termed the result rather than the cause. The cause may be due to the lack of proper inspection of a safety belt--the result may be a fall from a
pole.
SLIPPING, TRIPPING AND FALLING
(a)
s * Falls from poles
No. of Lost Time
Accidents ...................................... --------524
No. of Days Lost
14,671
Fatals 12
(b) Falls with poles.........................................
3,797
3
(c) (d)
Falls into holes or excavations _____ 152 Ladders.................................................................
1,915 6,283
1 2
(e) Slipping or Tripping............................. ....1047
14,927
0
Totals ..........................................................................
41,593
18
Under the classification "Falls from Poles," the severity in 14,671 days lost and 12 deaths is quite a figure and one that should be discussed. The responsibility for (l) defective climbing equipment, (2) condition of the pole, (3) the unsafe habits performed while at work on the pole or in climbing same may rest on either the workman or his supervisor.
A gaff in a climber has been used so long that it becomes short. It is not long enough to penetrate through the rotten sap ring of the pole and secure a good hold, and down conies a lineman. Even as small an item
874 Twelfth Safety Congress
as an improperly sharpened gaff lias caused a fatality. If the gaff has a curved surface at the point and, when a lineman- comes down a pole, if
the curved point hits a tack, nail head, or hard knot, the tendency is to
throw the foot out and the knee in toward the pole with the great possibil ity of a fall. A few falls were reported and caused from the snap coming out of the D-ring in safety belts. Either the belt was not properly made, (and complete specifications for the make-up of safety belts may be found in the report of the Accident Prevention Committee of the National Elec tric Light Association for 1920), or the lineman had never formed a safe Working habit of making sure that the snap was secured in the D-ring before leaning back for a test. Periodic inspection of some nature of all climbing equipment and tools should be compulsory in every company, large or small.
CONDITION OF POLES
While the condition of the pole many times may be the direct cause of the accident, due to its becoming rotten or full of cracks, yet many of these are given conditions and cannot be eliminated. The lineman must take these into consideration.
Then, there is a certain amount of pride almost every lineman takes in performing his work on poles. Sometimes he tries to show his ability and see how few steps he can take in coming down a pole. Very often this haste results in a fall. But the greater number of accidents of this nature may be charged to the habitual or mechanical manner in which the employee is doing his work. A lineman, in shifting his position on a pole, does not always stop to think that he must put this foot in that position and. look to see that he does it. Doing this kind of work day after day, the changing and shifting around on a pole soon becomes habitual with him, and if a safe working habit in doing this is not formed at the be ginning, sooner or later that lineman is going to receive a fall.
Falls with poles are usually attributed to the failure to properly inspect them before climbing. Either the old pole is not lashed to the new one or it is not properly guyed. Most of these cases occur when replacing old poles with new ones; when the last wires are cut, the old pole falls with a workman. An accident of this nature in the majority of cases is inexcusable. It probably has already been determined that a new pole is necessary, then it should be a foregone conclusion that the old pole is not safe to climb unless properly guyed.
(a) (b) (c) (d)
ELECTRICITY No. of Lost
. . Time Accidents
Flashes .......................................................................... 84 Accident on Voltage above 7500.... 67 Accident on Voltage below 7500_____253 Accidents on Voltage of 110 and 220 11
No. of Days Lost 1,788 9,547
24,364 324
Fatals
1 22 53
2
Totals ................................................................415
36,023
73
Public Utilities Section
875
Seventy-eight deaths and 36,023 actual days lost from work during 1922, resulting from electric shock^ burns and flashes are figures that are stag gering, more especially so when we consider that they represent only 119 companies.
The fundamental reasons for these accidents are many. Some are due
to the lack of providing and enforcing standard safe operating rules. In
the larger cities, accident experience has caused the establishment and
enforcement of certain safety rules. Many companies which operate in
the smaller cities, and some companies which operate strings of properties
.throughout the country, do not have many safety rules in effect. Manage
ment must first issue such vital safety instructions, which if adhered to
will tend to eliminate the greater volume of accidents. These must be
"hide bound" to secure results. In some companies even where safety
rules are in effect, the failure to enforce them is the direct cause of many
accidents. It is rather peculiar, too, when we think of the times when
workmen have been fired because of lack of respect for the dignity of the
boss, and then not even reprimanded because of the more important mat
ters of violation of operating or safety rules.
'
A cure for many an accident may be found among the following rules. With some modification, possibly, to fit local conditions, these should be in effect universally and made mandatory, regardless of the size of the company.
(a) The wearing of rubber gloves when handling energized wires or apparatus carrying a voltage between 300 and 5000.
(b) The placing of danger signs and "hold" cards on all switches . which are opened to permit work to be done on lines or apparatus and
the repeating of the switching orders when given. (This rule is violated
quite frequently in the smaller stations and has resulted in many acci
dents.),
.
(c) The treating of street lighting circuits as energized primaries at
all times.
(d) The use of grounding clamps and cable as a supplementary meas ure in conjunction with chains for protective grounding of high tension lines and apparatus.
(e) The universal rule of making it the first duty of a foreman to teach the new man the prone pressure method of resuscitation before that new man assumes any of the duties, and to follow this up with periodic practice to see that he becomes proficient in his knowledge of it. (This need not necessarily apply to temporary laborers.)
SPECIFIC REMEDIES
Specific remedies possibly cannot be offered for the elimination of all
electric accidents, because they do not all happen alike. Furthermore, a
great number are charged to human failure, either on the part of the
workman or his supervisor, rather than improper design or insufficient
mechanical guarding of apparatus. Consequently, we must get some In
sight into the personal element.
.
876 Twelfth Safety Congress
An employee placed a ladder against the side of a statics wall and
climbed up to clean a window. He came in contact with a 15,604 volt bare
conductor and part of the grounded frame work. He could hare nfunni
the disconnects in this circuit without interrupting service--hut he
A lineman, old in the - game, deliberately removed his nahlur gjxwii while handling an energized primary. One of his feet cane it eatset
with a grounded secondary, resulting in death.
A patrolman at an isolated switching station had occasion to do soak* work on a piece of equipment a short distance away. He cwsmA the switch to kill the circuit but didn't tag it. A power customer, whose mnrice was interrupted, called to the dispatcher, who ordered another eBOpleytt
to close the switch. The employee working on the apparatus was hatQy burned and lost six months from work.
Another employee climbed one of the poles of a substation' switching structure and without glancing above to see what he was climbing: fate,
his head came in contact with a 33 K.V disconnecting switch and. even though he was resuscitated, the injuries received caused ten months* lost time.
Clearly such accidents are due to the "human element." Many similar
accidents involve a mental cause which it will pay to study. A lineman received a broken back as the result of a" 35 foot fall when the D-ring in
his safety belt came out of the snap. He had leaned back for test, and it had held, consequently he assumed that the snap was securely fastened. However, the D-ring was only held on the book part of the snap. "When
shifting his position the snap twisted out. He had not formed a habit of
looking every time to be sure. The failure to form such a habit cost him this fall.
Possibly another need in the utilities industry toward accident preven
tion Is some kind of scheme to continually impress on the new workman during the learning period the importance of forming safe working habits so that he will not be so susceptible to injury during later years. Certainly, we all agree that in our industry there are a greater number of deaths
among the older men in point of service, and some of his fellow workmen usually make such statements as "he was one of the most careful men on the job" after an accident has happened. Possibly a good working habit formed early in his beginning days would have prevented the accident.
This type of accident may be charged to . "poor judgment" on the partof the injured, but something must be done to better his judgment. It may appear theoretical, hut apparently the only solution possible Is to train each workman at the beginning so he will work safe habitually, and even though bis mind rnay become distracted or inattentive about some tedious and dangerous work In hand, thinking possibly of some domestic
trouble, a financial difficulty, or some recent event, the safe working
habits he has formed will have quite a good mechanical effect and possibly
keep him from getting hurt.
'
Sometimes workmen are hired in the presumption that somewhere they have been thoroughly trained, and so are left to follow their own inclina tion. Sometimes they are given a set of rules to follow, but a check up
Public Utilities Section
877
is never made to see that they are being followed to the letter. Perhaps the foreman may speak a word on safety as be details some jobs the new man must do, and that is about all. Safety instruction siren the first day is wasted nnless it is repeated a good many times.
Boiling down all these facts so that they may be applied to individual companies, there are two vital remedies. These remedies are practical, for they have already been thoroughly tried oat and proven successful in a number of large companies.
The first of these is the suggested remedy and Its application that raaiH from an exhaustive investigation of an accident. This covers a ~mnfrtrade of sins." It includes principally the determination of the fundamental cause, fixing the responsibility, promulgating new rules, and the executive backing which is ofttimes essential and which carries great weight.
The second is the medium through which the majority of these may be woven into the Industry. This certainly fs the foreman's responsibility, the scope of which might include the entire field of training the work men, the solicitation of safety help from the workman, the anticipation of accidents on the job, the issuing of special instructions for the varying conditions encountered, and the enforcement of rales in effect.
THE FOBEMAIC
Much has been said about the foreman. Long since has industry realized that dealing in accident prevention, means dealing with men rather than with machinery or equipment. The closest point of contact with the work man is the foreman. He is placed in his position because he is supposed to be of higher mentality and possesses a broader knowledge of the busi ness and operating methods than the men whose work he supervises. In a great many cases, however, as many of the causes of these accidents reveal, management, while admitting that the foreman is the keynote in
accident prevention, has neglected to emphasize this fact to him. - It has not sufficiently impressed on his mind that safety is to be made just as
important as any other part of the work--to he treated on exactly the same basis--and that he is going to be held strictly accountable for accidents that happen, in his department unless the investigation shows otherwise.
Were the utility industries to be revolutionized or made over for the sole sake of safety, possibly the first thought would be the culling out of those foremen who are unfit to serve in. a supervisory capacity and keep only those who have the faculty for leading men, executing rules, "siad
training workmeh in efficiency and safety. But this cannot be done. These
given conditions must be taken as they are and an attempt made to make
them as nearly perfect as possible.
.
Evidently there is a greater demand for executing ability in a utility foreman and a greater need for closer supervision of a gang of workmen in a utility to prevent accidents than'in any other industry. And a closer supervision means more rules in effect. It does not necessarily follow that all such rules, both major and minor, be printed and distributed among the workmen. Possibly the major ones should be, or those which
878 Twelfth Safety Congress
the company executives have deemed advisable to inaugurate throughout the organization and where such rules have been established and rigidly enforced, accidents have decreased materially. But it is the specific jobs, the specific work, even the regular daily work during which many different situations arise, that need detailed instructions and cautions issued. Going to the list of accidents sent in, one reads that Foreman Ross Meyers has charge of three high tension switching stations for a certain company. It is nearly time for the annual inspector to come around. Ros3 wants his stations to be in good condition, so, without giving any definite or detailed instructions, he merely tells Fred Taylor, a helper, to paint the 33KV oil switches and hurriedly leaves for another station. Now, Fred has only been on this job eight months. He doesn't know a great deal about high tension apparatus. He doesn't know whether this switch ought to be "killed out" or not. He finally decides to paint the switch just as it Is. He gets a bucket of paint and a brush and starts to work. There is one part of the switch frame that is hard to get to. He sticks the brush and his arm between two of the 33 Kv.leads and tries to work the brush back and forth with his hands, holding his arm equi-distant between the two conductors. As one would expect, Fred fails and the result is he is in the hospital with his arm burned off. A few hours later Foreman Ross hears about it and rushes back to the hospital, wondering why the "poor fish" did not kill out the switch, or tie an insulated stick on the end of his brush. And one possibly wonders why these instructions were not issued in the first place. The remedy for this accident is certainly obvious. As to why the foreman did not issue these instructions, is another matter. His explanation was to the effect that he didn't think it necessary, as the man should have used better judgment. Too often workmen are allowed to stagger unwarned or uninstructed into ways of performing certain jobs that foster accidents.
ACCIDENT REPORTS AN INCENTIVE TO CLOSE SUPERVISION
Where a conscious knowledge exists in the mind of a foreman that he is responsible for the men in his department and where some information is constantly placed before him so that he feels that he is blamed for accidents, then, in the greater percentage of cases, he is going to give closer supervision to the work his men are doing and issue detailed in structions regarding the methods of performing their duties.
The peculiarity of the utility foreman, whether he is employed in the telephone, gas, or electric industry, when compared with a factory foreman is that his work is not measured on a production basis. No charts or cost sheets are given him that show the efficiency of his department. His work, while to certain- extent routine, is very diversified. When his month's work is through, he does not see his name on any kind of statis tical sheet comparing the work of his department with some other. We must not forget that he is the fellow whose men were hurt or killed and the reports of their injuries are tHe ones which were used- to make up these accident statistics. The safety engineer who keeps a complete record of accidents reported, summarizes them by departments, showing the name of the foreman of each department and broadcasting these re
Public Utilities Section
879
ports throughout the company, is going to find that he is going to get
possibly an. equal result from the voluntary efforts put forth by that fore man to prevent accidents as the safety rules that are in effect and which the foreman is expected to enforce. Where one foreman's name appears listed' along with another foreman's with the accident record of each shown, there is bound to be an Incentive on the part of each foreman to get ahead of the other fellow.
Here, for instance, is Sid Thompson, an old time foreman, who has been
on this particular job so long that he has almost grown stale. About half
the time he appears grouchy and every now and then he has a quarrel
with one of his men. He is a good lineman, and knows his business, but
somehow has lost interest in his job. Only last week one of his men broke
an arm when he fell from a defective ladder. The man had told Sid about
the ladder, but it had not been fixed. The superintendent blamed Sid and
this did not set well with him. There was a safety organization in the
company, but Sid did not take any Interest In ft The main reason was
that the man who was in charge of the safety work used to be a claim
agent and Sid felt that this man did not know enough to come around
and tell him how to run the job. At-any rate, in his basket one morning
later, Sid found a sheet with thirty-seven foremen's names on it showing
the number of accidents, days lost and other information about each de
partment. His name was third from the bottom. Scanning over the list,
he saw the names of two or three other foremen whom he knew well. They
were nearly at the top. This comparison did not improve his feelings any.
That night he lay awake and wondered. He felt that he was as good as
any of them. The next morning Sid got to work early. Before ten o'clock
he had fired one of the men for an unsafe act that Sid had told him long
ago not to do, hut lately he had not cared much. Now we find Sid, seven
and one-half months later, almost a different man. He is fifth from the
top and he and the safety men are good friends;
.
During 1922, new construction work In utilities was particularly heavy. This called for an influx of new men, many of them untrained, and the resulting accidents to these new men are reflected to quite a staggering degree in the number of severity of accidents reported by the various companies. Furthermore, it is quite obvious that there is need for greater training of workmen in the utilities industry than In any other kind of
industrial concerns. This is evidenced by the proposed training plan that will soon be recommended by C- B. Scott's Committee on Accident Pre vention, of the National Electric Light Association. It would be an error to assume that training of a new man in the proper and safe way is going to be accomplished unless the foreman has the right attitude; that he undertakes this with a spirit of interest; and that he takes the initiative and originates many of the instructions and warnings given. During the learning period, an extra degree of attention is needed to assist the work man in forming habits of safety. Many an accident was reported due to a workman failing to see if all three blades of an air switch were open, or if the snap was securely fastened in the D-ring of his safety belt and many others where correct habits were not formed in the beginning.
880 Twelfth Safety Congress
THE INVESTIGATION
.. tfs
One very surprising fact determined from, these reported accidents is
that the majority of cases after an accident has happened a thorough in vestigation is not held to determine the true cause and ftx the responsi bility. It is true investigations were held, hut usually by the insurance company adjuster or by a representative of the accident commission to
determine the beneficiary or the extent of the injury. It is not the pur pose of either of these concerns to suggest remedies and apply cures. They
are not as greatly interested in the prevention of the accident as they are in getting the claim settled.
Many companies, however, do make rigid investigations of all important
and even near serious accidents where death or a severe Injury could
have resulted. .The primary purpose is to bring out suggested plans for
the future safety of employees. Again it is a great factor in putting accident prevention oji the same plane as other phases of the work. Suc
cessful accident prevention work must be based on actual accident expe
rience and an investigation provides the means of gathering all the facts.
In any organization there is no question as to the psychological effect on
the minds of the employees by conducting a thorough investigation. It
has the tendency to impress on them the close relation between the elim
ination of accidents and efficiency in their work, and that a careless act is treated in the same category as poor work. It brings recognition of the
importance of making safety a vital part of the daily routine, and possibly the fear of the consequences of an investigation. Safety is thus woven
closer into the fabric of the business. The importance of the accident has a bearing, of course, on who should
make the investigation. It may be the foreman, the safety engineer, a
representative from the safety department, an employee's safety commit
tee, or a general board of inquiry.
In those companies which have established well worked but investiga
tion plans and who are obtaining the results hoped for, the general pro
cedure is to question those who were present when the accident happened and to leave nothing unturned, to get to the very bottom of the matter and study all contributing causes, to examine any apparatus or equipment
involved for any possible safe rearrangement or safeguarding, to seek for
an improvement in forming safe working habits, to look for personal fac
tors that may have led the workman to become careless or inattentive, to
shield no one, to enter into the spirit of the investigation with justice and firmness to all, but with the determination to seek the basic causes and impose such penalties, or promulgate such plans as will prevent re currence. Such an investigation is a real remedy. And when the findings of the safety engineer, or the board of inquiry, as the case may be, of the
more important or fatal cases are presented in a clean-cut analysis form to the general manager, his clear vision and keen- judgment in matters of decision or admonishment will at once lend added strength to the pres
tige of safety throughout the organization.
No better plans for making thorough investigations of accidents can be offered than those submitted in the recently published Safe Practice
."Public Utilities Section
881
Pamphlet No. 56, of the National Safety Council. It embodies the pur
pose of the investigation, by whom made, cases which should be investi
gated, fundamental causes of accidents, and penalties imposed. If such
plans, or similar plans are put into effect in many 'member companies,
the results of the investigation will reveal many surprising facts as well
as many suggestive remedies.
..
For the benefit of those companies which have been following the orig
inal classification of accidents as to immediate causes. Charts 2, 3, and 4
give an analysis of the reported accidents according to this classification.
CHART NO. 2.
9,400 REPORTED ACCIDENTS INVOLVING LOST TIME, ANALYZED AS TO IMMEDIATE CAUSE.
No. of Ac- Per cidents Cent
Trench Cave-ins..............................
34
.4
Injured by Animals.....................
64
.7
Gas Explosions.................................
63
.7
Overcome by Gas or Heat.. 137
1.4
Machines In Motion..................... 239
3.1
Falling Objects .............................. 405
4.3
Electricity
415
4.4
Eye Injuries......................................... Nail Injuries......................................
418 467
4.4 5.0
Moving Vehicles.............................. 743
7.3
Miscellaneous................................... 990
10.5
Handling Tools................................. 1.040 ' 11.1
Handling Material........................ 2.083 22.2
Slipping, Tripping, Falling. 2,246 23.9
9,400 100.0
. CHART NO. 3.
179,9 41 ACTUAL DATS LOST FROM WORK ON ACCOUNT OF ACCIDENTS, ANALYZED AS TO IMMEDIATE CAUSE.
Days Lost
Injured by Animals. ........ 956
Gas Explosion.................................... 1,483
Overcome by Gas or Heat. . 1,629
Trench Cave-ins.............................. 1,647
Nail Injuries....................................... 2,5"31
Eye Injuries.......................................... 2,720
Machines In Motion..................... 5,155
Falling Objects ....................................5,246
Moving Vehicles.............................. 6,353
Miscellaneous .....................................10,858
Handling Tools..................................10,871
Electricity.............................
36,023
Slipping, Tripping, Falling.41,593
Handling Material...........................49,876
Per Cent
.5 .8 .9 .9 1.4
1.5 2.9 3.0 3.6 6.2 6.2
20.4 23.5 28.2
176,941 100.0
882
Twelfth Safety Congress
CHART NO. 4.
126 REPORTED DEATHS ON ACCOUNT OF ACCIDENTS, ANALYZED AS TO IMMEDIATE CAUSE.
No. of Deaths
Handling Tools .. . .........................
0
Eye Injuries.............................................
0
Injured by Animals.......................
0
Nail Injuries.........................................
0
Handling Material........................
1
Falling Objects ..................................
X
Trench Cave-ins................................
1
Gas Explosions...................................
2
Miscellaneous................................
4
Overcome by Gas or Heat..
4
Machines in Motion........
7
Moving Vehicles................................
10
Slipping, Tripping, Falling.
18
I'jiwmuiiy.........................................
78
Per Cent
0 0 0 o
.8 .8 .8 1.6 3.2 3.2 5.5 7.9 14.3 61.9
1
126 100.0
DISCUSSION
Mr. H. W. Moses (Superintendent, Bureau of Employment, Edison Elec tric Illuminating Company. Boston) : In spite of all the statistics that the Accident Prevention Committee of the National Electric Bight Asso ciation have gotten together in the past few years, they haven't been complete enough to permit of the comparison that is now made possible through this report and the tabulation. I know what a tremendous job it has been to get the answers to these questionnaires and to tabulate them in some form that is comparable and worth while.
When you look at the statistics presented on the first page of the report, the thought that comes over you naturally is that our success during 1922 hasn't been very great in accident prevention work, and that the results have been rather appalling, and pointing out 'a. tremendous amount of work yet for us to do. But when you look at these figures from the point of view of the average of 119 companies, they are really not so very bad, because the death rate is about 1.06 per company per year; that the accident cases reported run about 4.7 per one hundred employees; the lost time cases about 37 per cent" of the total cases re ported; that there was one lost time case for every 12.7 employees; that there was 1.48 days lost per employee per year; and 18.8 was the average days lost per case. And that, surprising as it may seem, is pretty hear the average of the Boston- Edison Co. for 10 years. I tried to estimate what this was in dollars, and I stopped figuring when I got somewhere over two million. It is a relatively large sum.
Another important feature of the report points out that while only 4.4 per cent of the cases analyzed were due to the electrical hazard, yet they caused 20.4 per cent of the days lost and 61.9 per cent of the fatalities.
Public Utilities Section
883
In discussing the remedies, there were three pointed out, and, in the order of their occurrence. It seems to me they are: the foreman, the investigation and the classification which results from that investigation.
In considering the foreman, in view of what has been discussed at these meetings in past years, it seems rather unnecessary to repeat any of that excellent subject matter, but to look at it from a little different angle, we are led to ask ourselves: What is it really that makes a fore man a foreman? Is it due to his experience and as a recognized leader of men? Is it due to his length of service with the company? Is it due to some sentiment, or is it due really to pull? And back of all this comes the vital question of choosing the proper employees at the start, when they* are newly introduced into the company, long before the occurrence of their becoming foremen.
ADVISABILITY OF PHYSICAL EXAMINATION
This gets back to the advisability of physical examinations of new employees to determine their physical fitness for the jobs which they
undertake, and as physical examinations grow in industry, while I appre ciate it is going to make some problem for the discards,, a charge on the community and on society, yet the time is not far distant, I believe (by that I mean five or ten years hence) when 'those companies who do not select employees through the physical examination process are going to
find themselves in the position of taking discards from the industries that do use the physical examination.
There are very many ways to choose men, and a physical examination
may be expanded to a very useful degree.
T` .>
There is a very interesting discussion in a new booklet on that subject
that has just been issued by the National Industrial Conference Board.
We are beginning to hear more and more in industry about psycho
logical tests. They have been used with great success in some branches
of our own industry, notably the General Electric Co. in Lynn. I believe,
too, in selecting your foremen for the relatively higher positions, that
some spirit of composition for promotion should enter in, perhaps based
on the general civil service plan. Length of service isn't necessarily the
only basis on which to promote a man.
.
`
As to the investigation, it appears to me that the all-important factor of investigation is the promptness with which it is done, before the wit nesses and before the man himself has forgotten really what happened.
I believe, too, in publicity within the company Is a great curb to the spread of industrial accidents. Statistics can be circulated around the company bulletin boards.
The make-up of the investigating committee is rather important. Usu
ally it is composed of busy men; it is difficult sometimes to get them
cogether; they are not always on call to go out to the serious accidents
that happen out of office hours and at a distance from their respective
homes.
.
884
Twelfth Safety Congress
We followed the practice in Boston with some success of having a dif ferent committee investigate each accident, that is, a specialist in the particular line which caused the accident is the chairman of that com mittee. For instance, if we have an automobile accident, the man who is the chairman of the investigating commitee is the superintendent of the transportation department, not necessarily a member of the accident committee, but asked by the commitee to serve, and he appoints whoever he wishes to serve with him and make a report to the general committee. If it is an electrical accident, the superintendent of the electrical engi neering department, a man duly qualified by experience and knowledge of the company's system and method of operation, is invited by the com mittee to act as chairman of the investigating committee. That gives us first-hand knowledge from an expert point of view, and ties in a different crowd of fellows with every investigation, so that it is generally known throughout the company that these little committees of three or five are functioning, and that they are investigating something that has happened that has resulted disastrously to a fellow-employee.
THE DIS'STCm.Ty OB' SEOtmiNG STATISTICS
In a recent report of the U. S. Commissioner of Labor Statistics, he says: "It is not greatly to the credit of our people that nobody knows with any substantial degree of accuracy how many industrial accidents occur annually in the United States. Based on incomplete data the Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates the total number of disabled work accidents as approximately two and a half million annually." I simply quote that to illustrate that an important organization whose sole duty it is to deduce statistics have not yet been able to find any standard method or any proper method that puts on a comparable basis the sta tistics of different industries in different states, and that is one of the big jobs that the compensation accident commissioners are up against just now. Their method of compiling statistics in the different states does not permit of any reliable basis of comparing results in one state and another, between one industry and another, if they are located in different states under different jurisdictions.
We quite readily place a lot of the blame, I think for accidents on the man, whether we be workmen or whether we be foremen, particularly on the new man, and there is somewhat of a question, it seems to me, on just how far discipline can be carried.
It doesn't take a student of accident prevention very long, in classi fying causes of accidents under any classification to recognize that the lineman is the big hazard of the industry, and that the handling of elec tricity in all its component parts is our real hazard. N'ow, if discipline is to be a remedy, just how far can we apply discipline?
As I know linemen, there is always a shortage of them. You have got
to take into account supply and demand, and they are not the type of
people you can exploit very much. If you do, they are moving on to
the next town, and their roving characteristic Is to see the world.
.
Public Utilities Section
885
Further, It seems to me there is a certain economic side of accident prevention. We sometimes overestimate the limits to which we can go with., economy. Perhaps there ought not to he such limits, but we had a problem of a series of accidents in our boiler-room which were directly traceable to improper shoes that the firemen were wearing. They were wearing a very much dilapidated, down-at-the-heel, out-at-the-toe and through-at-the-sole type of shoe, which had passed their usefulness, but they were worn in the fire-room because they were comfortable. . We had a lot of accidents, or it seemed to us that we did, because they all came in a bunch, so' we investigated with the idea of recommending to the generating department that they supply their firemen with shoes. We found that in five years we had had 26 accidents due to wearing improper shoes in the boiler-room, resulting in about 300 days' loss. Which, roughly, in .dollars, was about $375 a year. But if the generating department were obliged to buy shoes for 80 firemen, estimating two pair a year would be necessary, the cost of the shoes was going to be $900 in order to save $375, so it seemed as if there was some economical point beyond which you could not reasonably be expected to go.
All we can reasonably expect, it seems to me, in classification, is to point out something that is useful to ourselves, first of all, is useful to the industry, and especially useful in making it possible to make reliable comparisons with one another.
PEIMAEY AND SECONDARY CAUSES
Harry.Lucas (Treasurer, Philadelphia Electric Company, Philadelphia:
Since our object is, primarily, discovering and applying a "remedy" it would seem that too much stress need not be laid upon the fact of
whether we might call the cause primary or secondary, fundamental, or
resultant.
Taking this view of the situation, it may be of advantage to analyze
accidents with a combination of primary and secondary causes, so as to
apply a remedy that may not be called a cure but that will have the
effect of alleviating the situation. This is the procedure in the treatment
of bodily diseases.
'
It is evident that the Herculean task of making over all employees both
physically and mentally is one that few companies would care to under
take, even If armed with a full knowledge of the psychological and mental
causes of accidents.
It behooves us therefore to "make" or "make over" the foremen and
supervisors who handle relatively small groups of employees and who
can do the necessary educational work to make them safeworkers or,
if they possess traits that indicate intemperance, lack of concentration,
poor judgment, wilful indifference, or physical or mental inability to sift
them out and secure a working group that possess the qualifications
necessary to make them desirable as Public Utility Company workers.
For as has been brought out by the authors of this report, the neces
sary diversity of work for the average electric utility worker proves that
such workers must be intelligent and realize that temperance, concen
886
Twelfth Safety Congress
tration, good judgment, interest in their work, the best of attention to physical and mental health are attributes of the men who "get there," in the electric industry. Such qualifications are of'course worth better material recognition than the wage paid to the other type of worker, but there can be little doubt as to the wisdom of the employer in buying the service of such workers, quite as much so as in the buying of highgrade material for the work being performed.
Some foremen or supervisors are indifferent to the needs of the situa
tion and therefore devoid of a sense of the responsibility of their jobs.
An alert division head can quickly straighten out such indifference on
the part of supervisory forees, as the vast majority of men in super
visory positions possess a degree of intelligence that naturally makes
them appreciate the fact that accidents to their men constitute a serious
reflection on their ability as supervisors. This, in itself, insures coop
eration from that angle, although it is of advantage to, from time to time,
give them information relative to the standing of their group as to total accidents, lost time accidents and rate per 100 employees. Thus may
their interest be made constant. Failures on the part of supervisors to
measure up to their responsibilities in accident elimination work, fully
justifies demotion.
*
So much has been written regarding the foreman, that he seems to' be the pivotal figure around which accident prevention work centers. The safety talks to the foremen and the men, the screen pictures showing
proper and improper methods, the bulletins issued regularly to all the foremen and employees, are primarily to hammer safety home to all, but they carry a special and an individual lesson to the foreman.
I differ with the statement that the management neglects to emphasize to the foremen the necessity of safe practice. In our company, and I am sure it must be true of other companies, safe practices are constantly being impressed on him and fines, reprimands, lay-offs, and dismissal are his lot if accidents to his force indicate indifference and carelessness.
A most effective manner to fix in his mind the importance of safe prac tice is to lay him off for the same number of days the injured employee is incapacitated, that is, if the period is not too long.
We find we have but a few cases each year where such stringent
enforcement of discipline is necessary, but our supervisors know that we
look to them to minimize the accident situation, and they, for the most
part, prefer to cooperate fully in the matter rather than be censured for
indifference to so important a matter as safeguarding the men under
them.
'
rer.KCTBICAX. ACCIDENTS COST MORE
.
Mr. Wills MaeLachlan (Toronto, Canada): One reason why we are all
teaching the Prone Pressure Method of Resuscitation is because We find that although only eight per cent of the accidents are electrical, yet they '
cost possibly 75 per cent of the compensation. That is based on the old
type of the classification.
.
Public Utilities Section
887
Mr. R. A. Bloomsberg (Utilities Insurance Co., New York): I don't altogether agree with. Mr. Rutland's statement that insurance companies do not make Investigations of accidents, because that is one thing we do with, fatal accidents. We get a man there "within 24 hours, and we get every possible fact that can have any bearing. That is an engineering investigation I am speaking of now, and we have found out some very interesting facts in connection with some of these investigations.
Mr. Rutland also referred to this' question of classification. That, is something that we have been giving considerable thought to recently, from a little different viewpoint. The system which Mr. Rutland has out lined I think is a line thing for an individual company, not so much because it has what might be termed an absolute statistical value, but . because in that particular company it is placing the emphasis upon cer tain conditions which must be watched. It will be a little difficult, I am afraid, to compare the figures for one company, where you will have one man investigating the accident with certain ideas and tendency to draw' certain conclusions, with the experience of some other utility company, and when you attempt to do that there may be difficulties.
ELIMINATION OF HAZARDS IN BY-PRODUCT PLANTS
John F. O'Malley, Stjpebintendent, Empire Gas and Electric Company, Geneva, N. Y.
The elimination of hazards in by-product plants is a subject of much
interest to all of us, because it effects men, and manpower is not only
vital to our industry, but to society as well.
Mr. H. O. Palmer, vice-president of our company, recently stated that
any man in our business of public utlity with a responsible position
should be a better man than one in a comparable position with any other industry, and I believe he is right. Such a condition is made possible by education and experience. Elimination of hazards is applicable in the same manner. We know that, of all accidents, the larger percentage could be avoided if - these people did some real thinking in time, and' thinking, as we know, is the hardest thing for some people to do.
The viewpoint of the management is highly important; to be perma nently successful it must think, act, and show by example in and out of working hours its worthiness to have the confidence of its men. The men must believe in it. The management is responsible for the thinking processes of its employees.
It is my opinion that the elimination of hazards should start when the man Is employed and the matter kept fresh in his mind. Ip. this respect, it is much like advertising, as it must be kept before him until the man is thoroughly sold, at the same time having in mind that no sale is en tirely satisfactory until all concerned are satisfied, and that that which has been acquired is of value for the price paid. If the price of freedom of accidents is education, let us have tbat proper education.
In connection with this same thought, there is another important mat
ter that we know to be true and should be given the attention it requires.
We know that if a person is to be successful in accomplishing something.
888 Twelfth Safety Congress
the first requirement is interest. He must me interested in it, and there
are many reasons why any one should become highly interested in this
subject, both from an employer and an employee standpoint.
We who operate by-product plants know that our industry has made
vast strides forward, and is producing necessities on a large scale that
have become highly important in the progress and development of all
classes of people. An industry like burs must be solidly built, and man
power, which is the most important power, must be trained and safe
guarded in every possible way.
It has always been my opinion that the right man in the right place
accomplishes wonders in work, and likewise, in elimination of hazards,
and I believe that it is one of the biggest things we can do for the man.
If a man does not like his job and the kind, of work that he is doing, he
is a misfit. Imagine a man in this position and see how much interest
he has in himself and what is going on about him. He becomes mentally
and physically lazy. He is one of those who becomes bored if you talk
Safety to him or show him a safety bulletin. He may agree with you,
hut he goes on taking the same'old chances. A good many times much
can be done to help this man find himself by placing him in more adaptabel work in which he can become interested. If this cannot be done we
are doing him a service to tell him so, and allow him to find employment
elsewhere.
.'
'
BIGHT LIVING AND THIHKIKG, PAI BIG DIVIDENDS
The man who is frequently found on the accident list is the one with the single-track mind. The particular line of thought varies with the individual.- His mind is not on the job. He may be worrying about his family or thinking of the good time he had the night before, or what
he is going to do that night, or of a multitude , of other things. He is engaged in doing work that requires that he give it his thought and attention, and his thoughts are far from it. He does not pay attention
to Safety rules, because his mind is filled with other things. He is wan
dering away mentally, and he is a bad risk.
.
As previously stated, we want in our industry real men, men who
appreciate that right living and right thinking are big dividend payers
in good health, which is essential. A man of this type who is interested
and satisfied with his work has the spirit of contentment, but not that of safety and his name is-seldom found on the list of accidents.
I appreciate that many times when we want men, that we cannot get
a man made to order, and this condition of the right man for the job cannot be accomplished in a day. It may take some time but is of suffi
cient Importance to keep, in mind, so that eventually it may be accom
plished.
Foremen and department heads form an important part of the safety organization and these men must be thoroughly sold on the idea of Safety. In many respects they are the company.
The various operations and departments are classified for accident pre vention. Our rules are directed to the men. In these rules, the particular
hazards, and their elimination, in the various departments are set forth.
Public Utilities Section
889
The safety committee consists of three men from our own organization and this committee makes regular inspections of the entire plant and reports their recommendations to the safety engineer and the superin* tendent. The safety engineer tabulates these, each recommendation on a separate report and forwards to the superintendent. When completed these reports are returned to the safety engineer. The personnel of the committee is changed from time to time and works out well, as it gives a larger number an opportunity to take anactive interest in the work.
BUI.ES FOB DESIGN, PURCHASE AND COUiSTBUCTIOX
1. Orders for machinery should have safety appliances incorporated in their specifications.
2. Jill drawings should be checked for safety precautions before they are issued.
3. It should he the duty of inspectors, constructing engineers and superin tendents to see that all safety devices are applied, and all safety rules are complied with before apparatus and machinery are put into operation.
4. Belts and pulleys shall be so located as not to be dangerous to workmen, or shall be properly enclosed, fenced or otherwise guarded.
5. Valves shall be so located as to be readily accessible or permanent lad
ders,- stairways, or runways from which they can be readily reached shall ba
provided.
'
6. Fly wheels should be properly fenced or guarded.
7. Gears should pe protected hy guards of approved design.
8. Shaft couplings should be protected by guards.
9. Keys should be cut oil flush with- the shafts or housed.
.
10. Collars should be of the safety type with countersunk set screws.
11. Set screws should be of the countersunk type wherever possible, or ba
guarded.
.
12. Emery wheels must be provided with a hood and goggles.
`
13. Keyxoays, when exposed, should be filled up.
14. "Walks should be provided where it is necessary to oil 3hafting while
running. Shafting on wall brackets or otherwise, placed so that when oiling from ladders Is necessary should be properly guarded.
15. Charging cars should be equipped with wheel guards or hoods so ar ranged that they will push any object off of the track instead of running over the same. They should also be provided with an automatic alarm to sound
whenever the car is moved.
IS. Electric locomotives should be equipped with alarm bells and whistles. Sells should be so arranged as to ring whenever the car Is moved.
17. Pushers should be provided with automatic alarms arranged to sound
whenever the car is moved.
18. Hand rails should be made of pipe not less than one and one-fourth inch and must be bolted to floor or set in sockets. Use no wood screws.
19. wooden handrails should not be used for other than temporary work.
20. Handrails should "be provided on all platforms, embankments, walks or stairways.
21. Toe boards not less than four inches high should be provided on all
platforms, stairways or runways which are ten feet or more above the ground or floor.
22. Stairways should never be made with irregular risers or treads, or of,
a greater angle than 50 degrees with the horizontal. Where greater angle is necessary use ladders.
23. All permanent ladders should be made of iron.
24. Water gauges on hollers and apparatus under pressure should be eauipped with safety guards.
25. Counterweights should always be housed.
26. Exhaust pipes should never be allowed to discharge in a horizontal direc
tion or at less than seven feet from the ground.
' 27. Manhole covers should be designed with their least diameter greater than the greatest diameter of the opening they cover, or must be hinged In place.
890
Twelfth Safety Congress
28. ,Open Sewers, pits or dumps must be properly railed or covered with
covers of approved design.
29. Platform, stairways, etc., more than seven feet above the ground must
be provided with double pipe handrails.
'
30. Clearances of ample width must be provided along and above the.entire
paths of any traveling machine, such as charging cars, locomotives, cars, push
ers, trippers, etc.
31. Scaffolds should be built with no lumber less than two by six inches.
Where wooden hand rails are placed on same, they must be Inside and not
outside of uprights. Toe boards should be provided on all scaffolding on which brick or similar materials .are to be, handled.
32. ^Safety gates or doubling acting spring hinges should be provided for
dangerous crossings.
33. Iron floor plates must not be smooth. Use checkered or otherwise rough
ened plates.
*
34. All hooks used for .hoisting should be of approved design.
35. Doors on ail buildings where there is possible danger from escaping
gases or fire should be made to open out. Such doors should be fastened shut
by counter-weights or springs. It should not be necessary for a man to find
a knob or latch when endeavoring to escape through darkness, smoke or a
blinding gas.
-
36. Approved wiring, switches, and vapor proof globes should be provided
in all by-product departments, purifying house, coal and coke handling depart
ments or in any department where dangerous gas or infiamable material is
manufactured or used.
37. Steam jets should be provided on stand pipes to eliminate hazard from
gas flashes.
.
RULES FOR FOREMEN
1. Have a thorough understanding o all rules. Until you know them all and are living up to them you are not doing your full duty.
2. lion will be held responsible for accidents to your men.
3. You should caution your sub-formen regarding the preventing of accidents.
. 4. 'Watch out for men who are hurt frequently, either by carelessness or bad luck, and put them where they will not get hurt.
6. You must not put men to work on any Job until you have satisfied your self, by personal inspection, that the place is safe. You must warn men of any danger that may come up in the course of doing this work. If, on return
ing, after you have been away, you see a man violating instructions or talcing
chances that makes him or others liable to injury, deal with that man so as to make certain he will not again disobey orders.
6. Use judgment at all times in placing men on jobs; heavy, slow men should not be placed on jobs where light, quick men are required. Slow think ing, uninteiligent men, should not be placed on or around machinery where
presence of mind is required for, by so doing, the probability of accidents is increased many times.
7. If machinery, tools or other appliances, with which you or your men are working are dangerous, do not continue to use them, but call your superior, if other tools or appliances cannot be immediately procured.
8. When you finish a job leave the conditions safe, replace safeguards and do not leave loose material overhead or where men are liable to stumble over it.
9. Drill your men to notify you at once when injured, no matter how slight
the injury may be.
- _
10. A foreman's accident report must be made out for each and every acci
dent. telling how the accident occurred, and names of all witnesses. Also, what
caused the accident and how- similar accidents can be prevented in the future.
Ask this question of yourself: ."Could I have done anything to prevent the
accident?"
-
11. Investigate every accident occurring to your men and try to prevent another accident occurring in a like manner.
' 12. Never have a man In your emplpy with whom no one can talk.
13. Injured men should not be allowed to go to the doctor unassisted where
the injury is other than of a very minor nature.
.
14. Foremen on one shift must report to and discuss with foremen on the other shifts accidents they have had with a view of preventing like accidents.
15. When it is necessary for men to work above other men, those working underneath should be notified of the faCfc. When it is necessary for men to work underneath other men, those overhead should be notified of the fact.
Public Utilities Section
I 891
16. In the process of new construction or repairs, the surrounding premises
should be kept clean and as orderly as possible. Boards with nails sticking
up must not be left lying around.
-
17. Wo person should, be allowed to operate traveling machinery of any kind without being authorized by the proper authority.
18. Make it your personal duty to see that all safeguards and signs, installed to promote safety, are in place and' in good condition.
19. When repair men .or men of other departments are doing work in your
department, see that they observe all rules of safety. You are responsible for the conditions in your department.
20. Never send a man into a bin or hopper containing coal or other material unless. he has the assistance of another man and a rope tied around his body
under the arms. Be sure that the assistant stands in a safe place and has his end of the rope attached to some fixed, object.
21. Do not allow loose material to lie around. A. large percentage of acci-
dents is caused by men stepping on or stumbling over material or objects which
should have been removed.
-
22. An fly wheels and large pulleys in your department should be inspected
at regular intervals for possible defects or cracks.
23. TBtvery foreman must know the location and use of the emergency medi
cine cabinet and its contents and their name, and know how to get the assist
ance of the regular doctor and hospital, and must know who to call if the
regular doctor is out.
j'
24. Never send a man into a tank, boiler, apparatus, or vessel of any de
scription without having a man outside to watch for his safety. If there is
known possibility of danger, have him tie a rope securely under his arms before
entering.
'
"
,
25. The prevention of accidents is one of your most important duties.
26. Make it your duty to see that alt dangerous places are well lighted at all times. Many places' which are safe in daylight or safe for men familiar with them may be extremely dangerous, to new men when it is dark.
27. Before crossing tracksStop, look and listen.
28. Souse cleaning conditions must be watched carefully. All departments
should be kept clean and free from all accumulation of waste materials. Clean
up after each job:
'
. RULES FOR COKE OVENS
1. There is danger in passing under moving machinery, from falling objects,
or broken parts of machines.
,
-
2. Before moving pusher, charging cars, or quenching cars and locomotives,
be sure no one is in a position to be injured.
-
3. Attention is called to the danger of coming in contact with electric power
wires or rails supplying power to pusher, charging cars and electric locomottves.
4. Bo not open .or shut any gas, steam, liquid or other valves or electric switches, unless It is your duty to do so.
5. See that alt shafting and gears are properly guarded at all times, and that all handrails are in place and safe. Report all dangerous places to your foreman at once.
6. Never throw objects of any nature.from the top of the ovens or platforms
without first making sure that no one is in a position to be injured.
.
7. In oiling or working around machinery, do not wear loose or ragged
clothing; be sure your sleeves are tight at the wrist
.
8- When closing, opening or cleaning charging' holes and stand pipes, work
on the side from which the wind is blowing. When gas or smoke Is escaping from an oven, remember it may Ignite at any moment, and may cause painful burns.
9. Never stand in front of the oven doors when they are being raised or
lowered. If necessary to steady them do so with a shovel and stand to one'
side so that, if cable or hook breaks, the door will not fall on you. Boor holsters'
must Inspect cables and hooks each shift before starting work- and report any
signs of failure or weakness to foreman at once.
.
10. Be sure that the platforms on the pusher and discharge sides of the
oven3 are kept free from loose coke or other material. A stumble may be fatal.
11. Never ride on pushers, charging cars, locomotives, or quenching cars
unless it Is your duty to do so.
.
12. No one but the regular operators shall move or operate any pusher, charging car, locomotive or other machinery about the ovens unless Instructed to do so by the foreman in charge.
892 Twelfth Safety Congress
13. Gas may kill you. Dangerous gas may be' found anywhere. Sometimes
you cannot see or smell it. It may make you unconscious before you know gas is present. Sometimes gas makes you feel dizzy or gives you a headache, stilt neck, or weak legs. When you feel any of these symptoms, get into fresh air.
14. Do not go into any building or into any part of the works where your
duties do not take you.
15. Never enter a tank or other apparatus without orders from your fore man, and without another man outside to watch for your safety.
16. Flue men are cautioned against the danger of ashes, when the peep
holes are first opened for inspection of dues. Do not get your face too close
to the same.
'
17. Do not place Hands on door of hoist cables while they are in motion. 18. Before crossing tracks, STOP, LOON and, LISTEN.
19. When ovens are taken out of operation care must be exercised to see that fuel gas'ls shut off and no gas i3 allowed to enter dues. This is important.
20. All gas holders must be inspected and kept in good working order and kept well painted.
21. Platforms, steps, railings and ladders must be kept in constant repair
and safe at all times.
.
RULES FOR -SARD AND RAILROAD MEN
'
1. All excavators should be guarded by barriers and by lights at night. All
excavations that are liable to cave in must be shored up.
_
2. Always be sure the tools and appliances you are working with are safe.
3. 'When unloading ears, he sure that the material Is piled or placed at
least six feet from the nearest rail. If it is-not possible to do this, place a
warning sign at each end of the pile. Any material spilled along the track
must be immediately cleaned up. A stumble Is sometimes fatal.
*
4. All trains and locomotives must move with caution throughout the plant;
and must be under the control of the operator at all times. All trains must be
operated with the expectation of finding obstructions or men on the tracks at
any point.
.
5. Every train consisting of one or more cars, when inmotion, must have
a man on the end toward the direction in which it is moving, except when moving with the locomotive ahead.
6. Locomotive crane men must follow the rules for regular train crews when
operating throughout the^yard.
.
7. Switchmen must see that all switch points fit properly.
8. No person whose duty does not require it will be allowed to ride on loco motive or train.
9. In all cases of accidents and damage to equipment or cars, report must be made to the proper authority at once.
10. Flying sioitches are positively prohibited.
11. Ti-ains must be brought to a full stop before cutting cars loose from
engine.
12. Switchmen must not move improperly loaded cars, or cars which cannot be safely handled to destination. .
13. Every workman before going on any scaffold of any description must see for himself that the scaffold and its supports are properly built. Sufficient time will at all times be allowed to each employe to make this examination. He is forbidden to enter upon any scaffold of any description until he has
satisfied himself by such personal examination that it is safe.
14. Before crossing tracks- STOP, LOON and LISTEN.
15. Do not wear loose or ragged clothing around moving machinery. When
working on same be sure yo.ur sleeves are tight at the wrist.
. 16. When coaling up locomotives, coal should not be piled up high so that lumps will roll off when the locomotive is in motion.
17. When repair men are on work on tracks, markers must be placed and no cars moved beyond the safety zone.
18. All motive power must be kept in good working order and safe. General
steam boiler rules apply.
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RULES -FOR COAL DEPARTMENT
1. There is danger in passing under coal handling machinery from coal or
from broken parts of machinery falling.
Public Utilities Section
893
. 2. When working with a crane, get Into a place of safety. Do not stand
within working range of bucket. Do not stand tinder bucket when, machine
is not working.
3. Before moving a oar, unloader, or stock bridge, be sure that no one Is
in a position to be injured.
4. Attention is called, to the danger of coming in contact with electric power
wires or rails supplying power to unloaders and stocking bridges.
5. See that gears and shafting are properly protected at all times, and that
handrails are In place and safe, and report, dangerous places to your foreman
at once.
6. Never attempt to clean the coal off the Inside of a conveyor belt when
It Is running.
7. Never throw coal, waste material or objects of any nature off the plat
forms and runways of any unloader, bridge or conveyor, without first making sure that no one is in a position to be injured. '
8. In oiling or working around pulleys, shafting or other moving machinery,
do not wear loose or ragged clothing. Do not oil or grease machinery while
in motion.
.
' 9. Never enter a "bin containing coal unless you have the- assistance of
another man, and a rope tied around your body. Bs sure this assistant stands
in a safe place and that he has his end of the rope so tied or controlled that it cannot get away from him.
10. Never throw material of any nature from the windows or roofs of any
building without first making sure that no one is in a position to be injured.
11. Keep all runways, platforms, etc., free from loose coal, or other material
which might be knoeked off and injure others below.
,
12. Coal dust is explosive when mixed with air in certain proportions. Never
use matches or open, lights when dust is present.
''
13. Never ride on cars, locomotives or on other moving machinery unless
it is your duty to do so.
14. Riding on conveyor belts Is prohibited. Disregard of this rule will be
sufficient cause for discharge.
.
15. Before crossing tracks-- STOP, LOON and LISTEN.
KUT-ES FOB COKE HANDLING DEPARTMENT
-
1. Keep all stairways, platforms and runways free from loose coke. A
stumble is sometimes fatal.
2. There is danger in passing under moving machinery from falling objects
or part3 of machines.
3. Never crawl under cars, and never go through between the cars of a
train. Go around. Take no chances.
4. Do not open or shut any gas, steam or water valve, or electric switch,
unless it is your duty to do so.
5. See that all shafting and gears are properly guarded at all times, and
that all handrails are in place and safe. Report afi dangerous conditions to
your foreman at once.
6. Never throw objects of any nature from the trestles, platforms, or from
windows or roofs of any building without first making sure that no one Is in a
position to be injured.
.
7. In oiling or working around moving machinery, do not wear loose or `
ragged clothing; be sure that your sleeves are tight at the wrist.
8. Never attempt to clean the inside of a belt while it is In motion ; wait
until it is shut down.
.. 9. Never ride on moving cars or locomotives unless It is your duty to do so.
10. Before moving any car or starting any machines, be sure that no one
is in a position to be injured.
11. Never ride on any conveyor belt.
.
12. Before crossing tracks: STOP, LOON and LISTEN.
'
RULES FOB AMMONIA CONCENTRATOR, LIGHT OIL AND BI-PRODUCT OPERATION
1. Attention is called to the danger of coming in contact with electric power
or light wires. Do not climb over, step on or pull on any wires.
2. Never throw objects of any nature from an apparatus, stairways, plat
forms, windows or roof, without first making sure no one' is in a position to be
injured.
3. When oiling or working around machinery or shafting, do not wear loose
or ragged clothing, be sure that your sleeves are tight at the wrist.
894
Ttvelfth Safety Congress
4. Do not open or close any valves, or any electric switches, unless it is your duty to do so, or unless you have been instructed to do so by the foreman
In charge.
5. Never use an open light or lantern to inspect the inside of an apparatus, tank or pipes used in these departments. If inspection with a light is necessary
use a flashlight.
6. Gas is dangerous. Dangerous gas may be found anywhere. Sometimes you cannot see or smell it. It may make you unconscious before you know gas is present. Sometimes gas makes you feel dizzy, or gives you a headache, or stiff neck, a chocking sensation, or weak legs. "When you feel any of these symptoms, get Into fresh air at once. Go toward and out the side of the building toward which the wind is blowing if this Is possible. When ammonia gas is excaping, the purest air is next to the floor.
7. Do not allow tools, bolts, nuts or loose material of any nature to lie on any platforms, stairways, floor or apparatus ; it may fall or be knocked off and injure someone below.
8. Always assure yourself that all stairways are safe and free from obstruc tions, and that all handrails are in place and safe. Report all dangerous places or conditions at once.
9. Be sure that all safety valves on the apparatus you operate are In work ing condition and that they will blow at the pressure for which they are set.
Do not attempt to change or renew thermometers, pressure gauges, etc., without advice from your foreman.
10. 'When opening or closing cocks on apparatus subject to corrosion, stand so that you will not be injured by escaping liquid or vapor if the nipple breaks.
11. Use no open lights and strike no matches in any building where gas, oil or tar are handled or used. No matches should be carried.
12. Be sure that all cellars, sumps and pits are well ventilated. Use caution in entering same unless you know that no gas is present-
13. Ammonia gas in small quantities is harmless; in large quantities it is
dangerous to breathe. Avoid breathing if it is strong enough to make you
cough. Hold your breath and get into fresh air as quickly as possible. Go
toward and out the side of the building toward which the wind is blowing
if this is possible. When ammonia gas is escaping the purest air Is next to the
floor.
-
14. Be sure that all safety wiring and safety globes and lamps In any of
these departments are maintained in good condition. If you find a broken globe or defective wiring notify your foreman at once.
15. Every man working with acid or other corrosive liquors should know
the use and location of the proper antidotes. If you have not this information
ask your foreman for instructions.
-.
16. Before crossing tracks: STOP, LOOK, and LISTEN.
17. Do not wear loose or ragged clothing around moving machinery. When working on same be sure your sleeves are tight at the wrist.
18. Buildings must he ventilated well at all times and particularly when machine is down for repairs.
19. When repairs are being done men should work In pairs.
20. Constant supervision for leaks is necessary.
21. Condenser tubes in the Ammonia Concentrator machine develop leaks due to action of materials handled; when this happens it becomes necessary to remove the old tube or tubes and put in new ones- Before attempting to do
this be sure pressure is off machine. Proceed as follows: Shut feed liquid oft. Shut oft steam and wait until pressure gauge on direct steam rings show no pressure. Machine and buirding' should he thoroughly ventilated and men work in pairs in short periods. Wear close fitting goggles, if possible. Strong am monia gas causes painful injuries to the eyes and all precautions should be taken to avoid it. Take your rest periods in the fresh air outside the building. All shut downs for repair or cleaning to apparatus or piping are important and apply as above.
22. In the event of any. strong liquid line breaking, use gas mask to close valves.
23. Serious burns have occurred from opening doors of lime reservoir before reservoir is properly drained. This liquid temperature is about 90 degrees centi-grade and must be drained before attempting to open door. Drain cock is
located at bottom.
24. Always shut triplex pumps down before closing discharge valve to pre
vent injury to yourself by gaskets or packing blowing and damage to pumps or piping.
25. Personal cleanliness is important. Provide extra clothes so that com
plete change may be made. Benzol tar, etc., may cause skin irritations, and
possibly more serious trouble.
.
Public. Utilities Section
895
RTJX.ES FOR BLUE GAS
1. Blast Unea are provided with explosion heads, and should be inspected
regularly.
-
2. AM equipment must be watched carefully and kept in first class working order.
8. Caution should, be used when charging hole cover is removed for charging
of fuel and, when released, stand away and open by using hook which is
provided,
-.
4. Keep house {bell ventilated.
'
5. Mousecleaning conditions are important. Keep everything in Its proper PTftCfts
6. Before wetting ashes, move car to safe distance to avoid burning men on floor above.
7. Clean the handhole openings at the bottom of the hot valves daily or as
often as necessary.
.
8. Clean the bottom of the up and downs connection weekly or oftener if
necessary.
.
...
9. Keep alt valves and cocks tight and in good working order.
10. Never put an open light of any kind in the generator until the set has been opened and thoroughly ventilated.
11. Never allow flame or fire inside or near any uncovered openings In the washbox, scrubber or condenser.
12. If the set has been shut down for a short time and its operation is to be continued, turn on a little base steam to purge the gases out of the ash
pit before putting on the generator blast.
13. When cleaning wash boxes care should be taken to see tbat they are thoroughly purged or gas and valves closed tight and. fastened.
14. Never open the charging door or any other door which may cause a flash while men are clinkering or working at any opening of the set.
RTJXES FOR POWER HOUSE AND GAS PUMPING
1. All sxoitchboards* must be provided with rubber mats, and when switches
are operated men must wear rubber gloves.
2. All power producing units must be regularly oiled and kept clean.
3. All machine frames should be grounded.
4. Gas pressure on high line should not be carried over 40 lbs. as this Is
the maximum working of compressors.
_
5. Gas holder should not be carried lower than half a lift from the bottom. Before it reaches this point notify oven foreman.
RULES FOR PURIFYING HOUSE
1. Gas leales are dangerous and should be attended to promptly.
2. Exposure of matches or any inflammable material is not tolerated.
3. "When repair worle Is to be done no man should work alone.
4. ' Boxes should be cleaned as frequently as necessary and when this is done care should be taken to see that box and house is thoroughly ventilated and men watched and relieved to avoid being overcome by gas. Inlet and outlet valves should be securely closed and fastened. .
5. When changing flow of gas in boxes gas flow should not be interrupted. The new flow valves should be opened first.
6. In the event of escaping gas from a leak or from any cause, house should not be entered until thoroughly aired.
7. Seals must be inspected regularly and kept in* good working order and whenever possible should be located outside the building.
RULES FOR BOILER PLANT
1. All boilers must be inspected and cleaned regularly, all scale and soot
removed, safety valves repaired and tested, water columns cleaned, tri cockv cleaned, steam gauges tested, blow oft valves Inspected, and overhauled If needed. In general all boilers should be kept in first class working order.
2. No one is allowed to enter boiler without first notifying fireman and mak
ing sure biowoff valve is securely closed and fastened.
_
3. Mousecleaning conditions are important.
896
Twelfth Safety Congress
RULES FOR MAINTENANCE DEPARTMENT
1. Be sure you know the rules for safety in all departments In irhich you work.
2. When chipping see that your tools are not battered, and provide roorselves with eye shields, thereby preventing-- chips from Injuring your eyes.
3. Never work under a ear, locomotive, pusher, or similar machines, without first notifying the operator and placing the proper danger sign.
4. Obtain from, your foreman, danger signs to be signed with ywar own name. Never neglect to place these so that you will be protected when aaoreaacnt of machinery on which you are working will be dangerous to you.
5. While, at work- do not lay tools or other objects where they rosy fads and
injure others.
.
6. When you complete a job, never leave tools or to owe naasw^at iytac overhead. Tear down all temporary scaffolds as soon as you are Ttii nn.*i with
them. See that all dirt and refuse is cleaned up before you haw.
7. When leaving a partially completed job, be sure that there **w *n is* I'lMe*
left through which others might fall. Be sure that all hudncH*. irasrht and other safety appliances are replaced or in a safe condition until pw tKan.
Iieave no material or apparatus in such a position that a
JXwhmce
might cause it to fall.
_
8. Always replace all safety guards on the completion of nepwir utit wtxfech
has disturbed them.-
9. Do not pile any material so high or in any way so that it is Sweety to fall.
10. Never place heavy weights on platforms or floors unless yow arv wire of their strength. When in doubt ask advice of your foreman. Tflalee ne chances.
11. Do not wear loose or ragged clothing around moving machinery-- When working on same, be sure your sleeves are tight at the wrist.
12. Never open or close a gas, steam, -liquid, water valve or electric
switch without notifying .the operator in charge and the foreman of the depart
ment in which you are doing the work.
'
13. Inspect regularly all tools and appliances with which you work. Worn or damaged tools may slip or break and cause injury to yourself or others.
14. Never go into a boiler until you have closed all valves and attached a danger "Do Not Move" Sign to each.
15. Never enter a boiler or tank unless there is a man outside to watch
for your safety.
`
16. Before crossing track: STOJP, 1,0OI\- and LISTEN.
17. When working on pusher, charging car, quench car, and motor car see that power is off so that car cannot be moved.
RULES FOR ELECTRIC DEPARTMENT
-
I. Every workman not duly authorized by the chief electrician, is for bidden to work on or tamper with any electrical wire or machinery.
. 2. It is i>ossible to receive a fatal shock from 125 volt circuit under certain conditions.
3. Linemen are warned against the danger of working on live circuits. Do
not do so without the advice of your foreman in each case.
4. When the power is cut off of a line for you to work on it. always
place a sign bearing your name on the switch where the power is turned on,
stating that men are working on the line.
'
5. When the work is completed, remove the sign. No one except the man who placed it should ever remove such-a sign.
6. Never close a switch without full knowledge of why the switch was
opened.
'
7. Linemen should always icear safety belts when working overhead,
head.
.
8. Inspect regularly and frequently all tools and appliances with which you
work. Worn or damaged tools may slip or break and cause injury to yourself
or others.
9. The electrical department is responsible for the maintenance of all safety globes on lamps, and safety wiring throughout the works. Inspectors must
inspect regularly- and report all defects found to their foreman and to the
foreman of the Department where the defects are found.
10. Before crossing tracks: STOB, LOOK and LISTEN,
II. Do not wear loose or ragged clothing around moving machinery. When
working on same be sure your sleeves are tight at the wrist.
12. All machinery to be kept in constant repair and clean up after each job.
Public Utilities Section
897
RULES FOR RIGGERS
1- Take no chances, for yourself. It is crime to take chances affecting the
safety of others.
2. Inspect regularly all tools and appliances with which you work.
3. If you have left rigging standing over night or (luring the noon hour,
inspect carefully all ropes, guy lines and hoisting machinery before starting
work.
_
4. When in doubt choose the safe course.
'
.
5. never ride on a,moving load or on material being hoisted.
6. Crowe and hoist operators are forbidden to hoist any loads carrying a man.
7. ' Stay from under all material being hoisted.
"
8. When moving heavy objects, place hands, feet and bodies so that you will not be hurt if they fall, slip, or roll.
9. All chains used for hoisting should be annealed at least once in six months.
10. When working above other men, let those below know about it. When working below other -men, let those above know about it.
11. Never fasten guy lines to or snub lines around any pipe without the
advice of your foreman.
'
12. Do not wear loose or ragged clothing around moving machinery. When working on same be sure that your sleeves are tight at the wrist.
13. Before'crossing tracks: STOP, BOOK and LISTEN.
-
. DISCUSSION
Mr. D.'S. McEachern (Eire and Safety Engineer, Coke Manufacturing Dept., Semet-Solvay Company, Detroit) : I am going to touch on three or
four points that were brought up here this morning, and the most impor
tant one I think is that of the foreman being the "real boy." The foreman, I say, is the biggest factor in the elimination or the prevention of accidents. If we find that a foreman has a large number of accidents and the investi gation discloses that he failed to properly instruct his men, we discharge him, and we pick out of this same gang to take his place a man that has
shown some interest in safety work. Of course, it is important that this man should understand the operation of this department; we take that
into consideration.
We find it is far better to discharge a foreman under those conditions, than to give him ten days off. That fellow comes back with a`rock in his heart, and he is a knocker for the movement from them on. He is sore against safety, so the cheapest and easiest way to handle it is to discharge him.
Bad housekeeping and waste play an important part in accidents in by-product plants. When I say waste, I mean material that is carried out on a Job and left, old parts and new parts, bolts left on runways, on steps and stairways and on platforms.
Mr. M. B. Hile (Citizens Gas Company, Indianapolis, Ind.): I repre sent the Citizens Gas Company. Since this program was made up Mr. Forrest has severed his connection with the company as general manager.
I believe much in disciplining the foremen, and I do not believe that it makes soreheads. In fact, not only do we fine a foreman or an em ployee responsible for an accident, but we put him on the safety com mittee. I believe a lot of them can be whipped into line in that way. If a fellow is a little bit cool along safety lines, we give him a safety job.
898
Twelfth Safety Congress
,/
The big problem in our plant happens to be with the so-called leisure class, the negroes, and we have a great deal of trouble at times in keep ing these fellows from nursing a supposed injury.
Mr. F. D. Warren (Blackstone Gas & Electric Co.): I usually give them a hint that there is a list in town, and malingerers are usually put down on it, and it is pretty hard to get a new position after they have done a lot of soldiering.
Mr. R. Buckminster (Pawtucket Gas Co.): The rules outlined by Mr. O'Malley's paper are applicable principally to coke oven plants, and there are comparatively few of them as compared with the water gas, verticals and horizontal plants throughout the country. My Impression is that the gas company representation, both in the Safety Congress and in this section is comparatively small when- we leave out the combination com panies, and I would suggest that the proper department see if they couldn't get more gas company members, and then have a joint com mittee that would report on a paper like the first presentation, that would take in the distribution department and the plant. I am sure tha., the information we could get from such a committee would be of won derful value to the gas companies in general throughout the country.
EMPLOYEES SHOULD BE MADE TO FEEL RESPONSIBILITY
Mr. Harper (Kansas Gas & Electric Co.): The gentleman from Boston
raised a thought that has been bothering me a good bit for the last year. I think as our safety and welfare work goes on, we are too apt to do too much petting. We don't leave the men with a feeling of responsibility that every man ought to have. We ought to cultivate that, too, as well as so much of this paternalism.
Chairman Mitchell: The matter of discipline, gentlemen, is a matter of districts. I have Worked in quite a scattered part of the country at different times in the last thirteen or fourteen years, and I find that what you can do in one situation, you can not do in another. You can disci pline men in a certain district, and you can't work the same discipline in another; it is absolutely impossible.
Mr. A. D. Quesnel (Commonwealth Steel Co.) : We are not a public utility corporation. At our plant, we go on the assumption that acci dents occur because they are caused and do not happen. We claim that all accidents are preventable. We do not admit that there are unavoid able accidents. There is only one class that might be termed an unavoid able accident, and that is an intentional accident. An intentional acci dent must be planned, and an accident of that kind is a calamity and it is not an accident at all.
THURSDAY MORNING SESSION
Chairman Mitchell: We Will then proceed with the addresses, the first one being "The Hazards of Improper Radio Installation," Mr. H. J. Burton, of the Consumers Power Co., of Jackson, Mich.
Public Utilities Section
899
THE HAZARDS OF IMPROPER RADIO INSTALLATION
H. J. Burton, Consumers Power Company, Jackson, Mrcrr.
Notwithstanding the fact that it is nearly thirty years since Marconi first experimented with wireless and more than seventy years since the theory of wireless has been known, previous to 1921 the public knew little about the subject. Broadcasting has revolutionized radio communication and today "listening-in" is one of the most popular pastimes in the country
In new developments and pioneer work, in almost every field of activity, mistakes and accidents occur. It is difficult, if not impossible, - to guard against accidents in advance of the inventions or devices which make such accidents possible. Serious accidents have occurred in the installation and operation of radio sets. With the rapid development of radio thous ands upon thousands of receiving sets have been installed, aerials have sprung iip all over the country and broadcasting stations have virtually woven "webs of radio" over the entire world
Investigations show that although adults have been seriously injured, and in some cases killed, the majority of radio accidents' have occurred to children. Radio is a life saving, not a death dealing agency. Thous ands of lives have been saved when messages have come across the seas giving the location of vessels in distress. It is one of the safest and
sanest of pastimes if the apparatus used is properly installed and handled.
The purpose of this paper is to outline some of the many accidents which
have occurred due to improper installation and handling of radio equip
ment. Certain lessons have been learned in the "dear school of experi
ence," and measures are now being taken to avoid repetitions of the
accidents.
.
The fatal and most serious radio accidents apear to be due to'electric
shocks and burns--although it is no doubt true that most electric shock
victims coupld have been revived or resuscitated if it were not for other
injuries due to falls or caused by burns. It should be kept in mind that
most of the accidents reported in connection with radio have been due to
the installation and handling of equtpemnt by children and inexperienced
amateurs. Often too much haste in attempting to get the apparatus in
stalled has been the fault.
The amateur electrician or more experienced radio fan has come in for
his share of accidents. More difficult and really hazardous work has been
attempted by amateurs of this class. Most radio enthusiasts have at
tempted to receive messages only, but some of them who have more or
less knowledge of electricity have built sending stations of their own.
While every encouragement should be given to young men to study and
experiment, they should be warned of the dangers and givdn proper in
struction, so they will be in position to avoid the pitfalls of those who
have been injured.
=
The amateur sending station is generally erected and operated by young
men possessing some knowledge of electricity. These men have often
received shocks and have some idea of the effect of a flow of electrical
900
Twelfth Safety Congress
current through the body. But it is a fact that "a little knowledge is a dangerous thing," and a smattering of .technical terms and a knowledge of a few of the fundamentals will not make a young man competent to handle transformers that "step-up" to high voltage, nor will It make him competent to climb poles, stand on roofs and handle live wires. A number of accidents, some of them serious, may be traced to the careless handling of equipment that in the electric light and .power industry would be considered extremely dangerous and handled only by experienced men under careful supervision, and with every precaution in the way of tools and appliances for the prevention of accidents.
BAZABDS OF IBASSMISSION EQUIPMENT
Most transmitting or sending equipment is very dangerous if improperly
used. Many radio enthusiasts do not realize the caution necessary In
handling the "step-up" transformers used with such equipment, especially
if the high voltage terminals are not plainly marked and properly
guarded. Many amateurs have purchased distribution line transformer*
for spark transmitters. This type of transformer is. no.t a plaything ami
should be used only under proper supervision.
_.
The placing of radio aerials and equipment too close to energised deetrie light and power wires Is obviously a hazard, not only to the one wibe places the wires but also to the one who uses the equipment connected to the wires. A radio aerial not provided with an approved lightning arrester and suitable ground wire permanently connected to a good earth connection is a lightning hazard, and as such is dangerous to life and property. This fact has often been, overlooked with disastrous results.
Storage batteries not carefully installed and adequately protected hr fuses are a lire hazard and operators have been severely burned vW short circuits have occurred on some of the larger capacity batteries now used. Proper ventilation should be provided when batteries are being
charged and open exposed flames should be kept away.
All wiring should be approved by some competent authority. This Is especially true when connections are made to the ordinary electric light service. The installation of a rectifier and battery may overload a circuit and special wiring be required, a fact often overlooked by the radio enthusiast.
The up-to-date receiving sets now being manufactured by reliable com panies in large quantities are simple to handle, in fact the majority of sets are owned and successfully operated by children and amateurs. The ability to operate a set successfully does not necessarily mean ability to install such a set. Proper installation means the erection of an aerial, wiring, and the making of electrical connections "Work of this kind should be undertaken or supervised only by competent electricians and linemen properly trained and equipped for the work. There is no won der that accidents have occurred when boys and inexpereniced laymen have climbed poles and performed other feats usually undertaken only
Public Utilities Section
901
by specially trained men equipped with safety appliances. It is significant to note that it has been necessary for the electric light and power com panies to kill circuits in order to remove aerials installed by amateurs.
The following partial list of accidents which have been reported proves the existence of a serious hazard.
HOW FATAUT1ES HAVE OCCUBKED
"A boy of sixteen assisting a friend to erect an aerial had wires at tached to a slender pole and when the pole dropped into the hole it fell
toward an alley, the wires coming in contact with an electric light and
power line. The boy holding one of the wires was instantly killed. The wires wrapped around him and burned the body badly."
"A man was placing an aerial from tree in lot across alley to gable of his own house. He was pulling the bare aerial wire over the insulated
4600 volt wires in the alley when the insullation wore through, it grounded
through his body and he was instantly killed."
"A young man was killed by a charged aerial when he attempted to clear wreckage caused by wind which blew down the aerial. The wires
had been supported above the electric light and power -lines on a tall
mast."
.
"Two boys were attempting to string an aerial from house to house
over electric light and power wires. One boy was killed and his father who attempted to rescue him was also killed."
"A man was killed when he attempted to rescue a boy who had run
into an aerial lying over a 220 volt service wire which was on the ground. It had been raining and was very damp and foggy. The boy was unable to get away from the wire and several persons attempted to rescue -him.
All received severe shocks. The first man to make the attempt was
killed. One man finally cleared the wire. The boy recovered although
he was badly burned."
'
"A man was killed when his head came in contact with a broken signal wire which had fallen over a street lighting circuit. This wire had been
put up between two bouses on opposite sides of the street by two boys to operate a telegraph instrument. The wire was broken by a windstorm and when the lighting circuit was turned on in the evening, the wire set fire to some grass and the passerby was killed investigating it."
"A man shifting wireless apparatus on tbe roof of his house came in contact .with high voltage lines and was instantly killed."
"A boy, aged X7, a radio experimenter, was electrocuted, when working
on his apparatus. He was connecting up a storage battery with a lighting
shed at the rear of bis borne when tbe accident occurred."
.
"Two boys were instantly killed while attempting to install ah aerial
which they had thrown over an electric light and power line."
A number of serious, and some fatal, accidents have occurred in differ ent parts of the country when wires attached to kites have come in con
tact with energized lines.
'
Amateurs who have installed poles for aerials have neglected to guy them sufficiently and received falls with serious results when the pole has
902 Twelfth Safety Congress
fallen, under their weight. In erecting antennae quite often a tall slender pole is used, being guyed in 3 directions. The antennae wire is held to the pole by a rope run through pulley. In a short time this rope rots and breaks and the antennae fall. In some cases the ambitious amateur attempts to climb the pole, which is often made of 4 x 4 timber, spliced
to a length of- 40 or 60 feet. In still other cases the pole consists of
lengths of pipe. Accidents have resulted from this through losing grip on the pole, as well as by the pole itself breaking causing a disastrous fall.
Several instances have been recorded where wires attached to chimneys have started bricks falling endangering the lives of those below.
STORAGE BATTERIES
.
The following notes contributed by a radio enthusiast serve to empha size what has been written about storage batteries: "When the battery is charged by the owner of a radio set it is quite often installed in a living room, adjacent to receiving set. When battery gases, if the caps are removed, small bubbles rise to surface and break, throwing a spray of electrolyte out of battery. To avoid this sqme operators leave the plugs in place, allowing the vent to take care of gassing. In this case, if an open Same is brought in the neighborhood of the battery, the confined gases explode, blowing the caps out of the battery and scattering electro lyte. Battery should be installed in basement and properly fused leads run up to the receiving set."
Although no actual figures are available it Is safe to say that radio accidents seem to be on the decrease. It is impossible to estimate how many accidents have been averted by proper publicity and by the prompt and decided action of many public utilities which, as soon as conditions were realized by them, made a survey of their properties with a view to eliminating the hazards of aerials in close proximtiy to live lines, and who broadcasted information and warnings to the public. The warnings were in the form of stickers attached to customer's bills, newspaper adver tisements, talks before school children, and. In some instances, warnings and information were sent out by means of radio itself.
The National Electric Light Association deserves credit for the prompt action in appointing committees to study the radio hazards in connection with their own lines. This prompt action has no doubt saved many lives. The following suggestions and pertinent points have been com piled from information sent out by member companies of this association. The warnings are addressed to children and the public generally:
"Never pick up a wire lying on the ground or dangling from a pole.
The wire might be `live,' that is, charged with electricity to a dangerous
degree. Report fallen wires immediately to the police department or
Power Company.
"Never climb a pole to which wires are attached. They might be in contact with high voltage wires and consequently dangerous.
Public Utilities Section
903
"Never string: wireless aerials over or under any other wires. Should
these two sets of wires come in contact with one another the aerials
might become dangerously charged.
'
"Never attach radio aerials or anything else to poles carrying wires of any sort. Accidental contacts with live wires may cause injury or death, or bring about fires.
"Always attach aerials to substantial supports, so located that if either the support or aerial wire breaks it cannot come in contact wtih other
wires.
'
"Remember that it is quite practical to operate a radio set with an
indoor aerial.
.
. "Do jaot use kite aerials.
"Do not attach aerials to any pole or tower carrying wires. "Do not string radio antennae over or under any other wires.
"Do not attach antennae to anything but substantial supports.
"Do not climb poles upon which wires are supported.
"Do not attach antennae to chimneys. Chimneys were not designed for such purposes, and you might be down below when the bricks start falling.
"In the interest of public safety the Company is forced to forbid the attaching of any radio aerials to its poles and to insist that no radio antennae be strung above its power distribution wires."
Many amateurs' who plan the erection of a high aerial fail to realize
the flimsiness of iron pipe in long lengths. An iron pipe pole is very
limber and bends very easily during erecting. At the same time it is
very heavy. Such a pole should be erected by men experienced in this
class of work.
.
Some radio men are putting a fuse in the aerial circuit, so that if it
picks up any current' it will blow the fuse. A small instrument fuse
gives sufficient capacity for this purpose.
INDOOR AERIALS ARE SAFEST
As the art of radio has developed, it is seen that one very effective
remedy for the hazards incident to the use of the outdoor aerial is not to use it. Antennae wires may be erected indoors, and when equipped with proper instruments will give very good results, though as yet they do not seem to be quite as satisfactory as the outdoor type.
Indoor antennae are not subject to crosses with power and light wires or other commercial conductors. There is no special danger -of the aerial or the erector falling during erection. Windstorms or sleet will not affect the indoor wires. Interference will be reduced to a minimum.
The indoor antennae should be supported on as good insulators as the outdoor type, and should be provided with the same lightning protection and ground switch equipment and handled in much the same manner. As the development of radio progresses the remaining obstacles to the satisfactory use of the indoor aerial will be overcome and the cumbersome and often dangerous outdoor aerial will be a thing of the past.
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Twelfth Safety Congress
In summing: up the following general recommendations are made:
Amateurs should not be allowed to attach aerials to poles or towers carrying electric light or power wires.
-Indoor aerials should be installed where practicable.
All radio wiring should be done in- a workmanlike manner and ap proved by a competent authority:. Storage batteries and rectifier sets should be properly located. The ordinary living room, or any location easily accessible to small children, is no place for a storage battery with its acid, fumes, and possible fire hazard.
High voltage wires are dangerous to touch or approach even if they
appear to be well insulated and children should not be allowed to play
with them.
.
DISCUSSION
Mr. Opp: First of all, the remedy, aside from those already suggested, would be the propagation of publicity as to the hazards involved, because undoubtedly most of the accidents that have occurred in connection with radio, aside from being chargeable to carelessness, or that ever-present lack of attention on the part of the person doing the work, is the fact that there is lack of knowledge of the hazards involved. The people injured have in many cases not realized the force with which they were playing, and as a consequence, publicity must be directed upon that very point.
That can be done through the newspapers, by paid advertising, but better by editoidal comment or printed interviews. Your own state bureaus of public utility information are mighty good agencies through which very forceful caution can be broadcasted to the public.
Another source or manner of propagating the information regarding the hazard is by the fiyers upon the bills going out to the customers; and in a locality that has a very high percentage of saturation of electric light customers, you make many, many contacts. Then, in addition to that, after a short interval, there is the proposition of imprints upon the bills. The flyers may be torn off, but the imprints stay there. There is a way of getting the message into every home.
Another field of propagation Is that of the school and the clubs being
addressed upon the proposition of the hazards. That enlarges the ad
monition considerably.
.
A real remedy, of coarse, lies in tbc proposition of codifying, as has
been done in the National Gkctrk Cade, the 1933 edition, a set of rules that should be complied with in cwao* ction with the erection of radios
or installation of the oaarfttS' That im uMatthteg that will act as a guide
for municipal or local anchortele*, Civtng them the information that they need toward proper inspeech!**.
Another means of getting home actMi h through the enactment of local ordinances compeUing SupeedHu ttooaatag. and. in some cases, the permit for the installation of the oaeftt.
Public Utilities Section
905
Mr. H. W. Lueck (assistant superintendent, safety division. Common
wealth Edison Company, Chicago): The small transformers which are
now obsolete in our company, many times are defective. The children find
that by rewinding the cores they can make dandy rectifiers out of them.
They don't know the high side and the low side* of these transformers, and
the result is that when they test them out they are injured. Many times
they get hold of the wrong side.
.
Some of the accidents we have had have resulted from boys stringing
wires through the trees, and when the tree is wet, it has sent high volt
age into the house.
THE AMATEUR AND THE BROADCAST LISTENER
Mr. C. F. Horle (Federal Telephone and Telegraph Company, Buffalo):
The amateur is the person we were discussing this morning mainly. He
makes up a heterogeneous collection of apparatus and puts it together,
and uses that for communication with his friends. If he finds that his
antenna, which is only CO feet from the ground, is improved by raising
it, he soon manages, by some scheme, to raise it to 60, and, that.almost
insane desire to increase the effective range of his apparatus, undoubtedly does result in some of these unfortunate situations which Mr. Burton
has so well enumerated.
-
.
There is another type of individual who very fortunately is far out
numbering the amateur. We, in the radio end of the game, speak of him
as the broadcast listener. He has no interest, not the slightest interest,
in any communication.
You must definitely bear in mind that those two types of individuals rarely or ever reside in the same body. They are invariably two dif
ferent individuals. In the first class usually falls the younger chap, the
boy who has "fallen" for the lure of radio, the rather irresponsible fellow.
Xaturally, he is the kind of fellow who is going to get into trouble. The other class is composed predominantly by men and women beyond
21 years of age. I suppose if we were to make a canvass of the country,
we would find that as for years, there are probably more radio broadcast
listeners between 28 and 35 years of age than any other age. That group
of individuals are mature. They haven't got this almost erratic enthu
siasm of the amateur, and they therefore don't subject themselves to the
' dangers which go with amateur operation.
The point I wanted to make was this: those maturer individuals, in
the first place, haven't the enthusiasm for the construction of apparatus
that the amateur has. They want entertainment, and they get it the
easies and quickest way they can do it, and since perhaps the most dif
ficult job in the installation of the radio set is the antenna, they invari
ably put up some sort of a small antenna. Both types of interference, static and mutual interference between sta
tions, are reduced by the use of a small, low, outdoor antenna or^by the
ordinary indoor antenna, and- that has become so generally appreciated,
and the appreciation is becoming more general every day, that I venture
to say that within two years, you gentlemen, except for the amateur type
906
Twelfth Safety Congress
of Installation, aren't -going to know of outdoor antenna. The broad casting station isn't going to use them. Those two inherent advantages,
this matter of freedom from interference between stations and freedom from natural disturbances, is forcing the broadcast listener to the indoor
antenna, and it is further fostered by the fact that we are getting more
and more broadcasting stations every day and the problem of interfer
ence is growing every day, and we naturally have to get away from good, big, efficient, outdoor antennae.
There is another influence which I might mention which is forcing the
antenna structure away from the dangerous proximity to power wires.
When one uses rather insensitive apparatus, one can have an antenna
fairly closely located to a power line, but when your apparatus is so
designed to allow of reception over tremendous distances, high sensitivity
(and that is the common kind of broadcast apparatus today) the pres
ence of power wires invariably seriously hampers or completely spoils
the reception of radio signals by the voltages induced from the power
wires, and that influence is slowly but surely forcing the broadcast an
tenna away from the power line. It is eliminating that hazard without
a question.
.
STORAGE BATTERY XIAZAKD XS BEING REDCCED
I am not willing to commit myself to the statement that we are getting to a time when the storage battery will be eliminated, but that hazard is being reduced very fortunately. Where there is a storage battery used, it is certainly the thing to do to require that the leads from that storage battery be fused to prevent excessive current So* in the case of short circuit.
As for the matter of charges, that has become rather important in the
last year. In my own experience, all of the battery chargers that I have
occasion to come in contact with, the current which they draw from the
line X believe is not in excess of that ordinarily handled by the average
size electric iron, and they are all equipped to my knowledge with a well-
protected cord and a plug for a screw socket. They are therefore quite
easily handled, as easily as an ordinary electric iron, and to my mind
require no more special protection or special caution than does the
ordinary electric iron.
"
Mr. MacLachlan: I would like to point out that on one type of recti fier at least, there is a non-protected high tension terminal on the top which resulted, in one of the fatalities Mr. Burton pointed out in Ontario. At the present time, they are prohibited from sale in Ontario. If the manufacturers are going to turn out tbis apparatus, let them protect the high tension terminals if they are going into the hands of the average layman.
REPORT OF NOMINATING COMMITTEE
Chairman Mitchell: Before proceeding with the next paper, gentle men, we will have the report of the nominating committee.
Jt'uocic utilities /section
907
Mr. Darlington: Your committee respectfully submits for chairman,
Herbert Moses, of Boston; for vice-chairman,- B. B. McCulloch, of Chicago,
and for secretary, George Opp, Detroit. (The secretary was directed, by
vote, to cast a unanimous ballot
-
THE PREVENTION OP PERSONAL INJURIES DURING THE CONSTRUCTION OP GAS, ELECTRIC ` AND OTHER PLANTS
J. A. P. Cbisfxetjo, Vice President, `The XT. G. I. Contracting Oomfaky,
Philadelphia
In speaking of "The prevention of Personal Injuries," we are speaking of the result which we wish to produce. Injuries are .prevented by the control or removal of hazards and it is with hazards that we have to deal. A hazard is anything which has possibilities of an accident connected with it in any way. . An accident is an occurrence which is due neither to design nor negligence; negligence being culpable carelessness.
There are many classes of hazards, among which are:
Relating to Persons,
'
Mental .
Fatigue Carelessness Horse-play Confusion Intellectual Status
Physical
Defective Vision Heart Trouble Hernia
:.
.
Relating to Things,
'
Semi-controllable
Floods which may be controlled by-dykes
"
Lightning which may be controlled by lightning rods
*
Stairways, Ladders which may be controlled by hand'rails and cages
Controllable.
.Moving parts which may be encased Ditches which may be guarded Windows which may be barred
Removable
Loose Boards Protruding Nails Projections on walks
.
Accidents resulting from these hazards are of two fundamental kinds. One is an occurrence which results in an injury where no human mental ^process was directly contributory to the hazard. A person may be walking
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Twelfth Safety Congress
along the street and get a cinder in the eye or be struck by lightning, or
be hit by a broken trolley wire. A workman, in a construction plant
may step in a gully made by rain or slip on an icy walk.
,
Another class of accidents is the result of hazards to which the human
mental process was contributory. In this class may be found by far the
greater percentage of hazards. One authority states that sixty per cent
of all accidents are directly the blame of the man hurt--ten per cent
a fellow workman's fault--and only one-half per cent the employer's
fault. A workman leaves a board with a nail sticking up and he or a fellow workman steps on It or he stacks'bricks or steel so that the pile is insecure or walks too close to an excavation or drops a tool from an
elevation.
HAZARD CONTROL
Hazards are removed or controlled in several ways. By the careful supervision of employment and assignment of workmen: Any physical examination of prospective workmen tends to reduce haz ards. The proper assignment of workmen to jobs based on observations of their mentality, temperament and experience also tends to reduce hazard.
By the observation of the mental and physical condition of employees: Workmen become careless through worry, become over fatigued, are handi capped by improper clothing or weakened through illness. All of these conditions tend to Increase the liability of accident and when controlled tend to reduce hazards.
By the employment of specialists: The duties of these specialists are to study accidents and hazards and to remove or control them. Many organizations have a staff headed by a "Safety Engineer." It is his duty to see that stairs have hand rails, that projections on sidewalks are re moved. that fire apparatus is always in order, etc.
By the education of employees in Safety: Many workmen are injured because they do not perceive or conceive a hazard. They would have no means of recognizing many hazards, unless taught by experience or by ' Safety education. This is not necessarily a reflection upon the work
men's mentality. One not versed in Safety matters would probably not
realize that stairs are hazards. In one of the largest department stores of the country, there are nearly one hundred accidents on their stairs to one in their elevators.
mi CATiox in accident mmxTjes
So many accidents happen because of some hazard to which the in jured workman or a fellow workman is directly contributory. that it is -rvsdrtiz Uun the education of workmen along safety tines should receive
attention.
At the time of employment, the engineer should give each employee fundamental instructions and caution as regards Safety, and this should
be followed mi various times by specific instructions as to the precaution
to be observed bn the particular trade, or capacity In which each'work-
Public Utilities Section
909
mait Is employed. The engineer can do much to create the proper atti
tude towards Safety by presenting it as a serious and ever present
question,
.
The greatest difficulty in presenting the subject of safety or hazard ' control is to present it so as to avoid being obvious or monotonous. As
an illustration, the signs reading "Avoid Fires--No Smoking," have no particular force or educational value. A sign reading, "If this building
burns, you will be out of a job," has a "kick" in it and a real educational
value. Pictures and drawings are by far the best method of presenting
the subject, but they may be too obvious or .too posed. Many persons
resent having the obvious called to their attention even though it be for
their own good.
.
*
Within many organizations, it will be found that there are many who shows no particular interest or enthusiasm toward safety matters. The
education along safety lines, should not be confined to workmen but all employees should receive a certain amount of training. Foremen, erect ing engineers, inspectors, designers and all others who have to do directly with construction should receive the same training as the "workmen and in addition such as fits their particular sphere,, of activity.
Although the presentation of safety matters to workmen is for. the purpose of education, the method of presentation should be along prac tically the same lines as advertising. The psychology of safety presenta tion is the psychology of advertising. To the safety engineer or the employer, safety matters appear so serious that it is hard to believe that employees may be indifferent. For this reason. Safety is not always brought to the attention of the employees in such a manner that there is created a desire to follow the suggestions made.
This is parallel to the case of some one who has an article to sell which he knows to be the best that* can be made. If his advertisement reads "My article is the best. You should buy" no one is particularly induced to buy. If has advertisement is illustrated or has a text to show that his article is the best so that the prospective customer is able to form that conclusion of himself or if the add creates a desire to buy, then the article will probably be sold.
Safety matters must be so presented that there is created a desire to follow the suggestions made. They must be so presented and repeated that they are retained in the memory of the employee without any par ticular effort oh his part.
' SDMMABY OF FBECAXJXIOWS TO BE OBSERVED
Design. The prevention of injuries in construction starts with the
design. Many hazards may be controlled or removed by proper design.
This includes location of pipes above head height, the placing of valve
stems away from passages, the construction of level floors, passages with
ample space, and design of the machinery with sufficient working space
around it.
"
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Twelfth Safety Congress
Selection ana Assignment of Personnel. One of the greatest hazards
of construction work arises from the fact that practically a new organiza tion is built for each job. For this reason more than ordinary care must
be taken in the selection of workmen.
One of the greatest hazards with common labor is the lack of under- . standing of the English language. Whereas established organizations, such as large manufacturing concerns, can very well undertake the educa tion of workmen, such a course is Impossible on construction work. Workmen who cannot understand English should not be employed ex
cept as a last resort.
In interviewing applicants, the matter of physical condition should al ways be in mind. Men who are obviously physically unfit should not be employed under any circumstances. A little careful auestioning will usually bring out conditions which may not be apparent at first. Men
with poor eyesight are also particularly undesirable on construction jobs.
It is obvious that men should be assigned to jobs which fit in with their experience whenever possible. Dangerous hazards may be developed by assigning men to duties where they may be controlled by habits formed
in other lines of work. For instance, workmen who have handled lumber
for a long time are very, liable to injure ` themselves in handling steel.
Laborers who have been shoveling coke-are very apt to strain themselves
severely if assigned to shoveling sand. Many men cannot safetly work
above ground. To force a man who shows the slightest hesitancy to work
at an elevation, is to introduce a serious hazard.
'
Supervision of Personnel. Many men habitually show a spirit of brava
do toward hazards; these-men should be weeded out of a construction
organization unless they can be made to heed safety precautions. Men
who prefer to slide down ropes rather than use ladders introduce a eon-
tageous spirit of recklessness. Men who continually turn to horse play
or practical joking are dangerous. Men who habitually forget the ordi
nary precautions, as the use of goggles or the leaving of tools or material
in dangerous positions, should be discharged if they cannot change their
habits after being cautioned.
.
Survey of the Site. A good deal of care and thought should be given
to the layout of the temporary buildings, yards, etc. which, are to be used on- construction work. The office should be so located as to give the most direct communication to the work and still not be in the way. of hoists,
steel yards, concrete mixers, etc. The store-room site must also be care fully selected.. Too often the placing of the office and the storeroom in the same building increases the hazards in one or both without increas ing the efficiency of the operation. Magazine for explosives should he as
remote from the work and from inhabited buildings as possible. In nearly all localities .there are restrictions as to the storing and handling of explosives which must be followed. Steel yards must be located with respect to the transportation to be used and with a view of handling the
steel as little as possible. The precautions to be used in the .construction of each of the above will be given later.
Public Utilities Section
Dll
Clearing Site. Fire and injury hazards are greatly reduced if an ef
fective clearing of the site is made before construction starts. Loose boards, glass, boulders, etc. should be collected. Rubbish, grass, weeds,
etc. should be burned. On large construction jobs the customer should be requested to construct as much of any projected permanent fence as is practical and general precautions against the trespass of the public should be undertaken.
Excavations for Foundations, Pipe Lines, etc. The engineer should
examine adjoining buildings before work commences to determine what props or other protection will be necessary. This material should be at hand when work starts.
The nature of the ground should be determined and the shoring which
will be necessary for the excavation should be on hand before work
starts.- As caving usually comes without warning, no chance should be
taken. All the shoring which the experience of the engineer shows to
be necessary should be used. Barth .which will stand up when dry will
often cave when wet. All excavation should be examined carefully after
every rain. "Water should not be allowed to stand in any, excavation;
they should be guarded from drain water as they are dug. Bxcavations
should not be left open after the pipe laying or foundations are complete
but should be immediately filled. All excavations should be guarded by
fences or railings when they are close to side walks, highways or pas sages. At night, all openings should be guarded by red lanterns and as
many openings as. possible protected by temporary fences or other guards,
although they may not be so guarded in the day.
Blasting. The handling of explosives should always be done by experi
enced men. The Brecting Engineer should question all men who are to
be employed where explosives are to be used as to their previous experi
ence 'and should give the foreman and workmen general instructions as to the methods to be followed, the precautions to be followed and the
tools to be used. See that goggles and bar tongs are used when drilling
is done by sledging.
.
The handling of explosives should be under the" direct supervision of a
foreman blaster, known to be competent, self-reliant, trustworthy and con
scientious, having good working knowledge of explosives. He should be
physically fit and capable of performing any of the work under his direc
tion. A man who boasts that he has handled dynamite for years and is
not afraid of it, and handles it roughly to convince others that he has
no fear of it, is a dangerous man to be engaged in this class of work.
Dynamite when stored for any length of time undergoes a mechanical
change which increases the danger that attends its use. Therefore, when
explosives can be readily obtained, not more than one day's supply nor
less than one box, should be purchased at a time. Where explosives
cannot be readily obtained, quantities up to 1,000 pounds may be kept
on hand and' stored in portable magazines. Where circumstances make
it necessary to carry, more than T,000 pounds in stock, it must be stored
in. permanent magazines.
'
012 Twelfth Safety Congress
Isolation is oC first importance when locating magazines.
The exterior of the magazine should be painted red and lettered in white as follows: expwjsives. dagger, keep fire and hosts away. Similar signs should be posted in the vicinity of the magazine.
Detonators are very sensitive, to heat, friction and blows. They should not be dropped, nor struck against "any hard body, nor left where they may be stepped upon.
Before being. carried, detonators should be packed firmly with soft material, such as felt. Detonators should be stored in a separate portable magazine, at least 30 feet distant from the powder or dynamite magazine, and should not be brought near the dynamite magazine at any time.
Magazines should- he kept clean and free from dirt, grit, cotton waste,
candles, and matches. Tools or equipment should not be left in a magazine.
Only non-freezing explosives should be used.
Do not use metallic tools. Use only a wooden mallet and a hard wood
wedge in opening cases. magazine.
Cases should be opened at a distance from a *
Cases of dynamite should be carefully stored on the flat side to lessen the possibility of nitro-glycerine running. They should never be dropped,
stood on end, nor rolled, and care should be taken not to break the paper
wrapping thereby exposing the dynamite to the air. When dynamite
becomes moist its nitro-glycerine component tends to run and all the
dangers follow.
Empty dynamite cases shonld not be allowed to accumulate, and should
not be used again. When they are to be disposed of they should be piled,
soaked in kerosene and fired by a paper "train."
Parts of cartridges should not be allowed to accumulate but should be
used in making up the charges. Explosives left over upon completion
of blasting operations should be returned to the original source of supply.
Explosives should not be discarded by burying. Nitro-glycerine remains
effective for years. Explosives should not be placed near wires, motors,
trolley tracks or other electrically charged conductors.
.
Exposed flames should not be carried within 20 feet of a magazine.
Dry battery type flash lamps are the only permissible lighting units for use in magazines.
Primers should not be inserted in cartridges until just before the cart
ridges are to be used. Where necessary to crimp a detonator a modern
crimping machine should be used. Workmen should never use their
teeth for this purpose.
.
To insure the safety of persons and surrounding property, only the minimum charge necessary should be used.
Nothing but wooden loading sticks should be used to tamp charges.
Tamping should be done by direct pressure only. Tamping by strokes
is dangerous and is positively forbidden. Clay or loam should be used
as tamping material. All charges should be tamped up to the collars of
the holes.
'
Public Utilities Section
913
To intercept flying rocks and spalls, cover the rock to be blasted with
a matress of logs, which are at least 10 inches in diameter and 10 feet
long, held securely together by chains or rope, and covered with a mat
of several layers of burlap. .
*`
- .
Red Hags for use as danger signals should be provided, and men carry
ing danger signals should be stationed at safe distances on all sides of the blast to warn others. The shot should not be fired until all persons are
out of the danger zone.
..
The handle of the battery .or switch should be locked in non-firing position until charges are ready for firing. The operating of the firing apparatus should be confined to the foreman blaster or an experienced person especially designated by him for that duty.
The lead wires should not be connected to the battery, or switch until
immediately before firing the shot, and they should be disconnected im
mediately after the shot is fired. Bare conductors should never be used in shot-firing circuits, nor should an earth return be used in such circuits.
After the blast, no drilling or other work should he done nearby until the foreman blaster has made an inspection for unexploded charges.
In case a charge is nbt exploded the tamping must not be removed. A. new bore-hole should be drilled at a safe distance from the unexploded charge.
The location of this hole should depend upon the judgment of the foreman
blaster, but in no instance should the new hole be closer than 12 inches
from the unexploded charge.
-
Engineers should acquaint themselves with state laws and local regu
lations bearing on the use of explosives. Such information can usually be obtained at the source of purchase of the explosives.
See that goggles and bar tongs are used when drilling Is done by
sledging.
Steam, Shovels and Similar Excavators. The greatest hazard which
arises from excavating machinery on construction work comes from the
proximity of workmen to swinging dippers or buckets. Shovel trimming
should be done when the excavator is at rest or on the side away from that on which the machine is working. There is a' great tendency to rush work during excavation and to have men within the excavation
too early. . The hazard is considerably reduced if the excavating work is allowed to proceed without rushing the construction of forms too close behind the machinery.
Erection of Concrete Forms. Since these forms are temporary struc
tures, the tendency is to erect them with as little scaifolding as possible.
As much attention should be paid to scaffolding in the erection of forms
as in any other part of the construction.
'
Nails should not be allowed to be left protruding where they may injure
persons even though the work is very temporary.
Placing of Reinforcing Rods. The placing of reinforcing rods requires
skill, strength and care. The foreman selected for this work should be
known as a careful person. Only intelligent workmen should be as signed to him. The material should be piled carefully and handled from
j.wvt'j ut.
xjonyress
the storage yard In small quantities so that the working spaces may be kept as clear as possible. Because oC the nature of this material it
should be kept stored separate from other material. Small scratches
and bruises which may lead to serious results, come from accidental con tact with reinforcing material.
Concrete Mixer. The location of concrete mixers is an engineering
problem. Their location must be studied for efficient operation as well as
safety. Proper location will also cut down the number of times which
they will have to he moved with the attendant dangers of moving heavy
awkward machinery.
'
The `passages leading to and from mixers should be as straight as pos
sible. Where such passages, as between mixer and sand pile, are not straight, the radius of the curve which the barrows will have to make should be large. Empty and full barrows should not be made to pass each other during operations except where there is ample space. All elevated walks and scaffolds on which barrows are to be pushed should have guard rails and toe hoards. Ramps should be at a low pitch and
cleated.
/
Concrete mixers should never be located in main passages so that other
workmen will .have to pass nearby the machine. Generous open space
around the mixers should be provided and kept clear of sand piles and
cement sacks.
*
Military precision. should be maintained among the workmen feeding
mixers or removing the mix. Men. should not be. allowed to crowd, but
remain lined up. Routes to and from the machine should he indicated.
Men should not he allowed to go and come in any time they please.
When towers and spouts are used in the distribution of the mix, the space under the spouls should be protected and men should not pass
under or work undhr the spouts.
Jtetnoval of forms. The removal of forms Is in a class with wrecking
and is hazardous work. Men should be compelled to wear heavy-soled
shoes and should be supplied with good gloves. T.he work should be un
dertaken in an orderly manner and always under the direct supervision
of the foreman. The "slap-bang" method of dismantling is dangerous.- It
is no faster than an orderly method and is more destructive of material.
The parts of the forms should be removed in small enough parts to be
readily moved when on the ground. There is less hazard in. taking the
forms down in small sections than in throwing down large sections and
dismembering upon the ground.
,
Dismantled forms should be removed immediately to a distant part
of the yard and the nails - removed.
Placing of Steel WorTc. This class of work is very hazardous and only
foremen known to be thoroughly experienced and careful should be em
ployed. This employee should be part of the permanent organization of
any company which is erecting more than one plant and should be taken
from job to job. He may then, be thoroughly educated in the company's
safety policy. None but experienced steel workers should be allowed to do any work on steel at an elevation/
Public Utilities Section
915
Men. should never be allowed to ride on derrick loads or slide down
ropes.
.
Rivet beaters should be assigned spaces and not be expected to work in odd corners. Scaffolds or platforms should be erected for them 1C nec essary.
Steel should be fastened before riveting wtih sufficient bolts to with stand wind' pressure and standing loads.
Ladders and scaffolds should be provided to eliminate as much climb
j ing on steel as possible.
.
"Wetting. Gas tanks should be kept on the trucks which are provided.
There are very- few cases in which these trucks may- not be transported to within working distance. When this is impossible, tanks should always be lashed to prevent their falling and the valves protected from falling - material.
Pyrene type fire extinguishers should be considered a part of all equip ment and be moved about whenever welding apparatus is moved-
Goggles should be provided for welders and helpers and should be of the type approved by Insurance Companies. A number of extra goggles should always be on hand. Welding operations should be protected so that other workmen will not be continually exposed to the injurious rays.
Pieces to be welded or cut should always be properly supported. In the case of pieces to be cut there should be no strain so that when the cut is complete the material would -move and thereby injure the operator. - Before welding or cutting operations start, welders should be in structed to make an inspection to see that there is no combustible mate rial underneath the job and that men are not working in the immediate vicinity underneath. A routine for the examination of regulators and torch hose should be established. Where more than one welding appa ratus is employed, one employee should be responsible for the condition of all apparatus. Daily written reports of the condition-of apparatus are practical because of the importance of this hazard.
A special building or a special room in the warehouse should be. pro vided for pressure tanks. Tanks should be handled by the operators or helpers or some other workmen familiar with the handling of this appa ratus.
Rigging. The art of rigging is one that is acquired only by long
schooling and experience. Many workmen, and in fact engineers, are in clined to think that because it looks easy anyone may do rigging. When rigging is done by inexperienced men it introduces very serious hazards.
Before work starts the rigging and tackle, if it has been used on pre vious jobs, should be thoroughly overhauled and inspected. Tackle which is not fit for use should be destroyed or otherwise disposed of so that workmen may not find it and use it.
All work of this class, no matter how insignificant, should be done under the supervision of riggers. Wherever derricks, lashings, ropes, guys or . dead-men are to be used they should be installed by riggers.'
916
Twelfth Safety Congress
Frequent Inspection of all rigging should be made. Rigging which is subject to wear and tear should be inspected daily. It is yery poor econ
omy to use rigging which has become worn. Riggers of the "Safety Last"
class should be eliminated.
.
Guarding of Sidewalks. Sidewalks along public thoroughfares should
be roped off if possible, otherwise they should be protected by as substan
tial a structure as the work warrants. While such structures come under
the heading of scaffolds, they must be. more elaborate than the usual scaffold structure.
Stairways. The stairways called for as part of the structure should be
erected as soon as possible. If temporary treads are installed they should
be made substantial and not out of scrap lumber as is so often the prac
tice. Railings and toe-boards should be provided. Where permanent rail
ings and toe-boards .are not parts of the construction, temporary ones
should be installed during construction.
.
It is best to install stairways rather than ladders in many places. The
efficiency of stairways increases the general efficiency and eliminates the
hazard of ladders.
'
Ladders. Ladders in general are so hazardous that they should be used
only as an expedient. Ladders should be lashed in every case where they
are in more or less permanent positions or when they are to be used by other workmen than those placing them. The use of rough ladders made from scrap material should be avoided. If ladders are to be constructed they should be made of the best material and with care.and skill.
Floorings. In any structure floors should be placed as soon as the erec
tion has reached floor level. Temporary floorings should be used if nec
essary.
.
Floor Openings. In Plant Construction some of the greatest hazards
are open hatches, wells and machinery foundation and pits. These are
always numerous and should be guarded by railing and toe-boards when
ever they occur along passages in the construction.
"
Machinery. In many large construction jobs small machine shops are
installed. Although these installations are temporary all the precautions
of guarding moving parts should be observed. As a matter of fact the
hazard is greater than is usual in machine shops, because men with
small experience in machine shop practice usually have access to these
shops.
Motors for power in the shops should be as `carefully wired and pro tected as in permanent installations.
It is good practice to assign one workman as foreman or. custodian of
the machine shop with authority to regulate the use of machines by the
various workmen.
.
Hoisting Machinery. The placing of hoisting machinery is an engineer
ing problem and when not taken care of in the design, must be given first thought by the erecting engineer. While-they should be so placed as to
provide for maximum efficiency, the hazard of their use should be
'Public Utilities Section
917
borne in mind. Tbey should not be placed close to passageways or high
ways. They should be so placed as to make it unnecessary tor ropes to
cross passages, etc. They should be iu the care of persons whom the en
gineer know to be careful and competent.
'
Guards should be provided for all moving parts. The operator should not be allowed to remove these guards and leave them off. Frequent in spection should be made for wear and torn parts should be replaced. This is particularly true of brake bands and clutch bands.
The operators should be protected from falling material by a substan tial roof if the apparatus is close to the work.
Electrically driven machines require good protection of the electric parts from both persons and the weather. The engineer should be sure that all fused and automatic cut-outs are always in proper running order.
All derricks, masts and booms should be erected and dismantled under
the supervision of a rigger when hoisting operators are not in themselves
experienced riggers. At the end of every shift all loads and strains should
be removed from the hoisting machinery. Elevators should be grounded
and booms should be grounded or "boomed-up:"
.
Pipe WorJc. In the installation of pipe work it is of paramount im
portance that good tools be furnished and that they be kept in good con
dition at all times. Pipefitters are required to work- under a strain in cramped and awkward positions and at the tops of ladders, or on tem
porary scaffolds. The slipping of wrenches is one of the worst hazards
of pipe work.
Pipelifters should be furnished with enough good ladders so that they may reach any point of their Jobs. Patent ladders which may be pulled into ladder scaffolds are of great use to pipefitters.
Tapping Gas Mains Under Pressure. Tapping machines and gaskets
should he inspected before each operation and should not be used if at all defected. The same is true of bags and stoppers.
Only men who are physically fit should be assigned to this work. Tt will be found that some men show greater resistance to small quantities of gas than do others. It will also be found that men who have some temporary ailment will lose their power of resistance and become ill or be overcome with only small quantities of gas. Men with bad colds or head aches should be excused from this class of work until they have recovered.
This class of work should not be undertaken unless a resuscitation kit is at hand and unless there is someone on the job who is competent to undertake resuscitation. In confined places belts should be used where there will be the slightest danger that men may not be immediately re moved if they should be overcome. .
Temporary Electric Installations. Temporary electric installations
must be made under the same code rules as permanent installations. They must he guarded or fenced t.o prevent accidental contact and thor oughly housed if there is any liability of-their being damaged by falling material or by material being moved in the course of construction.
918
Twelfth Safety Congress
It is a good policy to' place all electric work and installations under the
direct supervision o a competent electrician who will be in. charge of
safety precautions as well as general installations and maintenance.
Temporary Structures. The temporary office building should' be con
veniently located but at the same time should not be so located as to be
in danger of being struck by falling material or by material which is be
ing moved. It should be so located as to reduce all fire hazards to a
minimum in case it should burn or should another temporary structure
burn.
.
' ' '.
Fire extinguishers should be provided.. Metal waste cans and waste paper baskets should be provided In place of stray boxes and cartons.
Storehouses are often better located in some other part of the yard than adjacent to the executive office. This building should be substan tially built and as nearly fire proof as possible. Shelves, bins, etc., should be skillfully constructed and of good material.
Particular attention should be paid to floors and platforms, which should be smooth and should be built of material of sufficient strength to withstand the loads placed on them without springing. Ample aisle space should be provided when practical. Bins should not be constructed higher than a man can reach, which eliminates the climbing up for ma terial or the use of ladders.
The orderly arrangement of material within and without the ware houses not only leads to economy of operation but reduces fire and other hazards. Fire extinguishers and sand buckets should be part of the reg ular equipment of any storeroom. Waste, oakum and similar materials should be stored in metal containers and also in a separate house built for inflammable material when practical. Combustible material such as' kerosene, gasoline and paint should be stored in a separate semi-fire proof building and id. a separate building from that in which oxygen and acety lene tanks are stored.
First A.id. On large jobs a dispensary should be erected as part of the
executive office. A man skilled -in first aid should be part of the force although his regular duties may be clerical or other work. Minor in juries may then be treated locally at a saving of expense and at the same time there will be treatment for injuries which otherwise might be neglected simply because they are of a character which do not warrant the calling of a doctor.
The equipment of the dispensary may consist of a standard first aid
cabinet. These cabinets, completely equipped, may be purchased in nearly
every locality. The equipment should include a stretcher.
Sanitary Conveniences. On all operations attention should be paid to
the convenience and cleanliness of workmen. On larger operations lock
ers and dressing-rooms should be provided. Where the conditions warrant, toilet facilities may be installed. Hot water is readily obtained from
steam hoisting boilers when such boilers are used.
.'Public Utilities Section
919
Attention sheuld be paid to the supply of drinking water. "V^here city
water is available sanitary drinking fountains may be readily, and con veniently installed. In hot weather Ice water may be provided, but water which, is too cold is detrimental to many workmen. It is feasible to use oatmeal in ice water in the hottest weather. "Where water from public utilities is not available the water supply should be examined to see that it is safe for drinking purposes.
Bulletin Boards. A well built bulletin board should be part of the
equipment of the executive offices. All bulletins and like instructions should be neatly typed and arranged on the board. These bulletins should be kept up to date and not allowed to -become torn or weather worn. Only such bulletins as are part of the Company's business should be posted. Safety bulletins may be posted upon this board. They should be changed frequently and always kept in fresh condition.
In those portions of the operation where smoking is dangerous it should be prohibited by "No Smoking" signs. These signs should be lo cated so that they are readily visible and should be kept in fresh con dition. It is a good policy to incorporate on the sign the reason why smoking is prohibited, as "No Smoking--Gasoline."
Fire Service. When any' construction work starts a lire fighting or
ganization should be inaugurated which is consistent with the size of the job. Specific duties should be assigned to the more or less permanent members of the constructing force.
Fire extinguishers should be provided and located in conspicuous places.
They should be protected from damage by proper housing. The housing
may be painted bright red.
'
Some sort of fire signal should be arranged and this signal should be
known to all employees.
'
Consultation should be had with the city fire department on large jobs
where conditions warrant. Valuable information is many times obtained
by such consultations. -
-
A conspicuous sign should be posted in the office giving the city de partment's telephone number and the location of pull boxes.
Hand, Tools. . Statistics show that about 65 per cent of the accidents
on construction work arise from hand tools. These should be frequently inspected.
Pneumatic tools in the hands of inexperienced operators are particularly
dangerous. Pneumatic tools must be only in the hands of properly in
structed workmen.
'
As a general rule gasoline torches and melting pots should not he car
ried around or used promiscuously. Safe places should be selected for
their .use and they should he used in these places only. They should never be left burning without an attendant and should be extinguished when not in use. It increases the efficiency and decreases the hazard of
such torches If asb.estos screens are provided.
.
920 Twelfth Safety Congress
Tar kettles aad the like should be place*! only is carefully selected places. They sbeold be pbeed on an incombustible base and be sur rounded by sand- Sufficient and to completely smother the contents of the pot should be ax band. Tar pots should never be heated at an eleva tion or inside any staaare as it Increases greatly the hazard of Ore or asphyxiation.
OISCCSSIOX
w;- Sir. Wills kUcLacklan (QctrScal Engineer. Toronto. Canada>: The
are teneat made that one authority states that 64 per cent of all accidents fault ~ greedy the blame of the man hnrt; XO per cent a feOoer aorioua's
The
only hi per cent the employer's fault, is opea to qaestlon.
s-ery
T*fnl selection and placement of men ms coenrsedoo work Is
it is extrrax*^ hot from my experience of coostnxdos organizations,
>rIction and i; v difficult and almost Impossible to carry out as careful
of a plant. The Ncement of men as it would be fas the ordinary operation
feel, the exception Nmotractios of a property that is nor a rash Job is. I
men It Is often
the rule and in times of scarcity off skilled vort-
it is wanted- Moth as -*sie to get just exactly what I* warned ax the time employee in accident pn-* * realise the necessity oe the eteetdoe of the education of the employer miNgjjaa work. I feel more etmair that the particularly on a construction .. ,5* supervisory forces Is tneew xo the point.
The question of writ injuries oi V <a
lion with construction Job*. It. ho,i .**** is o<sn pome** oat in eoouec-
sive and difficult piece of work if the
woald be an eaxrwsauty expen-
timber that had been used in concrete j** to be aH drawn from the
form* are used over and over again z alxo .!: -vraft wra. Very cdten
to be provided for men drawing nails from tb ^ a>n irinui at space
if not more men would be required to draw the 11,%^ jy joaat aa aany
men required in putting the forms up. 1 have foun y,. follow-up of first aid dressings to any nail Injurtt- t
the forms as ay -eery dose
serious results from nail injuries on construction work. g prevents any
If the Job is not large enough to warrant a fall time dot>\ it should however, come under the supervision of a doctor.
^ ciarre.
tendency of placing first aid men and nurses in charge of first ;< -e growing
out the supervhdoa of a doctor is not fair to the workman or
with
er to the first aid man or nurse employed. Sooner or later a very - vferyw.
situation Is sure to develop, resulting in harm to alt concerned.
vsty
T'-o much emphasis cannot be laid on the necessity of a fire prewa-\ tion and fire extinguishing organisation. On a large Job this should be V
organicrd and carried out Just as thoroughly as by a city fire department.
One point that has set been touched upon In the paper is to my mind,
one of the zuost Important points in the prevention of accidents on con struction vrS,. I refer to a committee having charge of accident pre vention. One the largest pieces of construction that has been carried
out in Ontario far some lime now nearing completion, has an accident prevention committee, composed of the senior representative* from Che
Public Utilities Section
921
construction, engineering1, electrical construction, hydraulic engineering and other branches definitely interested in, the work. This committee meets once a week and discusses the accidents that have' happened and the hazards in the property. The reduction ' of accidents has been
ACCIDENT AND THE MAN
Mr. EL A- Goff (Peoples Gas Light and Coke Company, Chicago) : Care lessness As too often blamed for accidents. To say that a man is careless
means be Jwi not care if he is injured. Do you think that any sane man baa that attirafe? A man's mental condition may, at times, be such that
be actually does aot care, but in the great majority of accidents, he is thoughtless rather thorn careless.
Thorough fcpenrlain would eliminate many accidents. Each member of the supervisory force must be imbued with the safety spirit. With
that for his start, the ecu Meat prevention work is assured of maximum success.
In practically every case the accident is caused by one of four things:
the man. the material, the method and the tool.
.
The best ways to combat accident* chargeable to the man are by: selection of men. observation. edncaCbau aad discipline.
Much attention should be given to the safety education of the work man. He most be convinced of the need tor the protective devices which are provided, and shown that his Interest in safety Is paramount to that of his employer.
Discipline or orderly regulation is essential to safety and it should be easily obtained by following the routine Just described. It may be nec
essary some fine* to penalize a workman for wiilfuS infraction of the rules.
In closing., let me relate a personal incident which brougtt home to me with great force the human side of safety. As I approached my home one evening, a white ambulance drew op in front of the house. My wife
and two daughters came to the door and I can never forget the expres sion on their faces as they saw the ambulance stopping there, and then the relief as they saw me and knew that I was not being brought home in that conveyance. That picture is before me whenever I hear of a
serious accident and my sympathy goes out to the family of the injured
man,
BCBSSt CUTES
Chairman Mitchell: 2 am going to call on Mr. Warren, who is here regrtKatiaz the Stacks*one Valley Gas 4fc Electric Co.
Mr. Warren: Yon all know the old test where we used to take the rubber ginwe and take ft by the two corners and whirl it around until w cloned up the end and then press it. If the air leaked out, it was plain enough to see that the glove wasn't St for handling high voltage.
We work our lines dead, especially over X30O volts, bat we like to be absolutely sure on our part that the Blackstone Valley Gas ft Electric Go. and the various Stone, Webster Corporations are doing eeitbfng
922
Twelfth Safety Congress
they can to eliminate the hazards for the men. So ft was suggested that we have some form of testing those gloves beyond that usual air pressure test, and one of our foremen got up this machine. It Is simply a metal tank inside of a wooden box, to keep the men away from the metal, filled with water, holding somewhere around 150 gallons, I believe, roughly. The electric connections are made across the top part of the cover to hang the gloves on, the gloves are filled up with water and lowered down into the water of the tank. There was formerly quite an elaborate- device there of a round circle to fasten those gloves on, but we found that these ordinary snap clothespins were just as good and a good deal quicker in holding the glove on to the little copper wires that hold the glove on to the top electrical connection. For safety on that, we have a connection on to the main switch, so that the main switch can not he closed until that upper lid with the glass front is let down.
Over here on this side of the box, on the metal tank, there is another connection which connects up with the high voltage on to the round section of the tank. The voltage is run' up through a common rheostat electrical .resistance, which we can graduate by pressing down on the handle, and that runs the voltage up through the ordinary distribution transformers which are placed up in the wall to step up the electricity to eleven thousand volts. There is a circuit breaker in the line and different voltmeters and ampmeters to get the proper tests.
It is quite interesting to see the way the different makes of gloves, etc., stand up under those electrical tests, and perfectly good gloves to appearance will break down on six thousand volts and prove out that we were absolutely right in making such a machine.
Mr. Lueek: The question has always come up whether re-tested gloves, even though they do stand up at 6,000 volts, are not materially weakened on the re-test. In making these tests, I have had quite a hit of experience in that, and I find that you might test-a piece of rubber and get the required test, and then just applying it again, it will break down. I would also like to have answered the question, how long you hold that test on on the re-test?
Mr. Warren: We put it through the standard test. It takes about a minute, I believe. We used to test them at 10,000 volts, but that was too much of a strain and we reduced it to 6,000 volts.
ADJOURNMENT.
Joint Meeting: of the Public Utilities and . Plectric Railway Sections
October 3, 923
A. O. MITCHELL, Chairman. I'nblk S'tfilth-* erI* Adjuster, Northern Indiana Gas & Electric Corajsany. Hammond. Ind.
J. H. THCETT, Chairman, Electric Railway ihrthi Chairman, Safety Committee, United Railways Jc ISfcw^rlc Company.
Baltimore, Md.
WEDNESDAY MORNING SESSION
HAIRMAN MITCHELL:
C James R. Barnes.
The first address this morning is bjr tlr.
THE AUTOMOBILE HAZARD
James P. Barnes, President, Looisvxule Railway Company, Louisviixe, Kr.
I suppose that most of you follow the XAtcury Digest, and probably
you saw an article under the title of "Gasoline Arabics" which in very startling statistics reviews the automobile casualty situation. This state ment was made: that a person was being killed In the United States every 50 minutes by automobiles, and that before 1923 was ended, one person out of every 90 in the United States would have been killed or injured. Statistically, that Is almost incomprehensible, and compares so unfavorably with previous years and is running up so rapidly that there must be some very deep underlying cause for It. I think It was the
Santiago Union that said the people of this country are too intelligent,
to permit this wholesale slaughter to continue pn the highways that we are to maintain. But the facts don't seem to bear it out.
I have thought, sometimes, that the automobile traffic on the highways lacked a very essential feature'which we had in the old days of vehicular
transportation. Then, at least, we had horse sense, hut there is a con spicuous lack of it behind the steering wheel in a great many cases.
The record of accomplishment by law in some places has been good. I was astounded as I drove -through Cleveland to see how carefully traffic seemed to observe the speed limits, how cautious people were in crossing streets. I made some inquiries and found that Cleveland had established the habit of impounding the cars of speed ordinance viola tors and they had to pay storage for the auto during the time they were
.
923
924
Twelfth Safely Congress
forbidden to drive. How much of the careful driving is due to that 1 cannot say, but it compared most favorably with other cities. When I
awakened in Buffalo the next morning, the contrast was most- marked.
As one goes from city to city there is a vast difference. And where the law has been enforced- impartially there seems to be a considerable im provement in the caution with which people operate the automobile.
Safety campaigns have some effect, and it is noteworthy to see the
effect they have on children. Children, of course, think more simply and
directly than grownups, and once they have accepted the conclusion,
once they have come to believe a certain thing is dangerous because they
have seen it in practice or have been told by their parents or teachers
they are more apt to be guided by that than the adult who has learned
"to take a chance."
.
In considering the underlying condition that brings about all these
things it seems to me. (speaking generally and largely not from the
specific type of. accident but care and consideration for others in the opera
tion of automobiles all over the country) that we are confronted with
a basic condition.
r.
*
THE SPIRIT OF UK{tEST
America today is in the most restless condition that any of us have seen. I think there is unrest in every direction, and the unrest manifests itself in almost every activity of life. There is a group of people who want to amend the Constitution of the United States. I am told there are 100 amendments to that document that are prepared and ready for introduction into the next session of Congress, and that they cover all manner of subjects. There are those who want to curb the power of the Supreme Court; there are those want to abolish this amendment; there are those who want to abolish the Constitution entirely.
Generally people seem to be dissatisfied with something or other, or with several things, and the tendency seems to be to rush into the legis lature with all kinds of untried ideas, and then there are others who want to repeal that legislation before it has had a chance to operate. The restlessness is tremendous. So I am brought to the conclusion that 'the real underlying trouble with this automobile hazard that produces the figures I have quoted -from the Dit&rary Digest is one of the effects of this state of mind on the part of the American people.
- Safety campaigns, as I said, will undoubtedly do something, but they can hardly do more than scratch the surface, that is, unless the old method of "common horse sense" is restored, and more than that, a return of the spirit of human kindness behind the steering wheel.
It is to me one of the most significant things about the safety move ment that for the first time in all the years that I have lived, and those of the oldest man in this room, that there have been placed before the public scriptural quotations surrounding this subject and dealing with it with a force and abundance that I think no other period of the world's history lias produced.
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925
Now we have got' to go back to the first principles in dealing with the fundamental conditions, and it is tremendously heartening to see the world, particularly through such agencies as safety campaigns answer ing the question of Cain in a very definite and favorable manner, "I am my brother's keeper." I have a responsibility toward society and each
individual in society, and it seems to me that we must keep up our cam paigns for safety; we must continue to try to stir in individuals that the duty to society is not only of self-protection but protection to others, and that we must continue our definitely formulated and formal agencies with all the force within us, and with all the force that can be put into them, but we must, each one of us, constitute ourselves as centers of energy in the distribution .of propaganda that the laws must be-observed. That is, the laws on the statute books, the laws of human relationship must be observed and this world must come to a place where each man will feel in himself some definite measure of responsibility for his fellowmen.
SPEAKER PXJEADS FOB LAW ENFORCEMENT
I think that every one of us must definitely get behind the enforcement of the laws so far as we are able as individuals, and if every individual will take that thing seriously to heart and do his best in his individual station of life and capacity to see that all laws which are written are enforced, then results. will begin to come, and it is important that all laws be enforced. The contempt in which certain laws are held cannot help but weaken the respect for other sections of the law, and I want to say ' that the enforcement and upholding of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States has been of such vast importance that I think we can afford to see that other emendments of the Constitution, are enforced. I mean the Eighteenth Amendment.
If any of us reach a conclusion that any particular part of the organic law of our country is unfavorable to us, we can hardly blame the fellow who finds another part of our organic law antagonistic to. him. The great, general body of law under which the Constitution was delivered'was not democratic. (There has been too much talk about democracy lately.) It is that which our forefathers tried most successfully to advocate--it is a representative government founded upon broad general principles, and it Is up to us as American citizens to see those principles observed. That is the f9undation upon which we must build from the standpoint of the law. We must go back to our first principle both of the Old and New Testa ments and we must not rely upon the Twenty-Third Psalm in this matter of safety. We have to find other scriptures. The Lord is our Shepherd all right, but He will not take care of us until we have a sheep dog or do something ourselves. Bear in mind that 100 people have passed away and 100 new babies have been brought into this world while I have been talking to you this morning. We must see to it that our schools not only do safety work, but see to it that the laws and traditions of this, great American people are properly presented to the oncoming citizens, so we
926 Twelfth Safety Congress
may leave the children the understanding of the tremendous birthright that has been ours and that will he theirs, and we should protect them and they in turn shall lead ns to safety.
DISCUSSION
Mr. H. Li. Mitchell (vice-president, West Fenn Railways, Pittsburgh, Pa.); To reduce the automobile hazard to plain statistics of accidents per car mile or damage costs per car mile while conveying much to the operat ing official means nothing to the public. Were automobile drivers organ ized so that statistics were available, I feel sure their mileage records would show a much lower rate. There are approximately 13 million auto mobiles in this country and allowing an average distance of 10 miles per day per automobile the startling mileage of 130 millions is obtained. If automobile statistics were available and showed a record comparable with some electric railways of 154 accidents per 10,000 miles the amazing total of 8,441 accidents would occur daily. This figure may or may not ap proach the actual number, but facts obtainable are sufficient evidence to warn the railway - manager that the automobile hazard is the greatest menace to operation.
The railway industry has done much to eliminate accidents and prac tically every class of accident has been reduced except automobile colli sions which in spite of all precautions taken continue to increase. What must the railways do to warn the careless driver? It's hard to reach the individual until experience has taught him. Unless energetic methods are used to curb this steady growth, there is no way of predicting how much worse the situation may become. The problem is relatively new and methods that have been successfully used to reduce the number of other classes of accidents are not sufficient for present day conditions.
We believe that the intelligent cooperation of the railways companies and the public is essential to the success of any plan whose object is to minimize the automobile hazard. When railway companies seek the help of others, to be successful, they must come with clean hands. That equip ment should be kept in safe operating condition goes without saying. It is equally certain that wherever necessary, warning and other safety de vices be utilized to the fullest extent. Trainmen must be educated In safe practices and expected to follow them. They should have every en couragement and full cooperation. In addition to this, we feel that the companies should give the men some inducement that will make their interest in accident prevention and that of the company identical. In the past it has been the practice to discipline trainmen for being unusually careless, but, speaking generally, we have failed to reward those who were unusually careful.
On January 1st of this year, we started a program for the elimination of accidents. First, we divided trainmen in each division into teams of from 12 to 18 men and pitted them against each other in order to arouse a spirit of friendly rivalry. A quarterly record is posted in each crew room on which is indicated the number of accidents chargeable to each team.
Public Utilities and Electric Railway Sections
927_
At the end of each quarter, teams that had the least accidents in each
division, are given a dinner by the company. These are made worthwhile occasions and rivalry to be among those present, is keen. These gather ings are also utilized as a means of receiving suggestions and exchanging ideas on accident prevention. Cooperation is fostered between the train men and the trade and roadway and shop departments by having represen
tatives from these two groups present. Local newspaper men are invited.
. This plan was quite successful and while it rewarded teams there were many individuals whose excellent results went unrewarded, four month? later we adopted the individual reward in addition to the team. The award increases progressively from one dollar in the first no-accident
month to $10.00 in the 10th month, with an extra $25.00 at the end of the twelfth month. A trainman may earn $100.00 for the first twelve months of no-accldent record, and $150.00 during the next consecutive twelve months, the extra award at the end of this period, being $30.00. Coupled with the contest plan, this gives the trainman a real incentive to boost and work for accident prevention..
We have been supplementing these efforts by the use of safety meetings,
illustrated safety bulletins in waiting rooms aud barns, car cards and dasli
posters.
'
REPORTIN'G FLAGRANT VIOLATION'S OF THE HIGHWAY LAWS
We also make it a practice to report flagrant violators of the highway
laws and with the cooperation of the state constabulary and the state high
way department, have been instrumental in having several drivers' licenses
revoked or other punitive action taken. This acts as a deterrent to the
wantonly careless driver, and causes employers to be more careful Of the
type of men employed to operate their motor vehicles.
In this connection, also, it is our practice to bill automobile owners for
damage to company property caused by their machines and for which we
are certain they are responsible. Although we do this largely because of
the moral effect, our experience has been that approximately 45 per cent
o'f the total of all such bills has been paid.
..
As was mentioned before, the growth of the automobile hazard can be
curbed only as a result of cooperation between the railway companies and
the public. We feel that the measures we are taking are earning for us
the right to ask for and to receive this assistance in the 'handling of a
mutual problem.
_
It is our purpose, now, to lay the situation before public officials, news
papers and the civic bodies In our territory. Automobile Clubs must be
asked to help. The aid o Rotary, Kiwanis, Lions and other clubs will be
enlisted. Public schools can be of service. Community safety movements
must be fostered.
--
'
<
We are constantly appealing to public officials to correct parking evils and traffic regulations, and even extend invitations to mayors, public safety directors and chiefs of police to ride the front end to observe the carelessness of the automobile driver.
928 Twelfth Safety Congress
The net results of our efforts to avoid accidents for eight months shows a slight decrease in the number of accidents, but auto collisions have increased 40 per cent- The encouragement we get is that our trainmen are more alert, having greatly reduced the number for which the railways is liable and effecting a satisfactory reduction in the charges against Injury and Damage Reserve account. We are putting the burden on the other fellow.
Our program has not been forced upon us because of excessive accidents costs. We have been running about 2% per cent of gross and feel that is not at all bad for our property. We have come to this, rather, because conditions are becoming worse with scedules being slowed up and destruc tion of life, limb and property due to this new hazard constantly growing. It stands at the top of the list of causes of accidental deaths.
To repeat an earlier thought, the railways companies must first clean
house themselves, and then become pioneers in fostering the safety move
ment in their communities. Only then will their automobile hazard cease
to grow.
The Dbivek, Not the Auto, Is Catjse
Mr. R. R. Hadsell (Superintendent of Transportation, New York State
Railways, Rochester, N. Y.) : We are prone to refer to the automobile
hazard or the dangers of the automobile in a manner that would give the
impression that the automobile is our greatest agency for destruction. It
is true that the number of fatalities in which automobile is a factor
are so large as to be startling. This however, is due in a far larger measure to the inherent tendencies of the individual driver to be-reckless
or thoughtless than it is to any mechanical imperfections of the auto
mobile.
'
Thus far, it might seem that I am speaking in defense of the automobile.
In the sense that it is the abuse rather than the use of the automobile that
causes accidents, I am.
.
-All of you number among your friends and acquaintances men and
women who have driven automobiles for years and have yet to have their
first accident. I mention this by way of illustrating that auto accidents
are not inevitable or workings of fate. Again in that same group of people
you may find a number who have had accidents. (
Why have they had them? Someone else may have run into them, a
steering knuei..^ might have broken, a tire may have come off at a time
when it was particularly dangerous to have such a thing happen. All of
these are possibilities, yet -the odds are that more often than not the ac
cident might properly have been attributed to a desire to beat the other
fellow to a crossing or into a lane of traffic, or to indifference to the rights
of others.
Railroad crossing accidents are alarmingly frequent. The pity of it is
that the victims are frequently women and children who have no power to
save themselves but are sacrifices to the recklessness of the driver of the
car in which they happen to be riding.
-
Public Utilities and Electric Railway Sections
929
Many of these accidents occur at crossings "Where warning signs have
been conspicuously placed, where an unobstructed view of the crossing
may be had for a distance sufficient for a machine traveling at a reason
able rate of speed to be readily brought to a stop. The popular demand is
for elimination of grade crossings. This is being done but grade crossings
are so numerous and the money involved in their removal is so enormous,
that it will require many years to materially reduce their number.
A number of states have enacted legislation mating it compulsory for
autoists to come to a full stop at all railroad crossings. Failure to heed
the warning signs placed by the railroad and the highway commission is
taken as prima facie evidence of contributory negligence on the part of the
autoist who is involved in an accident at such a crossing.
.
FOREIGNERS ABE RESPONSIBLE FOB MAJORITY" OF ACCIDENTS
In reading acoounts of automobile accidents, has your attention ever
been attracted to the names of the persons involved? Have they not, in the majority of cases been foreign names? That has been my observation.
Many of these people cannot read or write the English language, do not know our traffic laws, do not carry insurance on their cars and many times
are not financially responsible and so do not and cannot make restitution
for harm done.
I am a firm believer in the efficacy of the drivers' license. An auto driver
myself, I should be glad to take such an examination as might be required
to prove that I am sufficiently skilled in the handling of a car to he per mitted to drive on the streets of the city. If every driver were required
to pass an examination to determine his fitness to drive and if such license
might be revoked for just cause, many accidents, I believe, would never
happen. Where a driver of an auto is shown to be guilty of recklessness and where his recklessness results in personal injury to another or in the destruction of the property of another he should be denied the right to drive a car for such time as might be determined by those in authority.
This, to my mind would be far more impressive than fines.
-
Our safety councils should endorse the efforts of the magistrates in their respective cities who are endeavoring to curb the reckless motorist. Pro gressive automobile clubs are and should do the same things. When a number of organizations that are interested in community welfare, publicly endorse an effective law enforcement program, the reckless element which happily is in the minority will soon come to a realization that they have no friends and are being regarded as undesirable and unnecessary.
In a word, I would say in conclusion that the solution of the accident
problem as it relates to the operation of vehicles on our city streets and
public highways lies in rigid law enforcement by our regularly constituted
authorities backed by the sentiment of the law abiding citizens of the
community and a continuous education campaign that will awaken all
drivers to a realization of' their individual responsibilities.
"
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Twelfth Safety Congress
.
MUST BEACH OUT AND HElIp OTHERS
'
Mr. Wm. Bruce (New York City) : We must not confine ourselves to the safety In our own lines, but must reach out and help others Many of you, no doubt, remember reading in the papers about a police officer in the city of New York who was clinging by his hands to a girder on a 20 story office building that was being erected on Broadway, and who was jumping from girder to grider. When I picked up that Sunday paper and saw that picture I thought it was not a proper thing for a policeman, whom we look up to as a guardian of the peace and safety to be doing such hazardous stunts as
that. 1 Wrote a letter to Commissioner Enright of the Police Department and got a letter back by return mail stating that that police officer was not one of the regular uniform men, but belonged to the police reserve of the city of New York and had been an air service man-and was doing stunts to get money. Commissioner Enright thought my point was well taken and ordered that practice stepped, and I did not see any more of those stunts. But, the point I want to bring out here is that we should go outside of our own industry to call attention to things like that. The same applies to the man who climbed up the face of the Martinique Hti and when he got to the eleventh floor he lost his hold and was kHM Thousands of people were watching that performance. That should mi be allowed, and I think all such practices should be stopped.
Mr. J. F. Conner (Philadelphia) : I think that every driver of a ear should he examined on application for a license by a physician as z fete physical ability, whether he is able to drive a car, or whether he is in a proper condition to drive a car.
Mr. Guy R. Radley (Safety Engineer, The Milwaukee Electric Ry. and Eight Co.): I feel that the street car passing up and down the streets of the city is one of the best billboards that we have. It has this ad vantage: the street car is adjacent to the accident. I have more confidence In a sign that is carried by a street car for reducing accidents that occur between automobiles and street cars than something that might be carried in the daily paper that might be read when a man is not traveling on a car.
Mr. R. M. Searle (President, Rochester Gas & Electric Corporation, Rochester, N. Y.) : In Rochester we had a crossing where a number of people were killed and we put up a sigu stating that such-and-such a number had been killed at this crossing. All the time that sign was up there they did not have an accident; after it was taken down, five were killed. I have been criticized for emphasizing the hazards in our own business, but why not tell a man that his death is ahead of him? Do you know that a trolley car never chased a man up a concrete road? I saw in the Telephone Journal that a telephone pole never did hit an automobile unless it was in self defense. The hazard with the automobile is not in the car but in the driver as was brought out here a moment ago.
THE USE OB' FLASHING LIGHTS
Mr. Radley: We believe there are many people who, driving late at night or early in the morning, are not mindful that probably a car is coming around the curve, and the street car cannot stop and the motorist
Public Utilities and Electric Railway Sections
931
cannot stop and there is a collision. A red light means danger, and. a flash
ing red light is ten times more effective than the stationary lamp. Our
plan is to place those lights at the dangerous places and feed them from the current from the trolley wire. This type of flasher is now being used
in the city of Detroit. What do you think of this, gentlemen?
Mr. C. B. Proctor (Chairman Safety Committee, Memphis Stre,et Rail
way Company): At our particularly dangerous crossings on the boule
vards we have a sign "Drive Slow" about 150 feet before the crossing is
reached. Then at about half way between that sign and the railroad we have a raise about 15 inches high clear across the road. They cannot
drive over that raise and not know it. Mr. Cbas. B. Scott (General Manager, Bureau of Safety, Chicago) :
There is one phase of education that has not- been touched upon and that
Is the power of example. It has been my observation that the average
safety man is not much more careful about the operation of his automobile
than the average citizen. I am making an appeal to the safety men in
.public utilities to set the power of example in the operation of their own
cars, as it Is one of the most important and fundamental and probably one
ot the first things to he done.
Mr. DeBIois: I want to back up what Mr. Scott has said. I was talking
with a very prominent safety engineer today who upset his car on a
perfectly level stretch of road, with his wife and child in it. In the United States the total number of deaths from automobile accidents to date is
102,000. One hundred and two thousand automobile deaths!
Mr. J. H. Truett (Chairman, Safety Committee, United Railways and
Electric Company, Baltimore, Md.) : We should have dignity in safety. I think that the railroad signs should all be standardized so that when a
person drives he may know when he is approaching a railroad. -There
are so many railroad signs today that lots of people do not know they are near a railroad. Ton all know as well as I do that the old cross-arm
sign is the railroad signal. I think the study of standardizing the rail
road sign is one ot the greatest problems we have.
VALUABLE SOURCES OF INFORMATION ON ACCIDENT PREVENTION NOT GENERALLY UTILIZED
W. F- Canada, Director of Engineering, National Electric! Light
Association; New York City
This is an appointed time to speak of Safety--which, I take it, is the subject of ways and means of postponing the time to die. Safety is no new subject and besides the tradition of safety from its haziest beginnings, there is the literature of Safety, by no means small in any age, and becoming enormous in present times. Some of this safety tradition and literature has been, in season and much has been out ot season.
Safety, like other vital human purposes began as an aim and has de veloped into methods for securing .that aim. "Self preservation was the first law" we are told and a study of history will bear this out. Obser vations of children and animals will confirm our judgment that self
932 Twelfth Safety Congress
preservation, not only was ttae first law but continues to be the most natural law o conduct of sentient beings. But with the social and
mental development of man there have come about more or less approved methods for securing safety under various recurring sets of conditions for which mere instinct would afford no protective guidance. .Those
proposed' safety measures are best and can be most widely recommended and used, which, by and large, save more than they endanger. In fact, none should be classified or considered as true safety measures, however necessary they may be for human advancement, unless they result in a large and certain increment of safety to society as a whole.
The classification of dangers and the determination of measures, for their avoidance, together with appraisal of the costs and benefits of avoidance, constitutes the science of safety engineering. The process of putting these measures into effect is the art of safety engineering IF of accident prevention, as it is called in the title assigned me. Tins first characterization is the better, broader term and its use predisposes us to more positive, aggressive and resultful programs. Broadly, there may be no accidents, and still safety may not be perfectly assured. Con versely, with Safety assured to the highest .degree currently practicable for the safety engineering art, accidents may still happen, and injuries assuredly will happen. Assuring safety is our stated aim in this National Safety Council with all its constituent societies, with the high purpose of limiting adequately both accidents and non-accidental Injuries, inci dental to our advancing civilization.
In this Council we have an organized intelligence aimed at the greatest practicable promotion of those advances of civilization which obliterate dangers in the arts in which they constitute advances, whether the advances are solely for the. purpose of overcoming these hazards or not. '
ARE FORMULAS SIMPLE, CLEAR, ADEQUATE?
To direct safety engineering intelligently in its various applications
to all the arts, requires men of honesty, human kindness and breadth
of vision. It also requires effective organization of such men. Many
of these men must be thoroughly versed in the arts themselves to which
the safety engineering is being applied and not wholly or even mainly,
in the safety aspects. We have passed out of the superstitious period
in safety engineering and we now hare engineers--analyzing and apprais
ing every safety proposal and every recorded experience of hazard or its
avoidance.
-.
But there are obstacles to our entire success in safety work. Are we making full use of all existing facilities? Do we lack important avail able facilities? As with all activities, there arise milestones at which we must pause and take stock, if we would not retrace many footsteps at much cost. We have our enthusiastic safety engineers, and we need all possible enthusiasm. But every enthusiast necessarily follows formulas or standards.
Public Utilities and Electric Railway Sections
933
Two reliable and time honored criterions for examination of our current methods exist,--the judgment of trained men and the comparison of ..the methods with intelligently arranged data on experience.
Let us then examine briefly into some of the sources of information on safety engineering available to us, or which can and should be made available and perhaps raiSe a question as to why some of these criterians for developing our present methods are not more generally utilized today. We may once for all emphasize and regret the greatest cause of all for failure on our part to utilize all the standards now available.
AGENOIES ACTIVE IN SAFETX WOBK
.
Within the membership of this National Safety Council are now com prised most of* the organized agencies whose activities consciously embrace safety engineering. In the files of the library of the Safety Council are contained an astounding number of discussions, proposals, and codes of safe practice, covering scores of the hundreds of activities to which safety engineering may profitably be applied. Some of these pamphlets may not be entitled "Safety" or "Accident Prevention" because this may not have been their principal inspiration or scope. The librarian of the
Council, however, has these documents well classified from the Safety viewpoint, and is in a position to secure later editions or timely and expert comment for the information of any member. Often time would be saved, instead of lost to members if they would canvas the existing data, instead of endeavoring to evolve new methods out of an inner-conscious ness certainly limited and perhaps unfortunately biased.
In respect to the actual recommendations for safety practice which will be found in its library, the Safety Council acts purely as a correlator, a repository and a quickening spirit. We see the material there col lected,--we are inspired,--and our working organizations prepare or modify' or extend the safety codes .of practice which are building up about every advanced mechanical art or. activity. Acting co-operatively with the various technical National Electric Light Association committees concerned, it prepares and develops safe construction, design, insallation and arrangement methods for electrical plant in' all its phases. Thus it has been closely concerned in developing from its very beginnings, the National- Electrical Safety Code which, besides its own safety producing value, has had immeasurable value in pointing the method and form for flexible, developable codes of Safety Practices.
Similarly, there are the reports, tentative proposals, warnings, etc., which this National Electric Light Association committee and similar of other utility associations have on file which have not yet reached the dignity of codes but must be considered as Codes in the making. And these committees are furthermore prepared to advise, check and promote any safety suggestions submitted for their examination. If a positive recommendation is not properly forthcoming, they can at least keep indi vidual. workers in their own and other societies from ignorantly travers ing old ground with painful undirected efforts or new ground with clearly
934
Ttvelfth Safety Congress
misdirected effort. These individuals and committees may be at fault. Certainly, we are, if we do not ourselves, remember and "tell the world" where this information is to be obtained. We have spent too much human effort to allow it to fall by the wayside.
CODES------SOURCES AND CHARACTER
.
Our existing data, available in the Council library, or through the vari
ous working committees of the constltutent associations. Is divided into three main divisions--codes of practice, general dissertations including recommendations and warnings or histories conveying warnings. Codes will and should come earliest on any practice which affects many associa tions, many sections within a given association, or even many groups of persons, but in different ways. Thus, interior electric wiring, affecting householder, contractor, inspector, insurer and service utility In different kind and degree was the subject of a very early code of safety practice, the National Electrical (fire) Code. Not until many years afterward, did the extension of overhead lines and the necessary increases in energy transmitted and used, lead to development of the National Electrical Safety Code.
Fortunately, however, means for checking such discreditable rivalries have been developed, and may now be considered fairly reliable. Among these are the Bureau of Standards at Washington, also the Bureau of Mines, the Public Health Service and various bureaus in the Department of Labor. Another group of such agencies exists in the associations of Administrators of Codes, such as the national associations of state utility and labor commissions. Recently, the American Engineering Standards Committee has been formed, embracing all these code-making organiza tions, to stimulate, correlate, restrain and, it is hoped, to rationalize the general codification program in safety as well as other fields.
CODES IN THE MAKING
Next to codes in importance come the dissertations of various organiza tions which, by the very fact of their wide and selected distribution, exert a great influence for good and are indeed the seeds of codes, yet unborn-
Such embryo codes are a natural and necessary stage in the process of code making, but should not be allowed to be clothed with apparent or real authority, however brief, as to damage the general cause of safety both by improprieties and by the enormous effort often required to secure ' proper review and rescinding of such proposals by bodies which have rashly committed themselves to the courses of action they outline. Our principal standardizing bodies and particularly the American Engineer ing Standards Committee, are proving valuable in connection with the avoidance of improperly characterizing as "standard" a mere proposal of individual or society.
STATISTICS
Immensely useful, also, are the statistics of injuries. Publication of these lists of injuries, where they will be intelligently discussed and
Public Utilities and Electric Rmltvay Sections
935
so aid toward correction of practice, is so essential that their occasional misuse by malicious or ignorant readers cannot be considered a sufficient deterrent.
Injury statistics, as opposed to fire statistics, it must be noted, contain
greater personal elements in the immediate causes for the injuries which
are the main basis for such statistics. Since these personal elements
are elusive, the statistics are not quite so reliable for Indication of the
causes. Such statistics, however, with this limitation recognized serve
the following principal purposes:
,
First: They reliably indicate the kinds of workmen, the kinds of
work and the kinds of location where injuries occur with greatest fre
quency and severity and to the highest percentage of the persons subject
to hazards concerned. This properly directs the principal attention
of the reader to these groups of workers, these kinds of work, these
locations.
.
Second: Injury statistics indicate the individual features of constructure and of working methods, which contribute largely to the fre quency and severity of injuries. This analysis of specific causes has a large element of uncertainty since the human failings and errors con tributing to injuries are often pride or ignorance. If human weaknesses are too often concerned in a particular type of injury and are too difficult to remedy, mechanical substitutes for personal caution must be sought to limit the toll exacted by our processes of civilization.
Third: Injury statistics throw light on the desirability or unde sirability of current habits of practice in construction, operation, main tenance. To build, anew, a code of practice wholly out of such sta tistics. seems absurd, yet it has been conceived and attempted by un restrained enthusiasts.
PTJBX.IC UTEUTIES IK SAFETY WORK
To no branch of human industry does safety engineering appeal with stronger force or meet better organization than in those public utility groups which are represented in today's meeting of the Public Utilities and Electric Railway Sections of the National Safety Council. Each utility meets its public so closely and on such an understanding and essentially co-operative plane that the natural human impulses toward safeguarding are kept constantly alive, developing and functioning. The margin of utility income above expenditure, closely regulated, as it Is, in the public interest, requires and obtains a minimum of expenditure by the utility for injuries and this minimum, as theory and experience both indicate, will result from intelligent application of recognized Safety engineering principles. We all feel and properly feel, a pride in the inherent safety and helpfulness of our utilities and a desire to enhance these advantages and publish them to everyone. Justifiable optimism should be expressed no less clearly than pessimism, whether justified or not. usually Is.
936 Twelfth Safety Congress
My observation of men and methods in Safety -work during the past
twenty years has led to certain conclusions, and is constantly confirming them, as to what are the vital essentials for success. While fully aware that there is nothing novel or startling in these conclusions, and although confident that most of this audience of earnest men have arrived, or
are arriving, at the same conclusions, I believe that these conclusions should be voiced and reiterated until they become so graven on our roadsides that he who runs may read, and a wayfaring man, though a fool, cannot err therein.
The first conclusion is that men of broad vision, courage of conviction and long training in safety work serve better in promotion of safety than
do casual workers or men of less training. This Council Is a foremost
and indispensable agency for securing training, retaining and correlating
the efforts of such trained men. Trained and restrained in this school
of thought and experience, we can well depend on the active field work
and the subsequent directive work of the younger men who today are
working in your industries under your direction and who will gradually
take your place as you move beyond. Young men for action; old men
for council.
.
COMPETITION BY GOVERNMENT "SO CALI.ED''
I The second conclusion is that fair and sane government is impossible
by a governing organization which, at the same time, competes with
those citizens it pretends to govern. It is a human impossibility which has been recognized by thinking men all through the ages. The reason
that led to the formation and benefits of organized states and their gov ernments were to assure fair and equitable protection of all citizens and to disallow any assumption to superiority over governmental regulations
by any citizen. This same reason applies also to the necessity for
avoidance by governing bodies of such control by factions of citizens by whatever name called, as is intended to result or does result in apparent competitive advantage by tbose controlling the government over those with the so-called government is made to compete.
Experience and judgment are a powerful corrective and as a result, our American people, by and large, refrain from permitting factions, in con trol of their governments, state or city, from entering competitive indus tries. And where these competitive activities of governmental factions have by some means arisen they are usually soon overturned. This Coun cil, with its prestige, its secured disinterestedness and its many sided knowledge of the facts of hazards and their remedies may well serve to correctly inform citizens thus subjected to misgovernment.
A third conclusion, is that neither a four-hour-day as so cheerfully prog nosticated for the coming 21st century by Dr. Steinmetz, nor the eight hour day as so widely popularized by propaganda, will serve to keep and extend the beneficent influences of Safety work. It needs constant sleep less effort. Occasional meetings, including such fine assemblages as this can serve only as in inspiration, stimulation, the extension and unifica tion of our aims and methods. The real application and vitalizing of our
Public Utilities and Electric Railway Sections
937
safety work is in constant inspection, constant improvement in plant and personnel, constant well advised and well directed effort of trained, de voted, but not fanatic men, constant application of tbe best information our sources of information afford. Eternal vigilance is the price of Safety.
AUTOMOTIVE
Motor and Accessory Manufacturers Association, 33 "W. 42nd St-, New York
City National Automobile Chamber of Commerce, 366 Madison Ave., New York City
CEMENT
Portland Cement Association, 111 "W. "Washington St., Chicago, 111.
CHEMICAL
American Association of Textile Chemists and Colorists, Care Clark Thread
Co., Newark, N. J.
Manufacturing Chemists' Association of the U. S., Woodward Bldg., Washing
ton, D. C.
National Association of Finishers of Cotton, 320 Broadway, New York City
National Association of Printing Ink Makers, Inc., 15 E. 40th St., New York
City Faint Mfrs. Association of the 17. S., 509 The Bourse, Philadelphia, Pa.
CONSTRUCTION
American Railway Bridge and Building Association, 319 N. Waller Ave., Chi
cago, 111. Associated General Contractors of America, Inc., Munsey Bldg., Washington,
D. C. Atlantic Coast Shipbuilders' Association, 1701 Walnut St., Philadelphia, Pa.
DROP FORGE
-.
American Drop Forge Institute, 116S Hanna Bldg., Cleveland, Ohio.
ELECTRIC RAILWAY
American Electric Railway Association, 8 W. 40th St., New York City
METAL
,
American Foundrymen's Association, Marquette Bldg.. Chicago, III.
American Iron and Steel Institute. 61 Broadway, New York City
American Hardware Mfrs. Association, 1819 Broadway, New York City
American Malleable Castings Association, 1900 Euclid Ave-, Cleveland, Ohio
National Association of Brass Mfrs., 139 N. Clark St., Chicago, 111.
National Founders' Association, 29 S. LaSalle St., Chicago, 111.
National Machine Tool Builders' Association, 817 Provident Bank Bldg., Cin
cinnati, Ohio
Pressed Metal Association. Hanna Bldg., Cleveland, Ohio
Tap and Die Institute, 116 W. 32nd St., New York City
MINING
American Mining Congress, Washington, D. C. Coal Mining Institute of America, Chamber of Commerce Bldg., Pittsburgh.
Pa. Mining & Metallurgical Society of America, 115 Broadway, New York City
PACKERS AND TANNERS Institute of American Meat Packers, 509 S. Wabash Ave., Chicago. 111. Tanners' Council of the U. S. of America, 41 Park Row, New York City
PAPER AND PULP
American Paper and Pulp Association, 18 E. 41st St.;' New York City
p PETROLEUM
American Petroleum Institute, 17 W. 44tli St., New York City National Petroleum Association, 823-25 Guardian Bldg., Cleveland. Ohio
PUBLIC UTILITIES .
American Gas Association, 130 E. 15th St., New York City
National Electric Light Association, 29 W. 39th St., New York City
RUBBER
.
Rubber Association of America, Inc., 52 Vanderbilt Ave., New York City STEAM RAILROADS
American Railway Association, 75 Church. St., New York City
TEXTILE
American Association of Woolen and Worsted Mfrs., 45 E. 17th St., New York
City
American Cotton Mfrs. Association, Commercial Bank Bldg.. Charlotte. N. C.
National Association of Cotton Mfrs.. 45 Milk St.. Boston. Mass.
Southern Textile Association, Greenville, S. C.
,
938 Twelfth Safety Congress
WOODWORKING
^rational Lumber Mfrs. Association, 1319 P. St., N. AV., Washington, D. C. Northern Hemlock and Hardwood Mfrs., Oshkosh, Wis. Southern Pine Association, Interstate Bank Bldg-., flew Orleans, La. Southern Sash Door and Millwork Mfrs. Association, Candler Bldg., Atlanta.
Ga. West Coast Lumbermen's Association, Henry Bldg., Seattle, Wash. Western Pine Mfrs. Association, Yoon Bldg., Portland, Oregon.
DISCUSSION
Mr. Mills MacLachlan (Electrical Engineer, Toronto, Canada) : I would
like to put forth one suggestion to the incoming executives of the Public
Utilities Section. The new members of the committee do not always have
a knowledge of the past committee's work, and I would make the sug
gestion that this committee be appointed to go over the talks that have
been given before the Public Utilities Section back to 1915 and bring out
some hind of an index so that those of us that refer to the' proceedings
from time to time can find, quickly, what we want.
The only examination that would be of benefit to drivers would be to
find out how careful a man was going to be in. driving his car for the next
six months, but the licensing of the skill of the driver Is never going to
prevent accidents.
LUNCHEON SESSION
Toastmaster Charles B. Scott: I heard an indictment in the Public Utilities this morning that I thought was not a proper one and that wa the indictment of one class of Public Utilities for its apparent lack of in terest in the Safety Movement. One of the wonders of the Safety Move ment that I have observed by attending the past congresses of this Council is the rapid development of interest on the part of the public utilities in the cause of safety. This section, which a few years ago was a minor section now overshadows all other sections and to my mind it is the most constructive good to the cause of safety of any department In the National Safety Council.
I take great pleasure in presenting Mr. R. M. Searle, president, Rochester Gas & Electric Corporation, Rochester, N. Y.
ADDRESS OF MR. R. M. SEARLE
I am fully alive to the fact that if you capitalize accidents from service
or lack of service you will base it on what a man would be worth to your
company per capita. If you.were In a trolley you would be worth $60 per
capita; if you figure what a person is worth to society he is worth $2,000
a year. And every gravestone in every cemetery that marks an accident
victim represents a loss to society of not only the producing powey of
$2,000 a year hut a loss to human happiness.
'
To show you how you can overtake your thoughts, I have always been
a believer in disposing of a malformed child at birth, and see what a loss
it would have been if we had not had Steinmetz. So, see how easy It is
to "kid" yourself into letting your ideas of this advanced civilization run
away with you? In other words, Steinmetz has contributed to society an
untold amount because propaganda for deformed cbildren did not carry
out its object.
-
Public Utilities and Electric Railway Sections
939
You are your brother's keeper, and I am my brother's keeper. We can,
in accident prevention, make ourselves a brother.
'
It is largely a case of the Golden Rule. To give you an. idea of howdiscipline will affect treatment of people, about 10 or 12 years ago we had a large steam drum burst and a workman was badly scalded. I saw him and -immediately ordered him taken to the hospital. A man came running up to me and said, "If you touch that man you commit a liability."
I said, "Do you mean to say that I have a policy that makes me a-------------?
Cancel it!"
We did cancel it and I organized the Mutual Utility Insurance Company. After five years demonstration we know what we can do. We made a success .of it and since that time the insurance people have made a policy that will give a man anything he wants.
Think of a man scalded almost to death lying there and no one can touch him. Of course, you are all liable. You are liable not financially but as a human being for the soul of that man. Imagine hiring the man and having him get burned and then say to him, "You are a damned fool to get scalded."
SAFETY EKTGINEEBS AS HAZABDS EXPEBTS
I have gotten into this game and I feel more satisfaction in this work than any work In the utility business, because I have always been very much interested in the prevention of accidents, and I predict that within the next five years the engineers will be the men who say, "Stop! Put up that guard." "Stop loading %that scaffold," etc. He will be the man who has the knowledge of every hazard.
We have a construction job now of approximately $600,000 and I wandered down there the other day and in 50 seconds I counted 50 hazards. Why shouldn't the public assume one per cent of the capital to save human life, and save suffering? As I said, I counted 50 hazards in 50 seconds. We have to cut down those hazards, and that should be the last cut you make. I would rather stop my work and put up tar and say I have pre vented an injury to my fellow-man.
I feel that on every job we should have a professional man who" will be an authority on hazards. He will be so thoroughly imbued, so obsessed with the idea that he will foresee what is going to happen.
We fool ourselves here today about jay-walking and reckless driving,
and we would be the first ones to object to the roping off of the sidewalks,
and every one of us are jay-walkers. Last Monday I was going to cross
Fifth Avenue when I saw. a lady in an -auto coming from one direction,
and in stepping back out of her way another car came round the corner
and bumped me. I had no business jay-walking. I am not like the fellow
who came running out of the Engineer's Club the other evening and was
hit by an automobile. He got up from the pavement, felt of his hip, felt
something warm running down his leg, and when the policeman came up
and inquired whether or not he was hurt, the fellow said, "I don't think
I am hurt, but I hope that is blood."
.
940 Twelfth Safety Congress
The roping off of-the sidewalks will do only so much to, prevent Jay
walking, but it will cause person^ to observe the usual safeguards. I am
getting so that I.do not consider anything safe any more; everything is
a hazard.
-
Now, the message I want to leave with you is that you have got to attend these meetings of the Council. You get more out of them than any one else. You have got to send the younger man along to be educated, and the boys and girls in the public schools. Teach them that the one who takes a dare is the coward. They have always been taught to think that the one who would not take the dare is the. coward, when the reverse is the case. It is a fact that you have got to have courage to say "No."
I had a very dear friend in Indianapolis who was an aviator. One day he went before the grandstand and said that no man could fly in such a high wind. What was the result? He went up against his will and was killed. I would have told the crowd to go to hell.
In the city of New York not so very long ago a young fellow left his wife standing on the pavement while he tried to scale the side of the Martinique Hotel. He fell and was killed, because he was a coward. ' The people were there in the thousands waiting for something to happen. He did not have the courage to say no. It takes a brave man to say that word, and with that message I want to ask you to come here, attend these meet ings and reap the benefit that is to be derived from them. But I do not
know of anything greater than prevention of an accident or injury to the family.
OBLIGATIONS AND OPPORTUNITIES OP PUBLIC SERV ICE COMPANIES IN COMMUNITY SAFETY
S. Russell Bowen, Vice-president, Washington Railway and Electric
` Company-, Washington, D. C.
Public Service companies, whether incorporated under general pro- * visions of law, or by special act of the legislature, are engaged in a service of a quasi-public character, and are, therefore, delegated the right and permitted to occupy streets, roads and highways and construct and main tain underground and overhead lines and other structures, running for a limited or unlimited period of time, for the purpose of furnishing serv ice to the public. The very nature of such business is monopolistic in character. Although the charter or franchise may not, in terms, convey an absolute monopoly to perform a given service in a particular locality, yet in most instances one is practically created, although some competk tion may be invited from.other forms of service; for instance, an electric light company has certain competition to meet where a gas company ex ists in the same locality, or a street railway may have competition through jitneys, busses and private use of automobiles. A public service company usually is granted certain other extraordinary rights, such as the power to condemn land for proper corporate purposes. In the exercise of these delegated rights it must always be borne in mind that the busi ness of a public utility is "impressed with a public use" and that it may
Public Utilities and Electric Railway Sections
941
' not be formed for gain alone, although justice requires that such service,
when properly performed, should be always fairly compensated and that
every utility should be given an adequate return upotf -the fair present
value of the property devoted to the use of the public
.
. Would it be -unfair to say that a survey of the past might indicate a
failure on the part of the management of some utilities to discern and develop a full appreciation of the obligations resting upon them and due
to the public in the operation of such enterprises.
In the early and experimental stages of the industry and when a few.
men of initiative and genius ventured in new fields of utility service, then particularly ^calling for operators of constructive ability with tenacity and constancy of purpose to meet and overcome untold obstacles and difficulties, with little promise of reward or return for their labor or
money risked therein, it was not. opportune to engage in, nor was time
given to the consideration of the niceties and refinements of the industry
and which should properly prevail.
,
It was not the custom then to pay a penny for franchise, but they were granted in the aspect of a gratuity, the public authorities then being quite willing to see private capital incur the risk of the venture. The private investor naturally thought his capital would be accorded the pro tection it deserved.
SACRIFICES OF PUBLIC UTILITIES GO UNREWARDED
As time went on rapid development costs were incurred. If the initial rates of service had been made sufficient to cover them, those rates' in most cases would have been excessive and would have retarded the use fulness of the service. Experience demonstrated that the rapid progress of invention and science in the various fields of -utility service has con stantly developed new and improved plants and equipment. The con struction and equipment of railways,- for instance, have undergone revo lutions from horse car to cable, and from the latter to electric operation, each constituting the abandonment of physical property before it was worn out. In most instances the utilities companies have not been re warded for this contribution and outlay, some commissions and other regulatory authorities refusing to permit the capitalization of such costs or to allow any return thereon. The public has not lent the encourage ment which these sacrifices deserved, and hence the relations between the public and public utilities have not always been harmonious and such as should have obtained for the' gooil of the service. Some misunder standing and bitterness at times have been engendered With the conse quent failure on both sides to obtain the best results.
Unfortunately, the public and some regulatory bodies have not taken, nor do they always entertain, the correct attitude toward public utilities, although the public has been largely benefitted in the construction- and maintenance of the same. It was not unnatural, therefore for some oper ators in the past to become discouraged and look -upon public utilities
942 Twelfth Safety Congress
not unlike industrial concerns. The views generally of operators in this
respect has changed in the last few decades and any generation should
be held responsible only for conformity to the standards of its time.
.
The creation of regulatory bodies has done much to take out of politics
and remove from local influences the regulation of public utilities. The
quasi-judicial procedure before the commissions and the orderly consid
eration of such questions and the claims of utility corporations and the public, has, generally speaking, resulted for the common good of the
public and the utilities. Government in a democracy must depend upon the wisdom and justice of the people and their reverence of the law. The public should entertain a spirit of fair play towards public utilities and be willing to accord to them "a day in court" and always a fair and impartial hearing upon questions in which they are interested.
While some improvement has been made, much can be dene to Improve relations between the public and public utility corporation*. AH civic bodies can and should help in standing for fair treatment of aH public utilities, and in recognizing that utilities are community baOdcri. and that proper encouragement should be given on the part of tbe public.
. Assuming that the public will do its part, having in view the advan tages accruing from a proper conception and discharge of the tWfUlon resting upon all concerned in the furnishing of utility service, we there fore urge that a public service company should have a ~seml~ and be willing to exercise a controlling influence, such as possessed by indi viduals, and recognize equally the rights, interests and vettsnt f Itself with all others.
It follows, therefore, that a public utility should
Sts obliga
tions to its employees, whose services are essential to the success of the
enterprise. As far as practicable, employees sbould always be provided
with safe tools and appliances, and with safe and healthful working and
living conditions, as well as the pay envelope. Friendly relations also
should be cultivated and. created between a public utility and its em
ployees, for without contented and satisfied employees the service furnished
will not really measure up to that standard calculated to please the
public--and win general favor.
Likewise, a public utility, and particularly a railway, should recognize
that it is engaged in an industry In which public accidents, as distin
guished from industrial accidents, commonly occur. Therefore, every
thing humanly possible, within reasonable bounds, should be done to
minimize bodily injury and the'loss of life to patrons and the general
public.
-
. AVOIDANCE OF ACCIDENTS SUSTAINS PUBLIC FAITH
Having admitted such obligations, what can be done in the matter? A public utility can and should inaugurate a safety department for the instruction of its employees iu ways and means to minimize, reduce or avoid accidents, and suitable recognition or reward should be offered to awaken, promote and encourage those employees who need some extra
Public Utilities and Electric Railway Sections -
943
stimulus to get them out of a "rut" and to more fully appreciate their sur roundings and the necessity for self-protection, as well as the protection of the public, of applying principles of safety in all operations.
The public, too, should be invited to assist employees in reduction and
avoidance of accidents, for without such co-operation on their part the
best results in a Safety movement will not be achieved. The benefits
accruing to the public from such co-operation are manifest. Knowledge
on the part of the public that a public utility has acted wisely, if not
liberally, in the adoption of all measures looking to the prevention of
accidents, and in the insistence upon and adherence to safe operating
rules for their protection, as well as for the rendition of comfortable
and efficient service, will create in patrons a peace of mind and a sense of satisfaction that will bring about a relation on the part of the public
ultimately ripening into a good will of inestimable' value to the utility. It will, moreover, make It easier to organize public sentiment in favor of measures for the better training and licensing of chauffeurs, the elim ination of narrow streets, bad curves and grades, and parking in congested
areas.
The public will also become more interested in publicity campaigns
for the better instruction of school children and others in Safety princi
ples, and in the adoption of uniform traffic rules, including the promulga
tion of regulations that will prohibit, excessive speed, and .that will
restrain the reckless operators of motor vehicles and users of the streets
and highways.
.
Proof is hardly necessary to convince public service companies that the Safety movement is justified. The total cost of accidents to electric railway systems of the United States each year is stated to be approxi mately $40,000,000, which represents some 4.7 percent of the yearly gross income of the Industry. If this annual loss, or a substantial part thereof, could be saved or prevented. It would greatly improve the condition of the street railways.
It is obviously in the interest of the public service companies to avoid controversy, and to maintain peaceable and satisfactory relations with the public. The reduction and elimination of preventable accidents, with the attendant claims for injuries and damages, will largely promote such relations upon the part of the public. Statistics available show that SO percent of the electric railway accidents are caused by motor vehicles, and the number is constantly growing with the increase of automotive transportation. It may be said that some of the accidents could not have been prevented, no matter how much care had been exercised, but it stands to reason that a large percentage of them could have been If the safety idea had been applied. With such appalling figures the industry must be awakened and constructive work immediately commenced to im prove the situation before the accident problem gets beyond control and before public sentiment becomes aroused through such failure with pos sible drastic and unreasonable legislation as a result thereof.
944
Twelfth Safety Congress
V
A. public utility should, not stop with its own safety work- It has a
larger opportunity, that is to say, such a utility has the obligation and
opportunity of alignment with safety organizations to better educate the
public, furnish statistics on various phases of accident prevention work,
and in other ways mould public opinion in favor of all proper measures
designed for safety. No utility would think of relying upon fire appar
atus. or upon watchmen of its own, for sole protection against fire or
violence. How can a public utility reasonably expect to engage in or
promote accident prevention work and achieve the best results single
handed. and overcome the suggestion that is sometimes made that such
a movement is actuated solely from a pecuniary standpoint? The answer
is that every public service corporation should align or associate itself
with properly accredited safety organizations and sustain them in the
great public work of saving human life and limb, which is incapable of
estimation in money, as well as conducting its own Safety Department
for safe and efficient operation--all contributing to and making possible
rendition of the highest and the-best service to the public. Any public
service company failing to recognize its obligations in this respect, and
whose management deliberately shuts the door of opportunity to assist
in community safety, is likened to the man who "hath ears but heareth
not."
-
ADJOURNMENT
Rubber Section
October 3 and 4, 1923
E. W. BECK, Chairman
United States Rubber Company, New York Cits'
C. T. WIXgO]V, Vice-Chairman Kelly Springfield Tire Company, Cumberland, Md.
A. M. PARTRIDGE, Secretary Fisk Rubber Company, Chicopee Falls, Mass.
WEDNESDAY MORNING SESSION
HAIRMAN BECK: I was extremely fortunate in having some splen
C did co-workers with 'me during the past year and the success of the
section has been due to their hard work. Consequently, they will speak for the work better than the chairman can.
REPORT OF SECRETARY
A. M. Pabtbidgk An executive committee composed of 12 members, 11 from various rubber concerns and one representing headquarters. National Safety Council, has met on three different occasions---twice at New York City and once at Akron, Ohio. Following these meetings, the secretary has put all matters discussed into News Letter forms and they have been mailed to all- members of the section, thus keeping .them in close touch with the progress of safety work within the industry. That these items were well received has been evinced by favorable replies and requests for certain specific information on subjects mentioned in letters. Within a year, the membership has increased about 30 per cent. The safety bulletin service has been snappy and up to date and you compare favorably with other sectional bulletins issued. During the year 41 bul letins have been furnished to the National Safety Council, 27 of the car toon style and 14 photographs. This will leave a surplus for the coming year. The engineering committee has been getting together a list of hazards to submit to manufacturers with the intention of interesting them to the extent that many unsafe conditions .on machines might be eliminated or reduced before they leave the place of manufacture. Much work has
945
946 Twelfth Safety Congress
been put in on Safe Practices Pamphlets and when they are complete and
ready for distribution will be much sought after, for they will surely be
worth while reading and studying.
The safety work in this section has received much stimulus through
the wide spread advertising that it has had in the rubber trade journals and through the cooperation of the Rubber Association of America and
the National Safety Council. I wish at this time to express the thanks of the executive committee to those members of the National Safety
Council, the rubber section and many others outside the industry who
by their cooperation and constructive criticism have helped to make such
good .progress in accident prevention work throughout the past year.
Statistics have been compiled semi-annually and that interest has been aroused is shown by the fact that new companies are now sending in
figures and the older ones are furnishing them, in a more complete manner.
(Motion made, seconded and carridd that the report be adopted as
read.)
REPORT OF BULLETIN COMMITTEE
H. H. Gbaef
At the beginning of the year, we had some discussion as to the type of bulletins which gave the greatest value. Some of the members were in favor of bulletins in the form of actual photographs, taken in various
parts of the factory and displaying hazards incident to the industries?
and others were in favor of bulletins made up in the form of cartoons or
sketches which would portray these same hazards.
*
One group claimed that the photographs displayed more accurately
the actual conditions which existed. On.the other hand, the other group
felt that certain things could be done by the hand of an artist that
couldn't be done with a camera. The little hazards which by the camera
would appear very unimportant, could be exaggerated by the pen of the
artist and made to show up much better. For that reason, they felt bul
letins in the form of cartoons had a better effect on the workman and
at the same time caught his eye more quickly than the photograph.
After some discussion in the section, we finally decided it wasn't advis
able to confine, ourselves to either one of .these types, but in so far as
possible, we would stick to the cartoon type of bulletin. Another pennon
for this was that most of the bulletins gotten out by the National Safety
Council are of the photograph type and the Rubber Section does not eon-
fine the use of its bulletins to the Rubber Section alone, but uses those
of the other sections also.
THE FUNCTION OF THE SAFETY MAN IN INDUSTRY
Cyrus Chino, Supervisor op Industrial Relations, United States Rubber Company, New York City
In looking at the function of the safety man In industry, it has always seemed to me that the need in that particular phase of industrial activity is the same need that exists in our churches, our political institutions
Rubber Section
947
namely, this one thing: man leadership! That is the crying need in this
country today, leadership. It doesn't make any difference whether it is
the plant doctor, the engineer, the manager, the foreman, the personnel man, the employment man, or whatnot--what we do need, and must have, is man leadership in all of our industrial activities. It is especially necessary in this work we are engaged in and so interested in.
So far as safety work in plants is concerned, it isn't anything that
one receives such a tremendous amount of credit for. There are the spectacular things in connection with safety: you can put on a great
safety first week, day or month, you can placard your plant, you can
create a tremendous amount of excitement and enthusiasm, but beware of reactions. Those things are all well in their place, but the safety work
that .counts, is the safety work that is being accomplished day in and
day out.
.
It is a thankless job, in many instances, finding opposition on the part of a good many people. A. lot are not interested in it at all. A lot are more interested in some other phase of the factory--management,'pro duction--and the safety man has to plug along under those conditions. It is the fellow who has the grit, the ability, the nerve and the leadership that will get there.
The fellow always looking for an opportunity to get in the limelight, the fellow looking for something spectacular and playing it up. Is not going to accomplish any more in the safety line than he would in any other line.' Spectacular performers get the spotlight for a little while, but some other person blows a whistle and it is turned another way. His corner is left in darkness, and he doesn't- accomplish very much.
I wonder as I attend these conventions pertaining to safety and allied matters, conventions of Chambers of Commerce, industrial conventions, how much understanding we have of the other, fellow's point of view.
There is this conclusion I have arrived at after 20 years of mixing with
men--having worked with men and being graduated from the front end
of a street car in Boston; having for'eight years negotiated with 16 labor
unions---that the viewpoint of the man in the factory or on the railroads is
just about the same as the viewpoint of the men in this room. There
Isn't any mass point of view in regard to any industrial matter. It is a group of individuals. Our whole industrial, our whole political, our
whole social success In this country has been up to individual effort,
Initiative and ability. So there Isn't any mass point of view on the' part
of those below the rank of foreman in a plant, that we can sit down and
figure out and then apply the remedy.
,'
ATTITUDE TOWARD THE FOREIGNER
I think it might be well for all of us to stop some time and consider just what our attitude of mind would be, provided we went to Germany, or Italy, or France, or Czecho-Slovakia, and got a job in an industrial plant there being forced to do that because of economic conditions in our own
>48 Twelfth Safety, Congress
country. If we had to earn 'a Jiving among- strangers who didn't speak
our language, the paramount thing in our minds would be that job, that
opportunity to-earn, a living.
.......
The question of Americanization has a lot to do with the Safety Move ment insofar as our foreign-born workers are concerned. I have this very definite idea in regard to that particular problem: if I were in an in dustrial plant in Italy, trying to work for my living, in a country where everything was foreign to me, and some fellow came in and started to Italianize me a few minutes after I got in the plant, I would resent it.
I think one of the big mistakes in this country is the theory that the
first thing we have got to do with a fellow when he lands is to Americanize
him. We are in a process of evolution all the time and I believe one of
the big problems in the country is to Americanize those who are born
here as well as those who were born elsewhere.
-
I don't believe it is possible for us to carry on a very successful work in Americanizing foreigners, when we as Americans put laws on our statute books and then turn around and violate them, immediately. I believe one of the things in this country--leaving out the question of the Eighteenth Amendment--causing the - greatest amount of unrest on the part of the foreign-born, is the absolute disregard and absolute disre spect for governmental institutions. We can't hope to accomplish verymuch in the way of Americanizing foreigners, except on the basis of example.
Some one will make the statement that the answer to the whole in
dustrial problem is education. Very fine! We take a foreign-born worker
from one of our plants, and we establish school, either within or with
out the plant, for the purpose of teaching him American ways. After
he has gone through a certain period there and Is able to read and write
English, we then take him up to the naturalization court where be parts
with five dollars, holds up his hand and repeats a lot of meaningless
words, and becomes a citizen. He goes out on the sidewalk, meets a fel
low who says "I wonder who that damn wop is?" There is only one
way we can. Americanize the foreign-horn worker in this country and
that is by example. If we are going to consider the United States as
a nation and as a family, we can't take people in on the basis of being
stepchildren. We have to take them in as part- of the family. If we don't
want to take our foreign-born people in here on the same basis as the
worker born in this .country, on the basis of full citizenship, then let's
not ta- ke them in at all.
i
.
I believe if we are going to get the message of safety across especially
to the foreign-born worker, we have got to consider that phase of it. We
have got to get to our supervisory officials to get a little of the stranger's
point of view to establish a confidence on his part, not by absolute rules
such as you see. Fire him if you have to, but I don't believe in mairing
threats. That is one of the things I think is getting us into a lot of
difficulty: this question of the lack of understanding and the lack of conT
fidehce, and whatever a safety- man can do, whatever the engineering
Rubber Section
949
department <h. do, whatever; the, medical department caffjdo, or the em
ployment department or any other department in the plant, to establish
some slight degree of confidence on the part of the man in the institution
for which he works, is going to make your safety program very much
easier to put across.
.
.
THE FIELD FOR SAFETY UEK
-
I believe there is a tremendous field today for safety men in plants. I feel it is absolutely true in our own plants. If they didn't do another
thing for the next six months except concentrate on foremen and assist
ant foremen, they would have their hands full. How can you expect a fellow who can scarcely speak the English language to be always in a
position of performing his work in a safe manner if your foremen and
assistant managers by their example, are violating every safety law, each time that they move around? I think one of the big problems facing the safety man today is to get the foreman's confidence, to sell him safety,
and to get him absolutely, ail the time he is in the plant and out of
the plant, thinking in terms of safety and safe practice.
You have got to get the idea all the way up and down the organization.
The function of the safety man is very similar to the coach on the side
lines. The team is your lineup in the plant. The coach has to keep his
eyes open and be all ready to change signals if things are not going right.
A safety man aU by himself, trying to carry on a safety work and not
having the support all the way up-and down the line is not going to put
across any program that would be effective.
-
To my mind safety is service. It is service to the human Industry, service to the community, service to the whole human race.
I don't know where the line should be drawn between pushing too hard
and putting on the brakes, but there is a place somewhere where you can
carry on considerable judicious advertising. One thing I am sure of and
that Is, you will never get very far on selling safety in your plant on
the basis of conversation. If you don't have your statistics ready to show
so that you can go in and say, "There is the story; It isn't necessary to
talk very much about it," the other man will say, "He has a wonderfui
line of talk. He almost sold me."
.,
You have got to have your statistics and 'figures. You have got to
know what you are doing. You have got to get figures down so that they
can talk for themselves, as a dollars and cents proposition. That Is the
problem.
.
As I said in the beginning, the crying need today in this country is
leadership. ' It is man leadership, leadership in the industries, in the com
munities in which we live. I don't believe we can hope to get very far
either in our communities, churches or industries or in our political life
until the American citizen wakes up to his responsibility and Is willing
to assume for all' the liberties he enjoys in this country, some of its re
sponsibilities.
-
950 Twelfth Safety Congress
PERSONAL ACCIDENT PREVENTION IN THE RUBBER INDUSTRY
Wrr.rrAir E. Date, CUTLEB HaMMEB MANrrE'ACTEEIH'G Coupant, Chicaqo, Iul
Serious personal hazards obtain in the production of rubber products and the solution to the probleri that confronts the. safety engineer is manifold.
(1) The first consideration is one of machine design- The endeavor
should be toward machines of such basic design that possible causes
of accidents are excluded to the maximum.
(2) The regulation of production operations to reduce possible hazards
as far as conditions will permit.
(3) The education of operators against careless practices and assuming
unwarranted chances.
'
(4) The selection of safety devices that will provide protection against
hazards that cannot be eliminated in the machinel design or that
neither production program nor education can be depended upon to
prevent.
(5) Accessibility of the safety device to the operator, and speed of
response of the device to the operator's impulse.
The object of this Paper is to deal with solutions to (4) and (5).
APPLICATIONS
The various general types of production machinery `may be grouped
under three general headings.
' .1
(1) Mill lines (crackers, washers, mixers, batch warmers, etc.}
(2) Calendars.
(3) Miscellaneous machines.
WTTT. LINE DRIVES
Mill lines are usually group drive, each equipped with a motor of suitable size to drive ail mills on the line loaded. With all mills, or an appreciable number of them, loaded, the mill line friction is higb, and a quick stop in event of heed is easily effected.
The large problem is one of obtaining a quick, safety stop when the mill line is operating with a light load, or with a small percentage of the mills in actual operation, as the amount of friction in the mill line is then relatively low compared to the high inertia of the rotating parts7 of the drive. Under this operating condition, the problem we must face is one of stopping the mills quickly to insure against serious Injury, or preferably none, to the operator.
The following tabulation. Table 1, based on standard modern type of mill motor at 514 E. P. M. can be considered as typical of the motor con ditions that obtain generally on mill lines, and the amount of torque that must be applied to stop the motor within a time equivalent to that which would equal a 6 inch stop on a 22 inch front roll of a mill that is operating at 18 R. P. M.
Rubber Section
TABLE 1
951
Horsepower of Motor
Normal Motor Torque Lb.--Ft.
Torque Required Ratio of Required
for 6-lnch stop
Torque to
- Lb.--Ft.
Normal Torque
50 100 . 200 300 400 500
510 1.020 2,050 3,070 4,100 5,100
2,380 6,200 10,700 12,400 13,500 15,500
4.65 .6.10 5.20 4.10 3.30 3.00
The tabulation, given below under Table 2 accentuates further the prob lem involved in obtaining a quick stop to the mills.I
TABLE 2
Horsepower of Motor
Moment of Inertia
Kinetic Energy in Foot-Pounds
In Rotor at 514 R. P. M.
"In Couplings, Brake Wheel, Gears, Etc.
60 100 200 300 400 500
540 1,450 2.500 2,000 3,200 3,600
25,000 65,000 112,000 130,000 144,000 162,000
12,500 32,500
56,000 65,000 ' 72,000 81;000
The "moment of inertia.." second column, applies to a standard line of mill motors, at 514 R. P. M. and is typical of modern motor practice. .
It is based on the formate--1--W TP, where
I is Moment of inertia. W is Weight o rotor in pounds, and
-
K is Radios oC gyration in feet.
The kinetic energy stored in the rotor given in the third column, is
based on the formate E=17 I N*, where E is Kinetic energy stored in the rotor _
.
""
I Is Moment of inertia from second column, and
is Revolutions per minute The kinetic stored energy in the couplings, brake wheel, and gears.
Column 4, approximates one-half of that stored in the rotor. This shows
that two thirds of the energy to be overcome oh stopping is the energy
stored in the motor rotor.
For distances of travel on stopping other than 6 inches to the rolls, the
torqne required will be inversely proportional to that given in the third
column of Table I. For example, twice the torque given would be re quired for a three inch stop, or oue-halC for a twelve inch stop..
952 Twelfth Safety Congress
In order to stop a mill line and the motor within a travel of six inches on the periphery of the 22 inch roll, the motor must be stopped within 2% revolutions, or in about 0.58 seconds.
The foregoing does not take into account the retardation provided byloaded mills. On a four mill drive with one mill normally loaded, it could be considered that this mill would supply a retarding torque equal to one fourth normal motor torque and the brake then would have to provide the difference between this and the total retarding torque required.
Segregation of Rotating Parts. Since our problem is one of stopping
the rolls quickly, and we have found that in doing so that our large prob
lem is to stop the motor, it is evident that if we have a convenient means
to disconnect the large inertia load (the motor) from the relatively small
inertia load (the mills), the problem of stopping the slow moving low
inertia rolls should be materially simplified, and herein lies the value of
the magnetic clutch-brake.
..
By interposing a magnetic clutch between the motor and the pinion a
convenient means is provided for disconnecting the rotor of the motor
mechanically from the mill line thus relieving the brake of two-thirds of
the work that it would otherwise be called upon to do, and by mounting
the brake on the mill line side of the drive, the mills are stopped quickly
and without undue strain on the equipment.
.
The chart on Figure 1 was compiled from test on an installation of two warming mills while stopping under eight sets of conditions. The measurement was made on the front roll of one of the mills. The test conditions were as follows:
Front BoU Travel in Inches 10 20 40 60 80 100
w1
nsj No Safety--240 In.
ISO
ZOO
2501
1 Clutch Only--103 in.
Braise Only--40 in.
diii
Clutch Brake--8% in
M No Safety--75 in.
Clutch Only--16 in.
SSASSA
Brake Only--16% in
Clutch-Brake--4% in.
STOPPING TESTS--RUBBER BOXJU3 Motor--West C W. 1002, 250 H. P, 580 R P. M. Clutch--32 in. H-60, T.imng projection
3/64 in. Brake--26 in- wheel, 270" wrap. Tension
loose end 1243 lbs.. Torque
4850 ft. lbs.
Gears--Barrel Herringbone, 580 to 89.4
B P. M.
Mills--2 Barrel 22x60, Back Roll 23.07
B. P. M.
Front BoU 18.03 B. P. M., Fric
tion Batio 1.27
Tuner--Magnetic relay,released by
opening stopping
switch,
dropped pencil
on paper
wrapped on front roll.
FI*. 1
R-ubber Section
953
(1) Both Mills Empty.
(a) Equipment allowed to dirift to standstill.
(b) Clutch disengaged, allowing mills only, to drift to standstill.
(c) Brake applied to stop mills, shafting and motor.
(d) Magnetic clutch de-energized and brake applied to stop mills
and shafting only.
'
(2) One Mill Fully Loaded.
Foregoing tests repeated.
The great difference between the travel in (c) and (d) under (1), and
between (c) and (d) under (2), is due to the fact that in (d) and in (2d)
the large kinetic energy of the motor load is disconnected from the mill
line so that' all of the energy of the brake is available for stopping the
mill line, which is ample to stop the mill line in one-quarter the time
that would be required if the brake must stop the motor also.
JLoio 'Voltage Release Protection. In addition to providing ready and
effective means for separating the high kinetic energy portion of the drive (the motor) from the low kinetic energy, portion (the mills), the mag
netic clutch-brake also provides low-voltage protection, in that when In
stalled with suitable accessories, the circuit to its exciting windings can
not be restored through the re-setting of the safety switches, and the mills
can only he re-started through the manual resetting of the breaker pro
vided for the purpose. The circuits are also so arranged that the clutch
member cannot be excited if the brake is not released.
Any failure of exciting energy applies the safety. No force is depended
upon for safety except gravity. This is true low-voltage protection. The simplicity of the magnetic clutch brake is a large asset, which
assures dependability as a safety device.
Fig. 2
954
Twelfth Safety Congress
i Installation Flexibility. The magnetic clutch brake is equally adaptable
to either "pit" or "overhead" drives. A typical installation Is shown on
Fig. 2. Accessories. In the selection, and installation of accessories, four essen
tials must be kept in the foreground.
1. The accessory and its actuating mechanism ` must respond quickly
to the impulse given by the operator. Any delay at this point adds to the hazard and reduces the value of the safety device as a whole.
2. The actuating device must be installed at such location in respect to the operator that he can reach it readily and quickly, and also so
arranged that, irrespective of the direction of travel of the operator's
impulse, upward or downward, the mechanism will trip the accessory to
apply the safety device. The actuating devices should be designed to
harmonize with the type and size of the mills.' A safety "cradle." for example, of suitable dimension or a 16" x 16" x 40" mill, would not be
an advantageous safety actuating mechanism for a 22" r 22" x 60" mill
and would have greater short-comings if applied to a 26" x 22" x 84" mill. It could not be readily reached by the operator. If the reverse
situation obtained, namely--the application of a safety cradle designed
for a 26" x 22" x 84" mill were applied to a 16" .mill, it would extend over the rolls to an objectionable degree and be a nuisance. To be of
maximum -value toward safety, the safety actuating mechanism for the
safety accessory must he designed for its respective size of* mill, so that
irrespective of the size or type of mill the device will be within easy
reach of the operator, and at the same time must not interfere with his
production operations.
3. _ The safety actuating mechanism must not only be sensitive to the
impulse of the operator, but must also be secure against disarrangement
through vibration. It must not operate and stop the mills unnecessarily.
Any safety device or part of a safety device that causes shut downs
spontaneously becomes a nuisance and operators, to avoid the. nuisance secure them rigidly with the result that when occasion arises/ requiring a- safety stop, they cannot operate the device.
4. The. electrical: accessory
(the safety switch) must he of a practicable electrical' structure,
and in addition must he of a mechanical design, that will cause it to open.-circuit quickly
in response to- a slight impulse
from the safety- actuating
mechanism. It must require
only a minimum of effort to ac
tuate it. The electrical connec tions to be arranged' so that re
closing of this switch, will not re
establish the circuit to the safety
F-Ijr. 3
device and that the circuit to
Rubber Section
955
the safety device will remain open until re-established at the breaker on the starting; panel. A conventional form of safety cradle switch is
illustrated as Fig. 3. The illustration shows the mechanism with the cover removed.
A typical installation of a "cradle switch" attached to the safety actu ating mechanism or "cradle" is pictured in Fig 4.1
THE CIHCU1T-BBEAKER
1. It provides for true low-voltage protection. In event of failure of
the exciting voltage for the clutch brake, the circuit-breaker opens the
circuit and prevents re-starting of the mills until the circuit-breaker
has been - reclosed manually, thus assuring safety against unexpected
re-starting.
--
2. In event that the safety switch on one of the mills has been tripped, the circuit-breaker prevents re-starting of the equipment due to re-closing of the safety switch, until the circuit-breaker has been re-closed manually, again assuring against spontaneous or unexpected re-starting.'
3. The circuit-breaker carries the energy for magnetizing the clutchbrake, thereby minimizing the energy capacity requirement of the safety switch, so that it may be of relatively small design without sacrificing dependability. The size of wire requirement to the safety switches is also thereby a minimum.
A typical installation of the circuit-breaker is pictured in Fig. 2. It is noteworthy that the circuit-braker is installed near the motor, and remote from the mills. This method provides against an operator hastily
956 Twelfth. Safety Congress
or thoughtlessly re-closing the circuit-breaker in event of a shut down, giving him ample time to collect his thoughts, and a realization of what be is about to do.
The circuit-breaker panel is equipped with a stop button, so that the circuit-breakers may be tripped from that point also, should occasion require.
COMBINED MOTOR A5D CLUTCH-BRAKE COA'TROI.
In a number of installations, the clutch-brake control has been com bined with the control for the motor which `drives the respective mill line. `
This combination assures a practicable correlation of the control
material and therefore provides protection to the motor, to the machinery
and to the power supply, and emphasizes the low-voltage protection
feature of the magnetic clutch-brake control described earlier in this
article.
The salient features of the combination motor and magnetic dutch-
brake control are:
' .
1. Enclosed drum type of motor starter interlocked with a low-voltageprotection, overload protection, and clutch-brake panel. . ,
2. Low-voltage-protection to motor, mills and operators.
".
3. I. T. L. over-load protection to the motor.
4. The clutch-brake circuit is interlocked with the motor starter, so
that the clutch-brake cannot. be ^energized unless the motor is running.
Tliis assures light duty starting-mad relieves the supply.lin^p of heavy
starting currents.
''
5. Push button "start" and "stop" of the mill line, for^normal stopping and starting, without stopping the motor, and without applying the brake.
6. Emergency stopping from the safety stop switches, opens the mag netic-clutch circuit, applies the brake to the mill line to stop the mills
quickly for accident prevention, opens the circuit to the motor and permits the motor to drift to rest. In event of accident all motion is therefore
cut off, and re-starting can only be accomplished through the regular
channels, namely--
.
(1)--Start the motor, through the means of the motor starter, and
(2)--Start the mills, through the push button control of the magnetic
' clutch-brake.
.
-.
A careful analysis will show that though the actual stopping time in
cases of accident may not be reduced beyond that which obtains through
the clutch-brake control -only, that, this refinement of combination con
trol introduces safety factors that may" not be directly apparent.. Any
group of reciprocal equipment carefully co-ordinated so that each portion
must function in its correct sequence will be more simple to operate,
hence a safeguard against personal injury, than groups that are not
carefully correlated.
.
The combination motor and magnetic clutch-brake method of control
is outlined in the wiring diagram illustrated as Fig. 5.
.
.
Rubber Section-
JUT.
Srmm arr/aw
957
JAmj/
'
.-
Flgr- 5
`
The switches marked "Emergency Stop Switches" at the top right hand corner represent the safety or cradle switches.
SUMMARY TO SAFETY ON MUX, DRIVES
-
1. Due to the fact that the large kinetic energy of a mill drive is in the motor, and that it is of importance to stop the mills only in event of accident, it follows `that the magnetic clutch which disconnects the motor from the mill line mechanically, and the magnetically released brake which applies by- gravity to stop the mills quickly, and without undue strain to any portion of the mill drive.
2. That the accessories to the safety device shall be of suitable design. mechanically and electrically, and the electrical connections between the accessories and the safety devices fully correlated.
3. That actuating devices for the safety switch be of suitable design for the mill, and be installed in such manner as to be readily accessible to'the impulse of the operator, and quickly responsive to the impulse.
4. That mills be designed as far as practicable to reduce possibility
of hazard to a minimum.
.
CALENDER DRIVES
The problem of protection against serious accidents on the rubber cal ender is of equal Import to the problem of other rubber mill drives and
958 Twelfth. Safety Cotigress
any differential tbst may obtain in the selection of safety means is largely due to the nature of ite drive rather than to the type of machine.
The following points apply;
(1)--Design the calender to eliminate possible hazard as far as prac ticable.
(2)--Education of operators, particularly against becoming careless as they work with their fingers very, close to the bank.
(3)--Safety switches with suitably designed actuating mechanism and with the actuating mechanism accessibly located. Safety rods both at the bank side and at the back side and also vertical trip cords on each side, connected with horizontal trip cords.
(4)--The type of motor drive.
(5)--A reliable, quick stopping safety device on the drive.
(6)--Convenient means of roll adjustment.
.
Safety Switches. The safety switches on the safety rods may be of the
same type as the safety switch described for the cradles on mixing mm*,
or they may be of a latched in type. The safety switch for the vertical
and horizontal cord should preferably be of the latched iu type. The
same switches may be used for both the safety rod and for safety cords,
though for mechanical simplicity separate switches' have a decided
advantage.
''
The selection of suitable safety switches, of location of safety rods and safety cords is of utmost importance. The operator must keep his mind on production and depend on these devices to protect him, and the ar rangement must therefore be such that he can reach them and trip them quickly with no mental effort and little physical. They must be accessible, quickly responsive and dependable.
Calender Motor Drives. Calenders as a rule are individual motor drives, and are generally driven by direct current variable speed motors for production economy reasons.
A.. O. Constant Sveecl Drive. If a calender were driven by a constant speed motor the best recommendation for a safety stop device would be a magnetic-clutch brake as on mixing drives.
It Is true that the proportion of motor kinetic energy to mill kinetic
Is lower than on mixing drives, as the motor would be ou a basis of
single mill capacity, and that a brake only could be us'ed to stop the
motor and the calender, but it must not be overlooked that all of the
kinetic energy of the rotor must be absorbed by the brake, and tbrougb
the keys and keyways in the rotor and shaft.
In the isolated instance of a calender always on slow speed work, say at 15 yards per minute, the safety engineer at his discretion could con sider the use of a brake only for stopping both the motor and the calender. We, however, could not unqualifiedly recommend a brake only as a safety device on an A. C- Motor driven calender, or in fact on any A. C. motor driven rubber mill machine.
Rubber Section
959
Direct Current Motor Calender Drive. 'On a calender drive we have
as a rule a condition of one motor and one mill. The size of the motor
i3 proportioned to the one- mill. We have as a rule some load in the mill
acting as a brake. This load may be a relatively light load, or It may
be equal to the full rated load of the motor. Nevertheless, under working
conditions some friction load obtains. This friction load will be a positive
factor toward a quick stop in emergency.
As a rule we have a variable speed direct current motor .which, when operating with a full field, or only slightly weakened field, is- operating at a relatively slow speed, so that the energy of the revolving rotor varying with MV5 Is relatively low. With this same motor operating at higher speeds, we, on stopping the motor, can utilize the dynamic braking effect of building the field up quickly, which is another positive factor to aid in obtaining a quick stop in emergency.
The kinetic energy of angular rotation of the motor is in the armature of the motor centered at a point fairly close to the motor fields. It is therefore practicable to absorb this kinetic energy of the armature by
dynamic braking with no mechanical strains on the motor shaft, keyways, keys or armature spiders. The armature Is practically gripped as it were, at the central point of its kinetic energy and brought to rest, the mechan ical energy being, converted to electrical energy and transmitted through the commutator and brushes and dissipated in the form of heat in the resister. A direct current motor can be brought to rest quickly by dynamic braking without severe mechanical strain on its structure, and in the instance of a calender the quickness of this stop Is limited largely by the mechanical strain imposed on the calender. The calender is a rela tively low kinetic energy machine; it as a rule has some friction load upon it, hut it must be stopped through shafting, keys, and gears, and as a rule the quickness at which a calender will withstand stopping is the adjusting limit of the dynamic stop.
On a motor drive a mechanical brake absorbs the kinetic energy of the rotor or armature through the .mechanical structure of the rotor or armature, keyways, keys and shafting, whereas with the dynamic brake, the kinetic Is converted to electrical energy directly at its source, and conducted smoothly to a point remote from the motor for dissipation. The foregoing being true, together with the known performance of a direct current motor with a rapid increase of excitation in Its field, and together with a machine that has some friction load. It Is evident that dynamic braking can be applied satisfactorily as a safety medium on a rubber calender.
.
In that the quickest practicable stop is preferred, and in that the quickness of this stop is limited largely by the mechanics of the calender, it is recommended that the dynamic brake apply only as an emergency brake; in other words that the control he arranged for emergency dynamic braking. This means then, for normal stopping from the control push button or speed regulating lever, that the calender be permitted to coast to rest (though a service dynamic could be used if preferred) and to have
960
Twelfth Safety Congress
the emergency stop only obtain on the tripping of a safety switch. This arrangement provides for a quick stop, as brutal as the calender will stand, for emergency stop, and an easy stop for normal operation.
Empty Calender Hazard. It has been noted frequently that operators
in cleaning calender rolls prior to a change in color for the succeeding
run, do so with the rolls separated from
inch to 2 inches. This is
probably due to the laborious work involved with the hand operated
roll adjustment. This constitutes a danger hazard. If the rolls were
close, the danger would not be great, but the opening as a rule is suffi
cient to invite an accident. If this were wide, say six inches, or more,
the hazard would be eliminated. With a good motor operated roll adjuster
it would appear to us that the hazard would be minimized, as the
operator would have no inclination to neglect to separate the rolls a safe
distance.
.
MISCELLANEOUS MACHINES------TIIE TOGGLE PRESS
The toggle press in question is a continuous running machine mailing a definite number of cycles per hour. A definite length of time is allowed for removing the finished article from the mold and inserting new material before the p. .en of the press again starts in the upward direction to complete its cycle. It is evident that if the'operator is not quick enough in removing the finished article and inserting the raw material for the
FIs. 6
Rubber Section
961
next one before tbe platen begins to move upward, he Is in very great
danger of suffering personal injury by being caught between the platen
and the upper head of the .press. .: .
..
To eliminate that hazard, a magnetic clutch--is mounted on the driving shaft,- which also carries a heavy -fly-wheel. One-half of the clutch carries a pinion which drives the press proper, and is bushed on the main driving shaft, to which is keyed the other member of the clutch. By this arrangement, it Is unnecessary to stop the motor and fly-wheel to stop the press. All that Is necessary is to simply disengage the clutch, whereupon the platen comes to rest almost instantly.
To make the operation of the press absolutely safe, a limit switch of the rotating cam type is directly connected to the driven member of the press. For each cycle of the press, a complete cycle of the limit switch must also take place. On the front of the press, two push buttons are mounted in such a manner that the operator must use one band to operate each one. The wiring is arranged so that both buttons must be pushed at the same time to engage the clutch. The operator's hands are, there fore, necessarily out of the danger zone.
After the buttons have been depressed, and the clutch engaged, the limit switch maintains the circuit to the clutch and the platen completes its upward str'oke.
As soon as it starts on the downward stroke, the operator removes the
finished part and inserts the raw material for the next. If he has finished
the work before the platen again begins to move upward, he simply holds
the push button depressed for an instant until the limit switch has had
time to again maintain the clutch circuit. Should he, for some reason,
fail to complete that work before the platen has begun its upward stroke,
the limit switch automatically dis-engages the clutch and stops the opera
tion of the press since the danger of having his hands caught is eliminated,
and he can concentrate his efforts on production.
With the old scheme, which employed a manually operated clutch, the
production of the press was limited by a speed which provided a time
safety for the operator. By using the magnetic clutch, and automatic
quick stop is obtained, the time safety factor is unnecessary and the speed
of the press can be increased. Production is limited only by the speed
of the operator. If he completes his work of filling the mould before the
limit switch stops the platen, he simply depresses the push buttons and
the press continues on its next cycle. Should he fail to keep - up with
the press it will automatically stop at the proper point before there is
any danger that he will be caught. Should the power fall, the platen-
will automatically stop and remain stationary until started again by
pushing the two buttons. The magnetic clutch affords absolute safety
to the operator:
'
, CONCLUSION'S
1. That personal hazards are present in the rubber industry to as large
an extent as in the average producing plant or possibly to a greater
degree.
962
Tmvtflih
rr*m
2- That to thoroughly PMMhkt t3r QdMMBi ranii rnnAvmf-imttm. the safety
engineer itw asaary praMaim 1* of*L.
3. That a
of >m> <b m uirtiawnnaf and *ecirtaU
conditions aurtom>dtr*g must l aai*. 13m eheraitariittigt C efo type
of motor mast be ctMUed. a4 Wbsrii tt fciajtJi iwurgy C tkc motor
is large, and cannot be
<1 lOy. *tti wsAiantfC subjecting the
mechanical parts of the motor to oietpqtoe oCPidao ft is hoot to provide
means to eliminate it tram the tcridas jrnnMrm
4. "WTiere thfe characteristic* of the motor are wet that the motor
can be nsed as a braking mediom wttbout deptottat <a ostside forces
such as line energy, ft shooId be made tme ot Where outside forces (line
energy) would be required to effect a quick stop, it is not safe to depend
upon It. as the large demand at that moment fat liable to cause a failure
of the line supply, and. the safety stop would fail.
*
5. That every safety device must operate on voltage failure, and none
be contingent on line voltage supply for safety.
.
6. That low-voltage-protectlon be Inherent in every control equipment.
7. That every safety actuating device be within easy reach of the
operator. That safety devices be reliable, and that they be so arranged
that they will not interfere with production through spontaneous operation.
47 DISCUSSION
.
Mr. Joseph W. Thropp (Secretary-Treasurer, Wm. R. Thropp Sons' Com
pany, Trenton, N. J.): I believe that every state in the Union should pass
a law not allowing any new machinery to be operated without first being
passed upon by the Labor Department Inspectors, as to the question of
safety appliances. I also believe that the state labor departments should
not allow manufacturers to ship machines into their state unless they are
fully equipped.
'
Furthermore, insurance companies should arrange their ratings so the
manufacturers, not properly equipped with safety appliances, would be penalized seriously. The insurance companies should test apparatus
frequently, to sfee whether it is properly maintained. In one of the latest
Industrial compensation rating schedules under rubber mills, they specify
the stop of rubber mills to be instantenous. To me this means nothing,
as it is impossible to stop any piece of machinery Instantly.
The first point that I will take up, is the question of Safety Stops on
rubber mills and calenders, at the point of operation which is the most serious of all. In all ow designing we design with the following in mind:
when both hands are caught between the rolls, some portion of the
operator's body must operate a bar. 1ever, or rope to stop within a limited distance of the surface travel -of the rolls.
tociTiox or sum xarr, bass aacn tarns fob stawa
Safety trip bars should be provided front and back of all rubber mills to operate up and down, and should be the fall length of the rolls. The levers to be constructed so that you can regulate the front bar higher than the back, or the back bar higher than the front, to suit the daas of work
jflfciiifllSfeMto
963
and also the height at **. <m>wineWme. -mmnaaat aaadlftM otF <*e sodaCy trip tear
over the front roC steft he * 4* ** ffih SS WWh dfce m* et tW front
roll, and when in Jc* *iW flWirtlIt! Mfl
tWiW the Mp of the
front roU with the priVftjah -MB--tr *MF eWthi'tWli-im WBUJEUT
or Awn, of
bar in normal the rolls.
?!|hPiihdfleiiag'be 'Wo -Mhod -gftfl 8b the wwr between
* 4_sr rffir
s'
This is the bar form of trip release. Slight pressure by the operator with his head trill release the clutch, stopping the rollers vrithim a short traveling distance.
Safety trip bars shall be provided at front and bade of all rubber calenders to operate In a horizontal plane by a posh or a pall, and shall be carried the fail length of the rolls. The safety bar on the bade or feed side shall operate just above the guide and not over 73 in. above the floor which the operator works on. On the opposite aide at the calender, the threading side, the bar should be the same height a the center between the top and center roll, and not to exceed 73 fit. above the floor. Both sides, the back side and the threading side, ibosht be provided with cables con nected to the safety mechanism and shall be sot tea* than on* is. froth the side of the frame at a distance of not more than 13 in. front the face of the roll, and to run within 6 in. of the floor.
964 Twelfth Safety Congress
In my opinion, gravity applied brakes are the best for all classes of safety first. For instance, we will take the railroad signals which have been changed in the recent years to gravity application so if in any case the mechanism should fail the signal is at once thrown on.
SAFETY STOPS
.
For individual motor driven mills and group driven mills with motors
up to 200 H. P-, and A. C. current calenders, we use our mechanical and electrical patented safety stop which operates as follows:
The overhead levers and bar controls operate a small switch which is in
series with the undervoltage release on the motor, and we have it so.tim<|d,
that after the circuit has been opened a separate rod or cable control
trips and drops a lever with weights on--that applies a brake for stopping'
the momentum.
'
In addition to this, we have a small switch that is connected to the lever
on the hand reset brake, that applies the weight. This switch is in series
with the undervoltage release, so when the brake is set it is impossible
to start the motor.
.-
For large mill lines, group drives and engine drives, we have a patented
differential electric clutch brake, of a heavy low speed type. The principal
of this clutch brake is as follows: A steel bull gear is keyed to a drive
GAREE reeea.se
This is a hand, cable release. The cable may be reached easily by the operator.
Rubber Section
965
shaft, and a heavy case revolves around the drive shaft with a gear in.
the center, and a series of specially treated steel pinion's around the
periphery of this gear. Inside the heavy case the gears are running In oil.
The case on one side is equipped with a set of brass collector rings, feed ing the current through two brushes--through the collector rings, to
each magnet and the magnets are wired in parallel, so in case one magnet
goes out, the others will still be operating. At the opposite end of the case
is a flange coupling that bolts against a half coupling on the driven shaft.
I believe the best place to put the clutch brake is always at the low
speed shaft. .
_
Individual motor driven rubber mills up to and including 16 in. diameter
rolls, we equip with our mechanical 'and electrical safety stop, which has
been described, and will stop these in not more than six in. of the periph
ery of the front roll. The mills with rolls of 18 in. diameter will stop in a distance of 9 in.;
and the rolls of 20 and 22 diameter will stop in 12 in. Sixteen in. diameter rolls will stop in nine in.;. 18 in. diameter rolls
will stop in 13% In., and the 20 and 22 in. diameter rolls will stop in 18
inches.
For stopping limits for individual motor driven calenders, with A. C.
current calenders we use either a reset brake or electric solenoid brake
and at 30 ft. per minute'we stop in two in.; 60 ft. per minute In five in.;
60 to 120 ft. per minute In 15 in. On Direct Current Motor Driven Calenders; 30 ft. per minute will stop
in two in.; 30 to 60 ft. per minute in six in.; 60 to 120 ft. per minute in
18 in.
One of the most important guarding features Is the question of guarding
the roll neck gears, and in this case I still consider efficiency with safety,
by putting an oil pan under the gears and a tight guard over them, with
two thimbles with fly nuts over stuffing boxes, which can be easily re
moved and entirely guards the stuffing boxes, and gears so you can run
them in oil. Owing to the space between the machines it is very necessary
that the gears and stuffing boxes be properly guarded.
Furthermore, in reference to gear guarding, I would recommend using perforated metal not less than 18 gauge for this class of work, and excep
tionally well braced guards. .
. PLUGGING CONTROLLERS
Mr. C. W. Drake (General Engineer, Westinghouse Electric & Mfg. Co., East Pittsburgh, Pa.): I concur with what Mr. Date and the other gentle men have said regarding the characteristics of the motors, that is, the greater part of the flywheel effect is in the motor and it certainly is desirable, if possible, to disconnect the motor and brake the rest of it.
I believe Mr. Davidson mentioned that in the smaller sizes, it is entirely satisfactory to use magnetic brakes. That has been our practice. In the larger sizes, since we do not make clutch brakes, .we have been experimenting with plugging controllers. I know you have various views on this subject.. With 400 or 500 h.p., direct to the mill line, you don't
966
Twelfth Safety Congress
need a clutch, for braking. Mr. Date indicated that you have to start the motor first'. If the motor will start the load, it saves wear on the clutch.
With the plugging control it is possible to eliminate the clutch. Then, in case of emergency, plug the motor to a stop. This, we must acknowl edge, requires a line voltage. Some people imagine it requires a large
amount to start a motor. You can't carry peak - loads when braking
down; the current at no time exceeds 100 per cent over the load when plugging. The motor must be running at full speed to have an accident. The chance of the power going off in half a second is so remote that any insurance company is willing to take such a chance'.
By this method of plugging control, it has been found possible to stop the mills in the same time as with the clutch and much quicker than with a clutch that is not in. good condition. Our own brakes require a certain maintenance. Any clutch has to have maintenance or you don't get the same degree of stopping. Electric braking is always the same.
Consequently, we have been experimenting and conducting tests. Cus tomers who have this system installed have spoken very highly of it, and the uniformity and safety which have resulted.
Mr. Congdon: New Jersey differs from the other states in that we do not wait to be shown; we go at it ourselves. As an example, Mr. Leveridge of the State Department some time ago made a tentative regu lation regarding the stopping of .mills and calenders.
When Mr. Leveridge brought up these points, we immediately began to get busy and do some work on these facts. There are quite a few points to consider. One is the individually driven mill and the other Is the group driven mill and the individual calender and the group. The time of the long unit driven by an engine is past and we have now got to the motor driven units, with the higher sizes and speeds.
The first point to consider is the method of obtaining this stopping distance. There are two means which may be used: one is the mechan ical and the other, electrical, for measuring this distance. We have made a good many with the pencil which is- operated through the solenoid and the electric switch on the mill, acting simultaneously with the tripping of the clutch brake. We can obtain almost any quick stop desired. The controlling factor particularly in mills seems to be the shock on the equipment and the bearings on the shafting.
The conditions are different when the mill is empty. With the mills
empty and the clutch brake ou, the whole effect of stopping comes on the
bands. With the mills filled with stock, there is more or less of a
cushion effect along the lengths of line which makes the stop quicker
and easier on the equipment.
'
On the calenders, as most calenders are D. CL, we run the motors at various speeds, possibly from 10 yards a minute to 40 yards. From, our tests, the distance stopped seems to follow the formula. In other words, plotting a curve of stops of different speeds, (so that the theoretical is very close to the practical), the distance obtained on the individual motor
Rubber Section
967
driven mills of small size and slow speed, we can come down to a very quick stop without much trouble, but it seems as though the particular point of most interest Is the long distance travel on the higher speeds and larger sizes.
SZir JEBSEY BGOULAIIOWS
Mr. Leveridge (Chief. Bureau of Electrical and Electrical Equipment, Department of Labor of the State of New Jersey): I am more or less responsible for some of the activities in connection with the standard ization of safety devices in the rubber industry. What Mr. Thropp and the representative of the Farrell Company has said,, testifies to the effec tiveness of some of the rules which we have already placed in effect in New Jersey. When we arbitrarily set the stopping distance at six inches as stated, we ran up against a number of difficulties in connection with some of the forms of drives which clearly indicated it wouldn't be pos sible to accomplish that result. However, after cleaning up* quite a number of the mills in that territory in what could be considered a satis factory manner, I thought it would be desirable to get the opinions and the help of those who are directly associated with the manufacturer of the machines and those directly concerned with the use of them.
I asked Mr. Congdon if he would act as chairman of the committee to undertake the preparation of what might be termed standards and what we hoped to obtain in New Jersey, which he has done very graciously. On that committee, we have the principal manufacturers in Jersey, the Farrell, the Thropp and one or two other manufacturers who have al ready as stated here, produced equipment in accordance with the sug gestions that we previously made, and are getting good .results. But there is a point that has come up that is mighty difficult to handle, that is, the actual stopping distance for the various types of drives. In this tentative draft of the code which I will r.ead, we have attempted to set 'certain limits for the various forms of drives. .1 am not altogether satis , fled that these limits are not too wide. I am going to ask if it will be possible for the Engineering Section or the Rubber Section, whichever it is that takes the action, to conduct tests to assist us in this matter. We all know the American Engineering Standards Committee are preparing codes for universal adoption in all of the states. That brings up the point Mr. Thropp made in his discussion that it would be a fine thing for each stop to be standardized.
That is the purpose of this code. We can hand it to our inspectors so that they will know it complies with the regulations. Xt will also act as a guide to the producer of the equipment. He will know, through this means, that he cannot ship sub-standard apparatus In that territory.
The root of the trouble is the producer of the machinery. If he doesn't turn out standard equipment that is safe, the supervising authority has a great deal of difficulty in bringing that result about.
968
Twelfth Safety Congress
NEW JTEBSEY SAFETY CODE
The code, as tentatively shaped, reads as follows:
_
SECTION 10.--GENERAL
100. Scope--These requirements apply to all machines used in the rubber industry having- in-running rolls, whether of the mill or calender type.
101. Purpose--The purpose of this code is to provide reasonable safety for life, limb and health. In cases of practical difficulty or unnecessary hardship, the enforcing officers or body (here may be inserted the name of the enforcing
officer or body in substitution for the previous four words) may grant excep tions from the literal requirements of this code. The enforcing officers or body may also permit the use.of other devices or methods, but only when it is clearly
evident that equivalent protection is thereby secured.
102. Other Codes--For other rules applying to rubber working plants, which
include power transmission hazards, lighting, walkway surfaces, boiler inspec
tion, electric power control, see codes relating to these hazards published or to be published by the American Engineering Standards Committee, 29 W. 39th
St_. New York City, or the supervising authority having jurisdiction.
'
103. The word "shall" is to be understood as mandatory and the word
"should" as advisory.
''
104. The word "approved" means approved by the authority having juris
diction.
-
105. Nets Installations--On ahd after (Date) all new installations shall be
in full conformity with the intent of this code.
.
106. Existing Installations--All existing installations within a period of two years from (Date) shall be made to conform to these rules as nearly as prac ticable.
SECTION 11.--LOCATION AND STANDARD HEIGHTS OF MACHINE..
110. Work Sttace and Aisles--Mills and calenders shall be so located as to
give (a) enough clearance between machines so (bat the movement of one oper ator will not Interfere with the work of another; (b) ample room for cleaning
machines and handling the work, including material and scrap; (c) aisles of sufficient width to permit the free movement of employees bringing and removing
material.
'
111. Mill Roll Height-----All mills should be installed so that the top of the front roll is at least 46 inches above the floor upon which operator stands irre
spective of the size of the mill.
SECTION 12.--LOCATION OF SAFETY TRIP BARS AND CABLE CONTROLS (Mills and Calenders)
120. Rubber Mills--Safety Trip Bars--Safety trip bars shall be provided front and back of all rubber mills to operate either up or down and shall be carried the full length of the rolls.
.(a) The normal location of the safety trip bar over the front roll shall be
2 in. to 4 in. in from the edge of -the front roll and when in its normal position
shall be 21 in. from the top of the front roll, with provision made for adjustment
either up or down of 3 in. in each direction.
'
(b) The normal location "of the safety trip bar over the back roll shall be in the same horizontal plane as the safety trip bar over the front roll and the length of the lever from the fulcrum shall be the same; the fulcrum shall be
located over the bite of the rolls when the rolls are together.
(c) The fixed rod sometimes used for construction purposes running the
length of the roll shall be omitted.
.
121. Rubber Calenders--Safety Trip Bars and Cables--Safety trip bars shall be provided front and back of all rubber calenders to operate in a horizontal plane by a push and a pull, and shall be carried the full length of the rolls.
Each safety trip bar shall have two safety trip cables, one at each end of the
bar. and carried to within 6 In. of the floor. Safety trip cables shall be con nected with the trip bar mechanism.
(a) Safety trip bars on each calender shall be at a height not in excess of
72 in- above the floor on which the operator stands and shall be in a line with
the outside of the calender frame.
.
(b) Safety trip cables shall be placed on each side of the calender, one near
each end of the rolls, each cable connected to the trip bar mechanism, and shall be positioned at a distance of not more than 12 in. from the face of the roll and at a distance of not less than 1 in. from calender frame. These cables shall be
carried to within 6 In. of the floor and effectively secured to the frame of the calender.
Rubber Section
969
SECTION 13.--QUICK STOPPING OP MILLS AND CALENDERS.
(Braking- Facilities.)
130. Stopping Limits--Individually Driven Rubber Mills. Every mill ui> to
and including 16 in. diameter rolls, running empty at any speed, shall be stopped
within a distance of not more than 9 in. measured on the periphery of the front
roll simultaneously with the operation of the trip.
'
Every mill having more than 16 in. diameter rolls, up to and including mills having 24 in. diameter rolls, running empty at any speed, shall be stopped within a" distance of not more than 12 in. measured on the periphery of the front roll simultaneously with the operation of the trip.
.131. Stopping Limits--Group driven mills. Group driven mills up to and in cluding 16 in. diameter rolls, running empty at any spded, shall be stopped within a distance of not more than 12 in. measured on the periphery of the front roll simultaneously with the operation of the trip.
Group driven mills having more than 16 in. diameter rolls, up to and including mills having 24 in. diameter rolls, running empty at any speed, shall be stopped within a distance of not more than 18 in. measured on the periphery of the front roll simultaneously with, the operation of the trip.
132. Stopping Limits--Individually or group driven calendars. Every caleri-
dar of any size of rolls when running empty shall be stopped within the follow
ing limits with the distances measured on the periphery of the drive roil
simultaneously with the operation of the trip:
(a) Calenders, the drive roll of which travels at not. more than 30_ft. per minute, shall be stopped within a distance of not more than three In. t
(b) Calenders, the drive roll of which travels over 30 ft. and not more than 60 ft. per minute, shall be stopped withina distance of not more than-six in.
(c) Calenders, the drive roll of which travels over 60 ft. and not more than 120 ft.per minute, shall be stopped within a distance of not more than 24 In.
SECTION 14.-----ISOLATION OF "POINT OF OPERATION" HAZARD. (Bite.)
140. Housed-in Bite--(Mills or Calenders.) When the bite of the rolls on
mills or calenders is fully housed in so that operator cannot reach through, over,
under or around and come in contact with bite, as in special processes, such as
trough-fed mills with trough screened against entry of a human body member,
then the following rules apply:
'
(a) Clutches, cut-oil couplings, clutch pulleys, tight and loose pulleys, or
equivalent means shall be provided for every mill or calender on or Immediately
adjacent to such machine.
(b) Fully* enclosed automatic mlxinj? machines shall he provided with an Interlocking'mechanism between the cover through which the material is fed and the stopping*and starting mechanism, so arranged that when the cover is open
the machine cannot be started and so that when the machine Is running the cover cannot be opened.
REPORT OF ENGINEERING COMMITTEE
C. B. Mitcheixa, Chairman
The accompanying treatises on Safeguards for Vulcanizers, Mills and
Calenders, if approved, are to be the beginning of what will expand
eventually into a complete volume on Safeguards for Rubber .Manufactur
ing Equipzrent.
.
The original thought and request of the executive committee was to
establish a standardization of safeguards for each class of equipment. Upon starting preliminary studies, it soon became apparent that an under standing must be had on the word "standardization," i. e., whether we
should agree to standardize the construction of safeguards, or standardize
on generalities and results to be strived for.
.
.
Requests were made of various rubber and machinery manufacturers for
opinions and it was unanimously urged that no attempt should be made to
recommend a definite type of construction and fittings, nor dimensions con trolling location of various parts, for this would make it difficult to in troduce improvements over an adopted type, and, a3 one. engineer ex-
970
-
Txeelfth Safety Congress
pressed himself, "no one would care to give the subject of improvement much thought if he felt he would have to sell his idea to State Officials and forty-seven Safety Directors.'*
Therefore, rather than stifle the proper incentive to develop something better, procedure has been along the line of making explicit and definite the results to be attained, with numerous suggestions for installation and operation, which ought to allow the user and manufacturer sufficient latitude to meet requirements.
To atone somewhat for omitting recommendation of dimensioned devices
and maximum and minimum requirements, reference has been made to
another published article which describes in detail some of the prevailing
Safeguards.
.
-
Attention is also drawn to the suggestions for operation of equipment,
educating workmen to know their job, provisions for eliminating hazards
surrounding the equipment, and protecting health, all of which have a dis
tinct bearing on safety of workmen, and make the discussion of each type
of eqxxipment complete in itself.
PART I--VULCANIZERS
The vulcanizer, or heater as it is commonly known, is a vessel contain ing steam under pressure and is used for vulcanizing or curing rubber. The vulcanizers discussed under this heading are those having cylindrical bodies or shells of boiler plate with one end open and cast flanged rings to' support the door.
Perhaps the majority of vulcanizers are those of the horizontal type with hinged door, although vertical tire press vulcanizers, in ^hich there is combined steam and hydraulic pressure, are becoming numerous. Pot
heaters, three or four feet high, are also in use. These types of vulcan izers are almost entirely used with steam within the cylinder shell in direct contact with the rubber being cured.
However, there are a few dry heat vulcanizers in which there is a
cylindrical shell within another shell, the space between the two being
filled with steam which heats the air within the inner cylinder where the
rubber goods are placed.
'
The various hazards around vulcanizers may be listed as follows: (1) scalds by liot water or steam; (2) burns by hot metal parts; (3) bruises and lacerations by handling dooi's and materials in vulcanizers; (4) doors blown open by internal pressure because of improper, inadequate and de fective door fastenings; .(5) rupture and explosions of vulcanizers (the most serious of all.)
DESIGN AND SPECIFICATIONS .
1. Steel plate shell, head and flange plates should be of Open-Hearth flange steel or Open-Hearth fire box steel, having an ultimate tensile strength of from 55,000 to 65.000 - pounds per square inch. Open-Hearth flange steel predominates in heaters now in use. Open-Hearth fire box steel is not essential, and is mentioned here as a suitable substitute.
Rubber Section
971
2. Rivets should be of boiler rivet steel with an ultimate tensile strength of from 45,000 to 55,000 pounds per. square inch.
3. Flange door rings should be of cast steel, meeting the specifications
of the A. S. M. E. Boiler Code for Class "B" Steel. Castings soft grade.
.4 Cast Iron should not he used in the door rings or any other part
under tension.
5. Longitudinal seams should be of butt-strap type.
6. In designing vulcanizers where -cold water flushing will be done
in hot vulcanizers, ample allowance should be made for the sudden con
traction stresses and consequent crystallization of the metals. It is usual
to allow at least 1/16 in. extra thickness of steel plate in cylinder to
allow for corrosion.
_
7. ' Vulcanizers should have no less a factor of safety than five.
8. Bolted doors ought not be specified. There are several good types of "quick-opening" doors which carry the load equally distributed over the entire circumference. Preference should be given a type of door whose fastening or locking arrangement is in full sight of operators. On ahinged door, it is well to provide a handle for pulling door open, and means for supporting the open door so that undue twisting stresses will, not be placed upon the vulcanizer shell. Oftentimes a roller or wheel can be placed under door, rolling on track on the floor.
9. In designing a vessel, consideration should be given to the manner
"In which the Vessel can be delivered to its destination and installed,
whether in a completed or knockdown state, considering what doorways,
areaways and elevators It may be p.ossible to use. Where it is necessary
to deliver a vessel in a knock-down state, drawings should show such
construction, so that the vessel will be made in a manner for knock-down
delivery. The same should apply to heater cars, which may be used
in a vessel.
-
MAITHOr.E DATA
10. The following manhole data is submitted for consideration of those
who may design a vulcanizer:
.
Vessels 24 in. in diameter and 15 ft. or longer in length having a door or suitable manhole at the back end of the vessel.
Vessels 30 in. in diameter and 20 ft. or longer in length having a manhole in the back head.
Vessels 36 in. in diameter and 25 ft. or longer in length having a manhole in the back head.
All manholes shall conform to A. S. M. E. Boiler Code and shall be
approximately 11 In. by 15 in. In size, or the equivalent of same. The
purpose of this opening at rear of vessel is to make it more accessible for
Inspection, cleaning and repairs.
11. In general, materials, riveted joints, valves, pipe connections, thicknesses, methods, etc., should follow the Boiler Code specifications.
972 Twelfth Safety Congress
12. For vulcanizers of small sizes ' and special uses, sucli as for ex perimental work: in laboratories, it may be necessary to depart some what from the usual specifications. Then the designs should give special consideration to safety and to the uses for which intended.
13. Design all parts so that inspection can be easily made during
operation of heater.
'
14. A large fan suction exhaust controlled by a gate valve at the rear top of horizontal vulcanizer will exhaust fumes and heat. This is especially effective after the door' is opened and there is an inrush of air Into the front of heater carrying fumes and heat away from workmen.
FITTINGS 1
1. A safety pop valve is the most important fitting to insure safety and every vulcanizer should be provided with one of ample size to relieve excess pressure quickly. Consult manufacturer to determine capacity.
2. A reducing valve is necessary to reduce the steam pressure to that required in the vulcanizer.
3. A steam gage and thermometer of first class quality are necessary for the operators to check the steam pressure being maintained.
4. A steam trap for removing condensed steam from the vulcanizer must be one which will not become inoperative by soap-stone or sediment which may flow from the bottom of the vulcanizer.
5. The blow off valve should be preferably globe type. 6. On a horizontal vulcanizer, a bleeder valve should be provided near front for draining condensate or cooling water from heater so that when door is opened workmen will not be scalded. . 7. Provide a pressure relief valve- to insure a complete exhaust of internal pressure before door is opened. This preferably would be so
arranged that the door would be locked and could not be opened while there is the least pressure in the vessel, or so that a slight movement in unlocking a "quick-opening" door would fully open relief valve and en tirely relieve pressure before door could be completely unlocked.
8. Provide the very best globe and gate valves, which will be least affected by wear of disc and seat.
CONSTRUCTION
1. Drifting of rivet holes for alignment should not be done.
.
2. Rivets should he driven under hydraulic pressure and allowed to -
cool while under pressure.
3. After machining, the lugs on door and ring should be given five
medium hard blows with sc one pound machinist's hammer, using the pole
end of hammer and gripping handle at about 15 in. away from hammer
head. Blows should not be struck at the same spot, but should be taken
at different points, the full length of lug. Door and ring should then, be
checked over to see that the lugs are not sprung.
4. Sheet steel beads should be formed to a radius not greater than the
diameter of the cylinder with concave side to the pressure, ana the corner
radius of the flanges designed to the A. S. M. E. Boiler Code requirements.
Rubber Section
973
5. Openings--All screwed flanges should be of forged steel. Where a
nozzle is required instead of a screwed flange, such nozzle should be either
cast steel or forged steel.
^
6. For vessels of the double-jacketed type, these rules should apply to the general construction. Staybolts should be in size and spacing as specified by the A. S. M. 1. regulations.
7. The entire collapsing load in the inner shell of vessels over 40 in. in diameter should be supported by staybolts. Thickness of shells and heads should not be less than % in. With this construction, lap joints
and single riveted seams should be adequate for inner shell but single butt riveted seams are best in outer shell in staybolted section.
8. The minimum steam space between the shells and heads should be
3 in. Handholes, perhaps four, should be placed around the circumference of the outside rear head in line with the 3 in. steam space between shells for inspection of the rear inside head; also handholes on top and bottom of shell, near each end, for flushing and cleaning of jackets.
9. When the size of an opening in shell is greater than 6 in. in dia meter, a flanged nozzle connection riveted securely to the shell should be used.
10. Whenever a screwed pipe connection iB used, full length of threads should be used to secure the pipe.
11. When the thickness of the plate in the shell is such as to give the required length of thread for the size of pipe used, the pipe may be screwed in so that the end will come flush with the inside of the shell, , but in no case should the end of pipe extend through and beyond the inside of the shell.
12. Butt-straps should be caulked. Caulking inside straps will assist to prevent corrosion between shell and strap.
13. Welding should not be done where the strength of the structure is dependent upon the weld, nor where the load to which the structure Is subjected is not carried by other construction, -nor in any part of a vulcanizer wholly in tension while under working conditions. Welding of cracks or seams either by the autogenous process or the electric arc in the shell or - tension parts may be done for' the purpose of securing tightness if the stresses on the parts are fully cared for by properly riveted steps or plates.
14. Progress of the work ought to be followed in shop by a qualified in spector with authority to reject defective materials and workmanship.
15. The completed vulcanizezr should be given a final test with a
hydrostatic pressure 50 per cent greater than the working pressure to be
carried in operation.
'
16. Stamp or stencil the allowable internal pressure in a place where it
ran always be observed during operation; also date of manufacture and
maker.
'
974
Twelfth Safety Congress
INSTALLATION
1. Handle and move vulcanizer careully and do not cause unnecessary
stresses on joints.
,,
2. If heater is installed on an upper floor be positive that floor con
struction is strong enough to carry full load, especially the load incurred
by making a hydrostatic test.
3. Horizontal heaters should set on saddles having rollers to allow
freedom for linear expansion and construction. The one saddle under
front of heater may be rigidly fastened to heater. A saddle under each
car track support should he provided so that the heater shell does not bear
the load of the car between saddles.
4. Install horizontal heaters on a slope of about 1 in. in 30 ft., to drain
toward front where steam trap and bleeder valve should be located. There
should be thorough drainage, leaving no pockets for corrosion. Heaters
over 25 ft. long should have two drains, one near front and the other at
middle of length.
5. Vessels should be set high enough above the floor to permit the piping, traps, etc., to the vessel to. be on the same floor as the vessel
instead of underneath the floor.
6. Safety pop valve, steam gage and thermometer are preferably
located near or at top of heater at front. The two latter must be within clear vision of operator. Place reducing valve between safety valve and steam supply connection to main; Safety pop valve should be as large in
area as the steam feed line to the heater, and guarded to prevent un authorized altering for greater pressure.
7. No fitting should be placed so near the front of heater that operation
of door may cause damage to It.
8. The blow-off valve should be located in bottom of heater. Where a
group of heaters are connected to one blow-off main It may be best to place a check .valve between blow-off valve and main with the check in a vertical position. This will prevent blow-off from any other heater en tering the heater which is open, exception may be made in location of blow-off valve in heaters where water cures are used, in which case, valve
may be above water line. -
9. Provide a tell-tale valve or cock to be opened before door is opened to insure there being no pressure in the heater.
10. Tell-tale, safety pop and relief valves should not be located to blow
on workmen.
'
11. A connection should be provided near steam gage for attaching inspector's test gage.
12. Provide means for opening and closing heavy doors easily. A "quick-opening" hinged door is, perhaps, most easily and safely handled.
13. Doors lifted by hoists should be locked automatically in hoisted position so that rupture of hoist will not allow door to drop.
liubber Section
975
14. Hot pipes and surfaces sliould be protected so workmen will not
be burned.
15. Provide stops so cars will not roll against end heads of heater or roll out of heater when door is opened.
16. Track bridge from floor to heater 'must be placed rigidly so as not to be dislodged or spread when car travels over it. It is a good idea to counter-balance the bridge so that lifting of full weight is not necessary, and bridge cannot be placed promiscuously for workmen to stumble over.
17. On "quick-opening" doors it is well to paint the lug rings a bright color so when door is closed .it forms a complete painted circle and if
operator does not close door completely there will be a break in this circle
which can be observed easily.
.
18. Safety chains are sometimes used to hold door to heater until each
door is opened and it is known that there is no pressure in vessel.
19. Before applying asbestos covering, and before putting in service, beater should be painted inside and out with heat and fume resisting paint and be allowed to dry thoroughly.
20. The asbestos covering should clear the connections and pads to allow the connections to be inspected and permit repairs to piping with
out disturbing the covering.
21. Bach vulcanizer should be numbered and always known thereafter by that number.
22. Finally, when the vessel is completed and ready for service, it
should be given a final inspection to see that it is connected up properly,
and the safety valve set for the proper pressure, before turning the vessel
over to the production department.
OrEBATION
'
1. - Utmost care should be taken to have door of heater tightly shut.
2. On bolted doors, tighten all bolts equally with a wrench of suitable length to do. the work properly without injury to bolts by over-stressing which is often done by use of pipes on wrenches. Bolts should all be tightened with the same tension and only enough to maintain a tight joint under working pressure. In tightening bolts take those which are diametrically across the vessel from each other and then take intermediate bolts diametrically across from each other so as not to tighten adjacent bolts around the circumference.
3. Operators should be thoroughly informed of the dangers in connec tion with the pressure of steam. Bolted doors have sometimes blown off because of a few bolts ommitted or not tightened, allowing all the load to be carried by a few bolts.
4. "Quick-opening" doors with locking lugs should be closed entirely and not allow a portion of each lug to carry all the load.
5. In handling the doors take care not to be pinched between door and
heater, equipment or building.
976 Twelfth Safety Congress
6. When in hoisted position be sure door is locked so that it cannot,
drop, even if hoist fails.
7. Severe burns can. be received from hot doors, especially on bare
arms.
'
8. Doors should not be opened until it is certain that there is no pres
sure within heater. Make sure that relief valve, blow-off valve and bleeder valves are fully opened and that no hot water lies within heater to run out on workmen when door is opened.
9. When turning steam into heater and bringing up pressure, it is usual to admit steam through a valve in a by-pass around the reducing valve. This raises the pressure and temperatures most quickly and the operator must be trained to observe the thermometer and steam gage very attentively so that pressure may be turned off when up to a limited
point, after which steam Is admitted through the reducing valve onlyThe dangers of this method must be fully realized, for, if the steam main pressure is considerably greater than the safe working pressure of the heater and workmen allow this full pressure to be exerted on heater, there may be an explosion. Sometimes during this feed period the ther mometer and steam gage, will not indicate identically, the temperature being lower than the gage would indicate. This is due to air pockets inside the heater which prevent heater being entirely filled with steam. Extra cocks are often provided at proper points to allow escape of air.
10. See that the by-pass valve is closed tightly and no leakage occurs through it into heater during vulcanizing period.
11. Closely observe thermometer and steam gage during time of cure so
there is no opportunity for serious increase of pressure' if safety valve should not operate. The thermometer will probably be the most accurate and sensitive for determining the pressure after heater has been com pletely filled with steam.
12. The safety valve should be set at minimum pressure permissible with which to accomplish the cure desired, and it is advisable to have it set at least five pounds under allowable safe pressure.
13. Before opening heajter doors, turn off steam, open blow-off valve until steam gage indicates no pressure, then open relief valve and bleeder valve to drain away all water. Do not flush heater with cold water until all steam has been completely exhausted.
14. Do not enter heater if there is any hot water lying on bottom, nor if steam feed valves are not closed tightly, nor if there are any fumes inside which are detrimental to health. See that blow-off valve of an open heater is closed.
15. Use care in tightening bridge track so it will carry load safely. Do not store bridge track where persons may fall over it.
16. In general, the employees should be instructed thoroughly as to the proper use of the equipment and the dangers due to improper use.
Rubber Section
977
TESTS, INSPECTION, MAINTENANCE
1. All vulcanizers should be inspected regularly by specialists, and a careful record kept of inspection. This record should be checked peri odically to see that inspections are actually made and recommendations complied with promptly. (See forms which follow.)
''
PRESSURE VESSEL. INSTALLATION RECORD
Dept. No.....................................................Bldg-. No.........................................................Floor......................................................... Insurance No..............................................Plant No...............................................Dept'l No.................................................. Class of "Vessel.........................................................................................Type...................................................................:................... Use ...............................................................................................................................................................................................................
Maximum Steam Pressure Allowed.....................................Operating Press.
SaJTety Valve Set at........................................................................................................................................ Hydraulic Pressure Allowed...............................................................Operating Press.
Inside Diameter. ...... Thickness: Shell Plate Joint: Horizontal................. Rivets: Dlu.................................
Type ........................................................... Material Door.................................. No. of Bolts or Dugs. . . . . Diameter of Bolt Threads
SPECIFICATIONS ...._________.Length of Shell........................ ..............................................Head Plate................. ....................- .........................Girth...................................... Pitch :--Horlz..........................................Girth
Door and Dinff
..................................Make............................................................. ..............................Material Ring............................ ..................................Loose or Hinged.............. ..................................... .Section of Lugs. . .
CONNECTIONS
Main Steam Supply: Size..................................................................Location.....................
Pressure Regulator of Control: Size.................................................Make...
Steam Gauge...........................................Location............................................Thermometer
Safety Valve: Size.........................................Type............................................Location.
Blow-off Line Size.......................................................
.Location. ..........
Trap
...............................................Size................................................................Make...................
Hydraulic Connection Size........................"........................................................................................
Extra Connection...............................................................................-...........................................................
Manufactured by...................................................................................Job No. Date Placed in Service ...................................................................................... Date Removed. .....................................................Disposi tion.........................
Remarks :
Filed
PRESSURE VESSEL INSPECTION REPORT
Date...............................................................................
Dept. No....................................................Bldg. No.....................................................Floor No...................................................... Vessel No........................................................................................................Class of Vessel.........................................................
Type ............................................................................Use...............................................................................
Maximum Steam Pressure Allowed....................................................................................................................................... Operating Pressure .................................................................................................................................................................................. Safety Valve Set at.................................................................................................................................................................................. Maximum Hydraulic Pressure Allowed....................................................................................................................... Operating Hydraulic Pressure................................................................................................................................................
RESULT OF INSPECTION
Safety Valve(opened) -- (pulled)--on test a't...............................................Ibs. Steam. Pressure Report the condition of the following:
1. Safety Valve ....................................................................................................................................... 2. Steam Gauge....................................................Is it Certified?............................................. 3. Shell and Heads................................................................................................................................
4.
5- Pipin?. rionne(!tions and Valves. . ........................* *
6. Steam Trap ................................................................................................... 7.
*
978
Twelfth Safety Cottyress
S. ft. 1*. 11.
1?.
13.
Door Hoists .................................................................................................................................................................................... Heater Car. Track. Bridge, etc................................................................................................................................. Heater Insulation Cover.................................................................................................................................................... Are all parts in condition to bear the working pressure at a (actor of Safety
of not less than Five?.......................................................................................................................................... Floor and Structure Supporting Heater.......................................................................................................
Miscellaneous Recommendations..............................................................................................................................
Date........................................................................ Signed..............................................................................................................Xtisp. Referred to.....-----------------------...............................................................................Date.............................. Recommended Alterations Completed, Date..........................................................................................................
2. All valves should be tested daily and special attention given to
safety pop valve.
3. At least once every two months safety valve should be tested under
full pressure until it pops, care being taken that the steam gage used
in this test is correct, and that the pressure is not run up greater than
the safe allowable pressure in beater.
-
4. In dusty rooms, safety valves may become sealed shut if not tested
periodically.
5. Steam trap needs perhaps most attention to keep in working condi
tion. Sediment from heater often makes trap inoperative so that con
densation will collect in heater.
6. Particular attention is drawn to worn out seats of valves which
would permit extra pressure to enter heater.
7. Riveted joints should be inspected as well as corroison of steel
shell. In many beaters, especially for bard rubber cures, a sulphurous
acid attacks and deteriorates the steel shell very rapidly.
S. At each inspection, it should be determined if all parts are in proper
condition to bear the working pressure at a factor of safety of no less
than five.
_
9. Bolts for doors require usually close inspection as well as the lugs
on quick opening doors, to see that no metal is fatigued or ruptured.
Bolts and nuts, badly worn should be replaced. If hinged bolts are used,
hinge pins should bear no part of bolt load.
.
10. Hoists for doors, especially lifting cables or chains, must have
ample and safe capacity.
'
11. Heater tracks and bridges must be secured so as not to spread and allow truck load to upset.
12. If heater sets on an upper floor, instead of a foundation in earth,
inspection of the strength and condition of the floor construction must
be made, especially if of wood. Around heater there is a great amount
of moisture from heater and molds which will rot a wood floor in a few
years so that it may be required to replace the floor entirely.
13. It should. be ascertained if the beater will withstand safely the pressure carried in the main steam-line, if, for some reason, this pres sure may unexpectedly occur.
PART II--MILLS AND CALENDERS
These recommendations are intended principally for use of rubber manu facturers and should be followed by their employees in the construction
Rubber Section
979
and operation of mills and calenders. They may also serve various in
spectors in. recommending' improvements of existing installations.
Recommending dimensioned details of construction is omitted because
it may prove unsuitable to existing conditions in some factories. Such
data, giving the standard practices of several companies, may. be found
in a paper entitled "Safety and Sanitation for Rubber Mills and Cal
enders," published-in the Proceedings of the National Safety Council Ninth
Annual Congress, Rubber Section. Reference is also made to various codes obtainable from or through the
American Engineering Standards Committee or National Safety Council:
SPONSORS
Power Control, Electrical Power Control, Mechanical
Electrical Safety Code National Electric Code Exhaust Systems
Lighting Factories, Mills and
Other Work Places
Floor and Wall Openings,
Railings, and Toeboards
Sanitation, Industrial
Protection of Heads and Eyes
of Industrial Workers
Ladders
'
Power Transmission Apparatus,
Mechanical
.
International Association of Industrial Accident
Boards and Commissions
American Society of Mechanical Engineers -
National Bureau of Casualty & Surety Under
writers
Electrical Safety Conference
National Bureau of Casualty St Surety Under
writers
Bureau of Standards
National Fire Protection Association
American ' Society of Heating and Ventilating
Engineers
.,
Illuminating Engineering Society National Association of Mutual Casualty
panies United States Public Health Service
Com
Bureau of Standards American Society of Safety Engineers
In addition to the above list, the following list of Safe Practices Pam
phlets issued by the National Safety Council, is made reference to:
Shafting, Coupling, Pulleys, Rearing
`
Oiling Device and Oilers
`
Floors and Flooring
Safe Clothing
Exits, Fire Alarms, and Fire Drills
-
Accident Records
Shop Lighting
Fire Extinguishment
Electrical Equipment in Industrial Plants
Fire Causes and Prevention
'
Hoisting Apparatus
Industrial Ventilation
Industrial Housekeeping
' Practical Methods for Reducing Fatigue.
Suggestions for safeguarding health are given, for poor physical con
dition may be the indirect cause of an accident.
MILLS
Hazards. Greatest dangers for injury are caused by the following: gears, rolls, feeding and removing, stock, starting machine, electric shock, defective or broken machine, knives and cuts, hot surfaces, inattentive and careless operation, illness, congestion around machine, slippery floors, inadequate light and ventilation, dirt and dust.
980 Twelfth Safety Congress
Gear Guards. (See National Safety Code on Mechanical Transmission.)
Gears should be guarded most thoroughly if a workman may be adjacent to them. The outside perimeter or face of gears should be enclosed
with a sheet steel band to prevent oil or grease from depositing on the
floor and in mill pit. For most thorough guarding, a solid enclosure of
steel plate should be provided over face of gears and down the sides
beyond the depth of teeth, and the point of contact between gears covered
completely. Projecting keys, and other projecting revolving parts, such
as ends of mill rolls, as well as spokes, should be covered with removable
wire mesh, which will allow visual inspection of the gears, and the guard
designed so it may be quickly removed when necessary to repair the mill.
Guards should be attached neatly and rigidly to a machine to prevent
rattling or sagging, or being knocked out of shape.
.
Safety Throtcout to Stop the Mill: A safety throw-out. bar or device heavy enough to resist the struggling of an injured operator should be placed above the mill, rolls to effect a cut-off of'power. This device should be located within easy reach of operator from front and rear of mill and should extend across the entire width of mill. Nothing else should extend across mill which can be mistaken for safety bar. The distance traveled by throw-out bar should" be slight, say three inches, so power may be cut off quickly. Throw-out bar should operate when pushed in any direc tion, and with very little force, say not to exceed five pounds, and should be constructed so operator cannot wedge the device if he thinks bar op-. erates too easily.
There are three predominating methods of cutting off the power from the mills: (1) magnetic clutch brake mounted on motor shaft, (2) me chanical clutch on the motor shaft, (3) dynamic braking of the motor. The method adopted should shut down mill in the shortest time possible, without undue injury to machine. If safety cut-off mechanism is kept in operation by power, (electric, compressed air, etc.) failure of such power should stop the mills. The mechanism which connects throw-out bar to power cut-off should operate freely and without lost action. The whole cut-off mechanism should be constructed so that power cannot be carelessly turned on unexpectedly,' and should be rugged enough to be used as a regular -service stop, so that workmen will become accustomed to its use. Electric cables controlling safety mechanism should be en closed in conduits, to prevent damage being done to them, making them
inoperative. Daily tests and inspection should be made to determine the condition of the safety stop device, and a record kept of the surface travel of the rolls after throw-out bar has been tripped.*
For a group of mills driven by one power unit, only one power cut off device should be used. For instance, if a clutch is used for cutting off power, only one clutch should control the entire group of mills. This will insure quicker stopping on any one mill because the resistance of the others will assist. Depending upon the type of power cut-off adopted, electrical or mechanical, reference should be made to National Safety Codes on Safeguards for Electrical or Power Transmission Equipment.
Rubber Section
981
Speed of Machine. Mill roll should revolve not more than 25 R.P.M.
Higher speeds make cutting and rolling of stock difficult and dangerous.
Roll speeds should not be governed by a general specification of surface
speed. From a safety standpoint, mills with large diameter rolls should
be given preference.
*
Distance from top of rolls to floor upon which operator stands should be great, enough that operator cannot easily reach into bite of rolls.
Deflinte Position of Operator. A guard bar, or edge of mill pan, should be located' to prevent operator's placing his .hands beyond top- of nearest roll. A mill should be constructed and its operation governed so an operator can do all his work by staying on the floor.
Feeding and Removing Stoclc. Feeding stock into, and removing from rolls should be controlled by strict regulations. (See rules for operator.) To determine opening required between rolls, run a test piece of rubber through, instead of standing in pan to look, into bite. Automatic mechan ical devices reduce manual operations and are Safest. Several successful ones are in use, among them the well-known mixing apron. The mixing apron should have abundant clearance above mill pan. Feeding of rubber and pigments through chutes into mill has been successful. There are also other machines constructed to replace mills. These mix rubber and pigments in an enclosed vessel, and are fed and exhausted automatically, but their success is not acknowledged universally.
Starting Signals. Operators should he made aware of the intention, to start machinery in ample time to remove themselves from danger. A sig nal hell or noise producer is best, and should be connected to starting switch or Ieve'rs so bell will ring before it is possible to operate the starter. Starter should be located so entire line of mills controlled may be seen.
. Electrical Equipment. Reference is made to the National Code of Elec trical Safeguards. Outside of the usual electrical hazards covered by various codes, the rubber Industry has at least one other hazard, I. e.,
danger around electrical equipment in washer mill rooms where the floor
may he wet. Around such equipment, if the floor cannot be kept dry, a
raised platform or other means should be provided for maintaining a dry
surface for workmen to stand upon.
Extricating Injured WorJcmen. Provision should be made to separate
'mill rolls quickly so as to release an injured operator at the earliest
moment. Some factories permit reversing rolls, but others very forcibly
forbid it, claiming that additional and irreparable injury is done.
`
Miscellaneous. "Where safety breaking cup is used on end of roll ad justing screw, a screen or band should enclose cup, so there is no possi
bility of metal pieces flying when cup breaks. A method which will not cause flying of broken pieces should he provided to prevent rupture of mill rolls.
All parts should be so protected that oilers and maintenance workers may carry on their work without danger.
Knives should be bandied carefully and kept in heavy sheaths when
not in use.
982 Twelfth Safety Congress
Clothing worn by workmen should not be too loose and dangling.
Proper gloves should be worn when rolls and stock are hot enough to cause burns.
Shoes should be In good condition and not cause men to trip and fall.
Operation of Machine. All parts of mills, safety- devices, transmissions, . and supporting structures, should be inspected constantly to. maintain in good operating condition.
The most important precaution, mental alertness, should be developed in all workmen. Each workman should be educated fully concerning the duties he shall perform and the dangers to which he may subject himself. He should prove himself fully qualified before operating a mill.
The following rules with appropriate additions and modifications should be placed where the workmen may observe them frequently.
1. Follow instructions of your foreman and your inspectors only.
2. Wear no clothing which can be caught in the machines, such as long sleeves, loose neck ties, apron's or unbuttoned jackets.
'
3. Keep your eye on the Job all the time, and give your work your entire attention.
4. Keep your hands off moving rolls. 5. Never force rubber into the bite of the rolls with your hands. 6. Never oil, clean or repair your machine while it is in motion. 7. When cutting stock off roll, always cut below the center.
8. If you feel ill, or in such condition as to interfere with your
work, report at once to your Foreman.
*
9. Stop machine at once in case of emerg^icy.. Do not wait for
instructions.
10. Never allow your hand to go past the top of the roll, and
never reach over one roll to work on the other.
11. Watch your hands when the rubber folds over. Don't let
them get caught in the folds. Be careful in doubling the ends
of batches when "batching out." -
,
12. Never cross arms when cutting or rolling stock from the mill.
Learn to cut and roll with both hands. When cutting from
left to right, cut_with right hand and roll with left; when
cutting from right to left; cut with left hand, roll with right.
13. Never take anything out of the rolls while the mill is in
motion. Stop the machinery.
..
14. Never stand on the mill pan, compound boxes, platforms or
makeshifts.
~
15. Never work with one hand under the rolls while the other is
above them.
16. Take care not to catch your fingers between guide and roll.
17. The back roll of the mill runs faster than the front. Be
careful.
18. Do not indulge in "horse-play" and practical jokes around
machinery.
'
Rubber Section
983
General Requirements. Foundations, especially where mills set on upper
doors, should be rigid and prevent excessive vibration. Provisions should be made to avoid dripping of oil and water onto building structure where rot and corrosion will weaken structure.
The working floor area around mills should be free of depressions and elevations, and of various materials, boxes, tools, etc., scattered about.
Floors should be of non-slip construction and materials. Removable passages over pits and line shafts should be well supported and non-slip. Pits and pipe trenches should be easily accessible for thorough cleaning, and so constructed and protected with curbs and covers that refuse, dust, tobacco sputum, etc., cannot be easily deposited in them. Pipe railings, should enclose pits and exposed electrical and power transmission equipment.
Illumination. Safety and cheerfulness should be encouraged by providing good light. Provide maximum daylight. Consult National and State Codes regulating artificial .lighting. Local lighting should be installed inside of ventilating hoods over mills, and in other places where general lighting is not sufficient, and so that glare does not blind workmen. Local
lighting lamps should be covered with screen, if subject to breakage. Intensity of local lighting should be same as general lighting. Lamps and reflectors should be kept clean.
Walls and ceilings should be painted a proper color and finish to dis tribute maximum light.
Ventilation. Good ventilation of mill and washer rooms should prevail. Natural ventilation of washer and warmer mill rooms through windows and skylights can be accomplished satisfactorily, but in mixer mill rooms where injurious dust and fumes from pigments are prevalent, mechanical ventilation should be provided. The ideal ventilating system should heat, clean ahd humidify the air furnished, and carry away all dust and fumes which would fill the room. A. hoocl should be installed above each mixer mill, connected to suction fan, to carry away fumes and dust arising from mill rolls. If air washer is not provided, dust should be gathered in a collector and not allowed to scatter into surrounding territory. Clean air, heated in cold weather, should he supplied to offset the air exhausted through mill hoods.
General Cleanliness. Dust, which collects on machines and various
parts of building and floor, should be removed by some method which will
not stir it up and scatter it elsewhere. Vacuum cleaners will meet this
requirement.
Pits and trenches should be kept free `from grease, dirt, lunch scraps
and tobacco sputum. Cuspidors should be provided plentifully and ap
propriately situated.
'
Window glass should be cleaned periodically, as well as walls and ceil
ings to provide good light.
CAXJEITOEBS
The following topics have been discussed under Mills: Hazards of gears, rolls, defective machine, burns, careless workmen, illness, con
984 Twelfth Safety Congress
gestion around machine, slippery floors, light, dirt; recommendations
for the above, and extricating injured workmen from rolls, electrical ap
paratus, clothing, inspections, tests, maintenance, instruction and qualifi
cation of operator; foundations, floors,. railings, pits.
Additionel hazards on Calenders are as follows:
Continuous starting and changing speed, operating calenders in train,
feeding and removing fabric and sheet stock, windup and idler rolls.
Gear Guards. The windup train of gears should be enclosed with solid
plate or casting because workmen are very close and to prevent threads
from edge of liner getting into gears. Safety Stops. The methods described for mills are equally adaptable
for calenders. Calenders are usually driven by direct current motors, and,
therefore, dynamic breaking of motor is perhaps most simply applied
and operated.
A safety throwout bar should be placed full width across calender out
side of housings in both front and rear and operated when pushed in any direction.
In addition, a throwout bar should be i>laced at each entering point
of roils, except at gum feed, about five inches above bite of rolls, if this .
arrangement does not interfere with essential attachments on machine. '
An optional arrangement is that of having four vertical cables, one to
hang inside of each housing, front and rear of rolls. These throwout
bars, or cables, should cut out the electric .switch, release clutch, apply
brake'or operate any other device by which the Calender is to be stopped
instantly. A clutch if used should be placed between motor and motor
pinion; and a brake, on the motor pinion shaft.
Signal bells, or equal, should give warning each time calender is to start, or change speed. One bell should be so located that any workman
can signal when he desires the calender to start or stop and another
bell directly connected with the starting and stopping controller. The
latter bell will automatically warn all workmen.
If calenders are operated in train, the safety stop appliances should be
so constructed that operation of the safety throwout on any calender will
stop the entire train. Operation of a train of calenders should be as a
unit, and under control of one operator, the only person who can start
and alter the speed of the machine.
.
Roll Speeds. Calender speeds, being variable, are .not necessarily to be
limited. "When sheet stock is fed into and removed from the rolls, the
speed should be reduced so the operation is not hazardous.
This safe speed may vary according to kind of gum, stock, thicknessess,-
etc., but it is generally considered that a speed of fifteen yards per minute
should not be exceeded when threading sheet stock into the rolls. Idler Rolls. Idler and spreader rolls and spreader bars should be placed
far enough from main rolls so operator cannot be pinched between them.
Feeding and Removing StocJcs. Feeding stock, particularly fabric and
sheet, into calenders and windups has caused the greatest number of ac
cidents on these machines. Comparatively few accidents occur from feed
ing batched gum. A sheet metal table about twelve inches wide and the
Rubber Section
985
length of rolls, located about six inches below bite of rolls should be pro
vided to hold batched gum while it is being fed into machine. Wood
paddle or pusher should be used to push stock into bite of rolls.
'
Feeding fabric or sheet gum is not so easily accomplished, and it is necessary for operator to place his hands close to the rolls, unless a guard is installed to assist in starting the fabric into the rolls. Although numerous efforts have been made, it seems that no guards of this type have been devised to meet general approval, and experimental ones have usually met opposition from the workmen as being a hindrance to rapid and successful work. Such a safeguard is needed to feed sheet, stock between closed rolls, but ' the space available is not always sufficient to provide safety without impeding production by making it difficult for workman to place sheet within a reasonable distance from the rolls.
If a calender does not require the two bottom rolls to be in contact with each other, and if the bottom roll is used only as an idler roll, to return the stock to other side of calender, then the bottom roll should be lowered about three inches, a sufficient opening that a man's arm can pass between the rolls and not he pinched. Where the rolls cannot be separated to such an opening, it may be possible to separate them to such an extent that a guard can be used successfully. A guard used in several factories consists of two horizontal steel plates about 1%" apart, extend ing in between the rolls. The lower plate does not extend so far inwardly as the upper plate, and this allows workman to place the stock onto the lower roll; and if the travel of the roll should carry his fingers for ward they will strike the upper plate without harm. This guard should be constructed very heavily, and be very rigidly attached to the machine.
A scraper bar Is attached to the lower plate of the guard after the guard is In place, and so adjusted to the roll that there is only a very small clear ance between the scraper and the roll. This scraper is for any stock which may get around the lower roll and which would have a tendency to roll up under the guard and bend it out of shape.
A man who has been working on a calender with separated rolls should never be transferred to another calender having, its rolls in contact, for the knowledge of .not being subjected *to danger on the - first type forms
a habit of placing the hands between the rolls, and this habit will un consciously be continued on the latter type and result in Injury.
'Windup. All wind-ups and let-offs should have a stationary handwheel
for adjusting the tension in stock. This can be accomplished by mounting
the handwheel on the windup bearing, the. outside of the bearing having
screw threads upon which the handwheel adjusts itself against the friction
disc.
:
To hold the stock shell bar into the windup spindle, a smooth ring
should slide on the spindle and cover the end of bar. This ring can be
locked in position by a pin with a spring. No projecting set screws or
pins should he placed on any revolving part of the windup.
.
Lifting Rolls of Stock. Lifting rolls of sheet stock into and out of
machine should be governed by existing codes for handling materials.
986
Twelfth Safety Congress
The present tendency Is toward large diameter, wide and heavy rolls of
stock, and power hoists should be provided for handling them.
.
QuicJc Separation of Rolls. Means for quickly separating rolls should be provided for extricating injured workmen, so it will not be necessary to reverse the rolls. If hand wheel operated roll adjustment is not quick enough, motor driven adjustment should be substituted. It is possible to connect the latter to the safety throwout device, so that the rolls will automatically open when safety bar is tripped.
Safeguarding Electrical Parts. Each calender, usually having its own motor, controller and panel boards, the electrical hazards to operators are more prevalent than on mill lines. All switches and control boards should be of enclosed type, and situated preferably in an enclosed room where only one operator may have access to it. The prevailing electrical codes should be strictly complied with.
Floors. Non-slip floors should be laid around calenders. Between the housings of calender it is usually not practical to lay a concrete floor, so a metal surface predominates. This metal should have a non-slip surface.
Illumination. Illumination for calender work is important, not only to safeguard the workman, but particularly to produce .work of highest quality. Too many calenders are being operated with local lights attached to the machine. The general lighting system described for Mill Rooms is recommended for calender rooms, except'that the maximum amount of light should be given the calenders, and a lower intensity In the aisles. The intensity on the calenders ought to be 10 foot-candles uniform light ing, and about five to six foot-candles uniformly in the aisles. If glare is eliminated this difference in intensity will not produce eye strain.
Ventilation. A calender may produce excessive heat or fumes, making it advisable to install a ventilating hood above, connected to an exhaust fan. However, it is far better to have a high calender room, preferably one story, with saw-tooth skylights to give good natural ventilation and light. If the room has a low ceiling then mechanical ventilation should be provided, especially during summer months and times of high humidity.
Cleanliness. Where excessive soapstone or stock dusting accumulates on floor under calender windup and letoff, a system should be provided. This dust should fall onto and through a latticed or perforated floor into a chamber from which it is drawn into a duct and to an exhaust fan.
The vacuum cleaner principle has been applied to the cleaning of liners and this obviates most of the flying dust around calender let offs and windups. A vacuum cleaner is of even more importance in a calender room than in a mill room, for in addition to the benefit to workmen, there is an extreme necessity for cleanliness of calendered stock.
Chairman Beck: I would like to hear a motion that we meet again this afternoon and finish our job.
(Motion made, seconded and carried that a committee be appointed by the Rubber Section to meet with Mr. Congdon's committee, and that the Rubber Section convene again at two-thirty P. M.)
Rubber Section
987
WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON SESSION
Chairman Beck: I would like to have our engineering committee chairman, Mr. Mitchella, preside this afternoon because this is an engi neering subject.
Mr. R. H. Leveridge: The point I wanted to raise is this: Are the rubber workers of the country willing to proceed with the standardiza tion of safety equipment for their plants, or do they want the states as Individuals to shape up drastic regulations which they will have to live up to? If this is not the time to standardize, when is it time to stand ardize? Certainly the accidents we are having in the field today clearly indicate that it is time that we did something and the question that must be decided is whether the rubber workers of the country are ready to prepare something that is acceptable to them as a standard tor the various states to follow which they will eventually have to do because the American Engineering Standards Committee will take up the standardization.
(At this point, Mr. Mitchella took the Chair.) Chairman Mitchella: I think I can safely say. that there was no atti tude expressed by the members as to whether they would prefer state or national control, although I think we would all agree that a national code would be very advisable, and more suitable to all of us.
DISCUSSION Mr. Leveridge: Concerning the selection of some particular method to the exclusion of any other, such a thing was never intended in the preparation of this tentative draft of the code. J'To code we have ever adopted in the State of New Jersey , has closed the door on development. Mr. Congdon: I was one of those who answered Mr. Mitchella's last letter. Since that time I have changed my mind somewhat. I think if he approaches the subject of standardization in the two phases Mr. Leveridge has brought up, we will make more progress. Mr. E. A. Hoener: I think one of the biggest questions that comes up In a code of this kind, is the feature of making It retroactive. In other words, changing ail your existing equipment in a period of time. Accord ing to the present reading of that code and the stops therein specified, it practically limits the equipment necessary to make that stop to pos sibly one, or on the outside, two types of stopping equipment that are now in existence, and automatically throws out all of the stopping equip ment which is now being used in the majority of the rubber plants, par ticularly in the City of Akron. That is one of the big stumbling blocks in the adoption of a code like this; the feature of trying to make it retroactive and to change the equipment. If it were on the basis of new equipment, or future instal lations, I feel we could get on a common ground much quicker than we can on the basis of changes to existing equipment. Mr. Thropp: I stated in my paper this morning that with a small change which I understand would not be over 50 or 75 dollars, this could be made 50 per cent better. On the calenders, this is also true. On
988 Twelfth Safety Congress
the question of standardizing:, it.would be better if every state in the
Union had the same standard. It is going to be hard if Ohio has one
standard. New Jersey another and Pennsylvania still another.
Another important question is the method of tests. You have got to
do it with mechanical or electrical testing apparatus. You must adopt
some method of testing. The second thing is for everybody to make
tests.
'
Mr. Leveridge: It wasn't the intention to make this code retroactive,
except in so far as it actually states. It states: "New installations shall be in conformity with this code." It also states "Existing installations,
within a period of two years, shall be made to conform to these rules,
as nearly as practicable."
'
(At this point, Mr. Beck resumed the chair.)
Mr. Mitchella: As I stated this morning, owing to the disagreement
between various members of the section, we of course could not stand
ardize. There was only one procedure to follow and that was to gen
eralize on the results which we wish to obtain. On vuleanizers, of course, we had great deal more success than we
did with mills and calenders.
(Mr. Mitchella abstracted the report of. the Engineering Committee.)
Mr. G. A. Lyons (U. S. Rubber Co., New York): I move that the
report of the engineering committee as summarized by the chairman and
incorporated in the proceedings, be accepted, subject to any criticisms or
suggestions that may be received at that time. (Motion seconded and carried.) Chairman Beck: I would like Mr. Mitchella to handle the meeting
from now on. I think it is his privilege to handle the meeting inasmuch
as he did so much good work on this problem and is so much more
familiar with it than I am. (At this point, Mr. Mitchella took the chair.)
-
THE QUESTION OF AUTHORITY
Mr. Horan: In paragraph 104 of the code, you specify "authority having jurisdiction." That is quite broad. Might I ask just who the authority is ?
Mr. Leveridge: When this code is put into effect in New Jersey, the words "The Department ' of Labor" will appear instead of "authority having jurisdiction." That would apply in all places where we refer to "supervising department;" the name of the department is inserted.
Mr. H. H. Graef: In that paragraph 106, I would like to ask just what Mr. Leveridge had in mind as to the decision on whether or not the installation met requirements. Would that be up to the local inspector or the Labor Department?
Mr. Leveridge: Answering specifically, I think we will all grant that an inspector in the field who is required to cover every code or engi neering subject that is supervised by the Department of Labor, can't be sufficiently expert in every division to be the last word on that subject When the district inspector requires something that seems unreasonable
Rubber Section
989
to an industry, it has recourse to the head of that particular bureau, or, as a last resort, to the commissioner who is supreme authority, or the industrial board, as the case may be. It is the same procedure as you would follow in court; if you don't get satisfaction, you go on up to a higher court.
Chairman Mitchella: I don't like that 46 in. in paragraph 111 because I find that 50 in. is perfectly satisfactory in installations at our plant. We have 50 in. on all of our mills and washers with the exception of some of the very oldest which were installed in the Diamond .Rubber
Company twenty or thirty years ago. I am very much in favor of a
high mill. Mr. Horan: We had. some mills we had to put platforms on. 1 was
wondering whether it would be better to specify; for instance in the case of a washer, you could put the washer up 72 in. high; the platform 50 in., and the rolls still 12 in. above where the employer stood. I was wondering whether it wouldn't he better to specify "at least 46 in. above the working level." ' Chairman Mitchella; How about "floor upon which the operator
stands?"
Mr. Beveridge: I quite agree with you. We will change it to read "floor
upon which the operator stands."
Mr. H. H. Graef: Would it be possible' to change from "safety trip
bar" to "safety trip device"? In the particular plant I represent, we
do not use rigid bars; we use stranded wire cable. It answers the same
purpose and is in the same location. It just makes it more general and
gives wider field for the manufacturer, if you used the word "device"
Instead of "bar."
'
Mr. Horan: My suggestion would be that you make it "device" and then put at the end of the present sentence a statement that the use of a rigid bar should be encouraged or installed. Make the bar advisory and the device mandatory.
Mr. Beveridge: The idea in shaping the safety bar was that a man could, by raising his head, throw out that trip. We find it can't be done with a cable.
THURSDAY MORNING SESSION
Chairman Beck: We obtained two committee reports yesterday.
REPORT OF MEMBERSHIP COMMITTEE
. 33. B. Hewitt
At the time of the Boston Congress in 1921, we had on our roll, 25
members. At the time of the Detroit Congress in 1922, we succeeded in
obtaining eight new members, but due to the fact that we lost three, our
net gain was only five.
.
This past year we have succeeded in getting 12 new members and by
losing two of the old membership, we have had a net gain of 10. In
other words, during the last two years from the time of the Boston Con
gress, when the intensive membership campaign was put on, we have
succeeded in obtaining 15 new members.
'
990
Twelfth Safety Congress
I can't help but feel the work that has been done by your executive committee and membership committee in the last two years is going to bear results in the future. The plan was laid down some year and a half ago by the executive committee' and the membership committee has
served as a means of tying up the work of the two committees. 'Your executive committee deserves all the credit. I believe we have at last a good foundation for future membership work and we have covered, I believe, the large number of rubber companies who are prospects and through the cooperation of the Rubber Association of America we have been able to compile fairly accurate lists of prospects.
There is one point, however, that I would like to stress. We have gone quite a way in the matter of soliciting by letter. Several form letters individually, typed have been sent to the various rubber com panies and when there has been any indication of interest, they have been followed up with personal letters. One other means is open and I believe if followed properly would be effective, that is the personal solicitation end of the work. The present Rubber Section members are scattered throughout the country. By a little effort on the part of the ' individual members, I believe they could help solicit some of the rubber companies who are not members in theiF vicinity.
Sometime ago the membership committee drew up a sectional list, but unfortunately the executive committee had all they could handle at that time, so there hasn't been a whole lot done on that. I would recommend that to the new membership committee.
Mr. Beck has asked me to say a word about how to Join the Rubber Section. I have all the membership blanks you need. All you have to do is mall one with your check to the National Safety Council and you automatically become a member. As to what you get for your member ship: One of the big things to my mind, is the bulletin service. I know personally we use the bulletin service as the background for publicity on health, safety and sanitation and found it to be effective. True, there aren't enough Rubber Section bulletins to keep all satisfied, but by care fully selecting the general bulletins, they work in very nicely.
In addition to the bulletin service, the section has for the past two years gotten out news item letters, containing items of interest to men in the rubber industry and several questionnaires. The safe practice committee have been doing good work along specialized lines in the Rubber Section and I believe that is material which is well worth while.
These special sectional activities in addition to the Safe Practice pam-' plilets issued by the National Safety Council on general hazards are well worth while. If your library isn't complete, it should be. There is a wealth of material if you will use it. I think the difficulty with the people who join is. they don't use the service available.
Bach membership carries with it a copy of the Annual Proceedings
covering all the sectional meetings which are held at the various Con gresses. That in itself is a library on safety matters which is well worth having and preserving.
Rubber Section
991
I think in. general that covers the situation. If any of you are inter
ested in joining, I will be glad to see that you get application blanks
after the meeting.
-
REPORT OF STANDARDIZATION AND STATISTICS - COMMITTEE
G. I. Lyons
Since his appointment at the last Safety Congress at Detroit, the chair
man of this committee has submitted three reports to the members of the Rubber Section, the first covering the accident experience of the Rubber
Section for the first six months of 1922, the second covering the last half of 1922 and the third covering the first six months of the present year.
In the August, 1923 issue of the National Safety Nctos, there appeared
a summary, compiled from statistics furnished by the chairman of this
committee, showing the accident experience of' the Rubber Section for the years 1921 and 1922. You will recall that the a.verage severity rate (days lost per thousand hours worked) for this period was .898 and the
frequency rate (accidents per million hours worked) was 32.13. Tire
same issue of the National Safety News included a table showing the
standing of the Rubber Section as compared with the Automotive, Cement,
Construction, Metals, Paper and Pulp, Petroleum and Woodworking
Industries. The rates mentioned gave the rubber industry second place,
the automotive industry being the only one with a better "accident
experience.
Our statistics for the first six months of this year, however, would indicate that we did not come anywhere near the "bogie" of .898 in sev
erity and 32.13 in frequency, because at the end of June our severity
rate was 1.50 and our frequency rate 35.83. In explanation of the increase
in the severity rate, the big difference was caused by seven .fatalities and
one permanent total disability which the Rubber Section experienced
during the first six months of this year the fatalities being equal to the
total number of fatalities for the years 1921 and 1922.
CAUSES OF ACCIDENTS -
The chairman would like to call your attention to the following brief
analysis of the causes of our accidents during the past two and a half
yeai*s:
Handling tire3 and materials Hand tools and accessories. . . Machine accidents .......... Bye accidents........................................... Wire cuts,.scratches, nails... Burns .................................................................. Palls ..................................................................... Miscellaneous ...........................................
1st 6
2nd 6
1st 6
2nd 6
1st 6
Months Months Months Months Months
1921
1921
1922
1922
1923
Percent. Percent. Percent. Percent. Percent.
of `
of
of
of `
of
Total Total Total *Total . Total
. . . 31 22 33 37 33
27 17 14 19
____10
9 13 14 16
16 10 12 o
5 o.
4 1
4
2
3
'
3
267 6
S 17 18 18
100%
100%
100%
100% ' 100%
Lost time accidents.
.
Lost time and no lost time accident figures combined for the year. 1921.
9D2
Ttvelfth Safety Congress
It is interesting to note the similarity in the trend of accidents during the last three periods. "Handling tires and materials" and "hand tools and accessories" still account for over 50 per cent of . the total number of accidents. "Machine accidents", while not as frequent as in other industries, are on the increase, probably due to the fact that companies are now installing more labor saving machinery than in- the past and consequently the machine hazards have been increased accordingly. You will note also that there has been a slight improvement in eye injuries. The item "miscellaneous" is running too high. Part of this 'includes causes which had been reported to the chhirman under classifications other than those shown on the accepted form. However, after taking this into consideration. It is necessary that special care should be exer cised in the future in classifying accidents in order to keep this figure at a minimum.
IMPORTANCE OF ACCIDENT STATISTICS
There are numerous ways in which the accident statistics of the Rubber Section can be used to advantage. First of all, from the figures furnished by the various members, a summary is drawn off, which, because of the fact that it has been accepted as standard by the Bureau of Labor Sta tistics and the National Safety Council, makes it comparable with the accident figures of companies in other industries and these figures, if kept conscientiously over a period of years, will indicate which of the industries are the most hazardous. Furthermore, several companies are also using these statistics within their own organizations to sell safety to the management.
From the reports sent to you during the last year, you have probably noticed the increase in the number of companies included in the reportsWhereas last year only nine companies submitted accident statistics, today there are 15 and it is hoped that more companies will co-operate with the new chairman in his work during the coming year.
REPORT OF HEALTH HAZARDS COMMITTEE
C. F. Horan
We are at work at the present time on two reports. The first report deals with the frequency of the hexa-rash. That is the result of the questionnaire we sent to all of the rubber companies and which most of you have answered.
We didn't get enough specific detail on the first questionnaire to justify any conclusions except this, perhaps that hexa-rash is quite frequent or has been quite frequent in the rubber industry and that most com panies have substituted biphenylethylamin or tripkenylethylamin for the hexatetramine. From the returns which the committee now has, they would seem to indicate that within a very short time hexa-rash or rubber itch will be a thing of the past.
The other material on which the committee is working is In con nection with a group of life insurance companies. I don't know whether ` you people know it or not, but with most of the American life insurance
R'ubber Section
993
companies, an employee in the rubber industry pays a special rate for
life insurance because of the fact that he' is in the rubber industry.
There isn't any doubt but that there are certain occupations in the
rubber industry where the possibility of fatality is greater than the
average standard, or individual, if there is such a thing as an average individual in this country. Some of the companies charge as high as 135 per cent of the standard rate to anybody in the rubber industry.
It means that your employees and our employees are paying an unusually
high premium for their insurance.
.
The committee has been able to interest quite a number of the in
surance companies, especially the New England companies and some
of the other eastern companies, in getting a real classification of the hazards in the rubber industry and I am glad to say that on some of the occupations in the rubber industry, they will not only pay 135 per cent, but they won't pay 100 per cent of the standard rate. We feel that that
is fairly good. We had hoped to get out a report this last yeg.r giving the various occupations in the rubber industries and the possible hazards.
That looks simple. We took one industry and a code of occupations in one particular plant
and found almost 100 different names for different occupations. That meant in one type of plant, taking 1,800 names, almost distinct occupa
tions, and finding out what the hazards were in each of them. readily realize that can't done in five minutes.
You can
There is one other thing the committee would call your attention to;
it is one thing where you can help us. I don't know whether you have noticed the tendency of some of the departments of labor and legislatures
to pass rules on other things than mechanical safety. The State of Ohio
at the present time has a committee to formulate rules and regulations for the rubber industry mainly for the prevention of occupational dis eases, and Ohio is going to have some rules. I am not certain now whether they have them already. They have a committee working on them.
The'health hazards committee of the Rubber Section wishes that you people would keep in touch with the activities in your various states and if you find a committee appointed or any legislation concerning the new regulations for the prevention of occupational diseases in the rubber industry, you would let us in on it. Usually, we get in when it is too late. If we knew about the organization of the committee, we could
give the committee such facts as it might need. You might be interested in the experience of Massachusetts on fatalities
in the rubber industry. In the last six years in Massachusetts, 64 per cent of all fatalities in the rubber industry have been due to occupational diseases.
REPORT OF SAFE PRACTICES COMMITTEE W. Li. Schneider
The information presented has been prepared as a result of the varied experiences of injuries traceable to handling material in rubber manufac-
994
Twelfth Safety Congress
ture and is intended, primarily, as a guide for the prevention of injuries and the adoption of Safe Practices in the handling of the materials as outlined. It is the desire that the pamphlet may be useful in serving safety engineers, state inspectors and others in the prevention of acci dents incident to the working conditions, as outlined. (Reference: Natinnal Safety Council Safe Practices Pamphlets 54 and 55.)
. HAW KUBBEfi
Receiving and Unloading Cars--As most safety engineers in the rubber
industry know, certain accidents are traceable to the handling of ma
terials as related to receiving and unloading in the handling of raw
rubber from freight cars, as they are usually spotted on the siding and
the doors opened and the rubber unloaded. The rubber is usually re ceived in cases or bales, varying from 150 to 600 pounds. These are
usually piled on top of one another inside of the car, and, if carelessly
piled, are liable to fall as the doors open.
.
It frequently occurs that doors are in bad order, with the result that
they have to be pried open, and, if the material is improperly piled, it may fall out and cause serious injury. Faulty brakes on the cars and
jarring due to switching may also cause the cases to become dislodged.
Frequently, pinch bars are necessary to open the doors, with a possibility
of dislodging the door entirely, which, in some instances, also causes se
rious injury.
.
When cars are received, they should be thoroughly inspected to see that the brakes are in good condition, that they are properly spotted with respect to clearance at siding, and that the doors are also in good repair. Care should be exercised in spotting and in opening doors, and it is always well to carefully inspect the hangers to see that the door is properly hung. If necessary to pry open the door,' workmen should
stand clear of the door, as doors frequently fall, causing serious injury. It is impossible to tell how well the material is piled Inside until proper observation can be had, which is only when the door is open.'
Handling and Removing. It naturally follows that, If the bales, boxes or cases are piled in tiers, they must be removed ready for trucking to the receiving or storage quarters. Frequently, those handling the rubber allow a case or bale to slip from their grasp, which can very easily result in injury- to a helper or those standing near by. Band irons or wire are used in. most instances on crude rubber cases, these causing scratches, as well as the possibility of a band iron coming loose, exposing the nails, and punctures and other wounds are the result.
As these cases and bales of rubber are ttsually handled by hand up to the point of trucking, sometimes strains from heavy lifting are aslo the result. Sharp hooks, similar to hay hooks, are also used for hand ling bales and cases. These must be handled carefully to avoid injury, as sometimes occurs when hooks slip from a bale or case. Hooks should not be le/cif on floor where they can be stepped on.
Care should be exercised in taking down the crates to prevent the toppling or dislodging of them and the possibility of crushed feet or
Rubber Section
995
hands. In pushing the crates over, workmen should always stand clear
of the cases or hales to avoid injuries. Where trucks are used, good four
wheeled flat trucks are generally best. These should be of sufficient
width to keep the cases or material well within the truck body, allow ing no over-hang. Material, in no instance, should be piled too high, and it is weli to secure the cases where they do not rest absolutely flat
on the truck. Trucking and Conveying. After the car is opened and the material
examined, it usually follows that the cases and bales are trucked or
conveyed to the Receiving Department or storage warehouse, and bales,
eases, etc., are knocked off the trucks, with the result of crushed feet or
other injuries. Where material is conveyed mechanically, the same Is
the result, unless proper safeguards are provided to prevent the falling
of material.
.
Gangplanks, skids, chutes and conveyors are frequently used in truck
ing and conveying. A very good type of gangplank or run-board consists
of a series of 2x4's of oak, ash or wood of equal strength, usually about
four feet in length, with 2x6 top and bottom supports, bolted together
and riveted, the, design of which can be secured from the Millers Mutual
Casualty Insurance Company of Chicago.
'
There are a number of well-designed safety run-boards which may be
secured from various commercial safety supply houses. It is essential
in any case that the run-board be sufficiently well designed to withstand
the load for which it is intended, be securely anchored to prevent slip
ping off the car or platform, to have side rails or members to prevent
truck running off run-board, and, as^far as possible, to prevent slipping.
It is also well to consider drainage of water and ice accumulation.
Piling. After the material is conveyed to jits destination, it is usually
the custom to pile it in an orderly fashion, and, if improperly piled, the
cases and bales are apt to become dislodged and cause those standing or
working near by serious injury. Sufficient aisle space should be allowed
for ready access or removal. Material should not be piled too high, as
this results in dislodging or strains in lifting, and, in some instances,
makes it exceedingly difficult to get the material out.
Opening Crates and Cartons. Hand leathers or gloves should be worn
to open crates and to prevent injuries to the hands* from nails, band irons,
etc. Good, substantial shoes should be worn in place of "sneakers" and
old wornout ones. Reasonable working area should be provided so that
employees will not strike each other with axes, hatchets, knives or hand
tools. It is well to wear goggles when opening crates to prevent dust
and slivers from entering the eyes. Work tools should not be left lying
around the floors where they can be tripped over and knocked down to cause injury. Obviously, they should be kept in good condition, free from
burs and cracked handles, and sufficiently sharp to execute the work
without unnecessary lator which sometimes results in accidents. Separating and Cutting Up. In most instances, the rubber is received
in sheets or in bales which are made up of a series of layers or sheets.
In the case of plantation rubber, these are smoked and dried, with the
996
Twelfth Safety Congress
consequence that the layers adhere to one another and must be sepa
rated when ready for use. Long, sharp knives, cleavers, canthooks and
wedges are used in separating and cutting up rubber sheets, and, in the case of wild rubber, usually knives or mechanical cutters are employed. In some instances, mechanical separators are used for sheets and bales of plantation rubber.
The usual injuries are cuts and bruises, although where mechanical appliances are used such as power-driven winches or drums, more se rious injuries can result, such as fractures. Layers or sheets must be carefully handled when cutting the rubber with knives or cleavers, as the rubber is tough, yet elastic, and the knives often slip. It usually re quires more than one man, and the work must necessarily be speedily done.
Knives and cleavers should be kept in good condition and knife holsters used wherever possible. Floors should be roughed to prevent slipping,
and sufficient working area allowed to prevent congestion. Where me
chanical separators and hooks are used, care should be exercised at the time of making the hooks in the sheets and when the sheets are separated and the power interrupted, so that the hooks do not slide or fly off. In the case of wild rubber, it is important that any mechanical cutters be thoroughly guarded and, where rotating knives or mechanical knives are
used, that knife points be guarded or the operators be kept as far from the knives as possible, preferably by a mechanical feed.
Removing Refuse. After the cases are opened, nails, band wire, burlap and wood splinters are left about the floor, and contact with this refuse may cause punctures, cuts and bruises. In removing the refuse, care should be exercised to prevent stepping in nails, band irons, wires and wood slivers, and slivers from entering the hands. Gloves should also be worn on this operation, and material left on the floor should be cleaned up sufficiently often or brushed to one side to prevent such injuries.
Soaking and Washing. Where wild rubber is used, it is usually neces
sary to soak this rubber in soaking tanks or steam batbs, and, after the
soaking process, the rubber is usually washed between corrugated rolls upon which water is sprayed at the time of the washing. The tanks are
made of either steel or wood and supplied with hot water or steam. The injuries that result from these operations are usually burns.
The injuries from washers are usually serious, being even more danger ous than the ordinary mill, due to the fact that the rolls are fluted, and the operator usually works in water and on floors or gratings which are usually wet and slippery--it being very difficult to prevent the water from splashing or dripping where men are obliged to stand. Some injuries result from slipping on the floors and from bumps and bruises in handling
the material itself.
'
In soaking the wild rubbers, rubber should be lowered into the soak ing tank gently to prevent the splashing pf the hot water. It Is always well to provide an overflow approximately one foot from the top of the tank to prevent the water from overflowing on the feet of the workmen. Where steam baths are used in connection with the water soaking
Rubber Section
997
process, a positive regulator should be supplied to prevent scalding or "shooting." Positive regulating devices may he secured from various
commercial firms for this purpose.
'
Great care should be used in placing the rubber in the washer for breaking down and washing. Operators should wear no loose clothing, such as long neckties, loose or baggy sleeves or aprons which may be caught in the rolls. Where it is practicable, a shelf should be provided for breaking,down upon which the rubber can be placed and shelved into the washing mill, rather than allowing the -operator to force it in with his hands. Frequently, rubber rides on the rolls, and a uniform stick or wedge should be used in all cases to hold the rubber down. Guard rails should be used wherever it is possible .to do so to keep the operator away from the mill so that he may not reach over into the bite of the rolls, and, as soon as the material is sufficiently sheeted, a shovel should
be used wherever it is possible to do so. Operators should watch their hands where it is necessary to work with
the sheets under water, such as tube washers, and they should be thor oughly instructed that, in no instance, are they to reach in the washer
mill for a knife or any object which may drop into it. All gears, couplings, keyways, spokes, pinions, flywheels, shafting, shaft
ends and revolving projecting parts should be guarded. Safety stops and power cutoffs should also be provided for these machines. A throwout
bar should be above the rolls immediately within reach of the operator, and this throwout should be used as a service stop in order to make the operator as familiar with it as possible. Roll travel after safety is thrown should be as low as possible; general practice is about 8 inches of the periphery of the rolls with mill loaded. The rolls of the washer mill should be as high from the floor as is practicable. All electrical
wiring, either for starting or lighting, or in connection with the safety
stop*, should be in conduit and thoroughly grounded.
'
Railings should also be provided for enclosing all moving parts from
too ready an access.- Starting panels should also be thoroughly enclosed,
insulated and grounded. It is well to provide warning signs for both
the mills and starting panels. Usually an opening in the housing on the
operating side of the mill leaves a possibility for a piece of a safety cap
to strike the operator. As these safety caps are necessary to protect the
rolls from breakage, a guard should be supplied over the opening in the
housing, which can be removed for access. The adjusting screws should
be frequently inspected. It has been found good practice to lubricate
these with kerosene about once a week to keep them in working order. A jack or pinch bar for spreading the rolls apart in case a workman is
caught should be provided for any group of mill washers the same as for mills, preferably in an individual cabinet, so that they can be readily found when necessary. Proper drainage should be supplied to the shelves, floors and pans of the washer mills to prevent undue collection of moisture on the floors, and rubber mats, properly secured, mastic or
composition flooring, or equally effective material should be used in front of the washer mills, owing to the fact that the floors sometimes becpme
998
Twelfth Safety Congress
slippery. Injuries on washer mills may be avoided the same as on other
mills by properly instructing- the operators and providing the necessary
safeguards.
-.
COBBS AND MOLDS
Design and Machining--Cores and molds should be designed so they
can be hoisted and handled to a reasonable degree with safety. Proper
thicknesses and weights of metals must be allowed for lugs and rings,
and the shapes for lifting strength should be such as to allow for a rea
sonable factor of safety. Sharp corners should be eliminated wherever
possible, so long as it does not interfere with the manufacture of the
rubber goods. A radius should be provided on all tire molds to eliminate
the sharp corners and reduce the weight where it is not needed.
Substantial grooves should be allowed in the cores of tire molds so
that the pin can be well seated and collapsible cores should have the
rings extend in, in order to hold well to the groove. Bolts should be secure on all collapsible cores and carefully fitted. Uniform clearances
should be provided between prying lugs of all sizes. It is equally im
portant that the bars be carefully designed to insure correct shape and
leverage.
.
Trucking- and Conveying--Many Injuries result from trucking and con veying of molds and cores. There are many types of transportation equipment, many of which are designed by the various rubber manufac turers themselves, and others are commercial devices. Flat trucks, lift trucks, pin trucks, tractors, conveying machinery of all description are undoubtedly used in one plant or another. The most serious injuries are crushed feet, resulting in fractures or loss of a member, contusions, lacerations, and many others too numerous to mention.
Substantial transportation equipment should be provided. However, each manufacturer has undoubtedly adapted the type of trucks, convey ors and equipment to that best suited for his own use. Many injuries result from cores and molds handled on trucks. Frequently, cores and molds are piled on flat trucks, one core or mold on another. This isparticularly dangerous in the transportation of cores, as these are rounded and are very apt to slide off. Usually, a four-wheeled truck is employed with a standard in the center of either a heavy casting or pipe with two horizontal members, all of which are in the form of a **T," the two horizontal members having a collar or pin at each end.
The cores, or the cores and tires, are sometimes suspended from these stakes and trucked to and from the various operations. The design of these trucks must be such as to withstand the heavy loads to which they are subjected both from a point of weight and the jar in placing them on the stakes and taking them off. It is best to use a four-wheeled truck for this type of core, the front axle being pivoted, in order to be able to turn around with the truck. It sometimes occurs that trucks become top heavy in turning and are overturned. This can be avoided by means of
Rubber Section
999
flat, iron legs immediately adjacent to tlie front wheel and bolted rigidly to the bottom or side of the truck, giving a clearance of about one inch from the bottom of the leg to the ground.
Falling over truck handles is the cause of *many accidents. Some
handles are designed so that the truck handle may rest in a vertical
position when the trucker has placed his truck at its destination or leaves
the truck for some reason or other. Others can be removed entirely, if
necessary, without unbolting, and are arranged with a slot fitting in a
cross member and set in a vertical position when raised and allowed
to drop down. Tractors and trailers are also used and, in most instances,
the same type of truck is used with a coupling, instead of a handle.
Sometimes truck handles are painted with alternate stripes of black and
white to make them as visible as possible. Workmen should secure
assistance when handling trucks and loads on inclines.
Conveyors are used in many plants. In any case where conveyors are
used, gears, shafts, bolts, pulleys, motors, sheaves, cleats, cables or mov
ing objects which are exposed to contact should be thoroughly guarded, and, in cases where employees are obliged to pass under such conveyors
and where cores or molds are liable to drop off, heavy and substantial
guards should be provided ,to withstand the weight and force of these
objects and prevent them from dropping below. Positive signaling devices should also be provided sit the loading and receiving 'end. In
some instances, a speaking tube is used in addition. A means of disen
gaging all conveyors from their source of power is also necessary. Piling and Packing--The same condition prevails with regard to in
juries in these particular operations. Molds and cores are sometimes
piled flat; others are piled on edge; still others are racked on edge; or
miscellaneous size . cores and molds are sometimes piled in bins, all
depending on the type of core or mold and the method the various manu
facturers employ. These are very frequently moved arid handled the
finished product. Molds and cores should be properly piled.
care should be used to see that the floors
When they are stored, great are not overloaded. Molds
should be piled flat and not too bigh. This is mainly governed by their
weight and means of piling at hand. Sometimes cores are piled one upon another, but this* is not good practice, for the reason that the cores are
rounded and are very apt to slide off. In some instances, cores are set on end, and care should he used to see that the proper angle is main tained to prevent slipping of the various cores from vibration or contact. A rubber mat or individual racks can be used to good advantage In keep ing cores in an upright position. This is usually the safest way. Some times cleats are used on the floor. Where cores are elevated in racks, great care should be used to see that a cleat or stop is used so that the core cannot roll off.
Iiifting--Lifting molds and cores Involves quite a hazard particularly
owing to the variation in weights of cores and molds and the peculiar shapes of them. Many of them are bulky, yet are not heavy, while others are extremely heavy and require more than one-man for lifting.
.1000
Twelfth, Safety Congress
In tire operations, the cores and molds- are very frequently lifted either manually or mechanically; consequently, the injuries from this source are not only numerous but quite serious in many instances.
Molds are seldom liftfed by hand, particularly because of their exces sive weight and awkwardness in handling, and, in the majority of cases, chain falls are used for this work, although mechanical devices, such as conveyors, trolleys, cranes, air hoists, etc., are used. The smaller size cores are usually lifted without much difficulty, but it is considered much safer for two men to lift the larger size cores.
Where cores are lifted and carried by two men, accidents are often caused by one man walking backward. "Where space permits, the core should be handled by the men both facing forward, each to the side of the core. Cores should never be carried over the neck and, even where a core is carried by one man, he should never walk backward. If cores are left fall to the floor, which relieves considerable lifting, pads of various materials for cushioning effects are used to good advantage. These should be so constructed that the bounce will not be so great that the cores will bounce off and over-balance. "Where cores are suspended from chain falls, trolleys, etc., and moved, they should not be pulled with a core behind the operator, but rather should be pushed in front, as there is a possibility of the core becoming disengaged from the hook or device used to hold it suspended and falling on the foot or person of the operator.
Bolling--Many of the smaller plants and even the large ones roll cores and molds by hand to and from the different working places within rooms, particularly in the smaller plants where conveying machinery is not in use. This, of course, involves a serious hazard, particularly with the heavier objects and peculiar design which is necessary. Owing to the fact that cores are rounded and polished, it is exceedingly dangerous to x*o 11 more than two cores at a time, especially odd sizes. Uneven and smooth floors are the cause of cores getting away and numerous foot injuries, especially in rolling.
Cementing, Cleaning and Brushing--These operations involve both acci dent and health hazards, mainly slippery cores producing bruises, con tusions and fractures, cores frequently getting away from the grasp of the workmen, and the vapors given off from various cements are some times toxic to certain individuals. In the cleaning and brushing opera tions, and various methods used, such as wire brushing, sand papering, lead baths, oxygen torches, shot and sand blasting, it follows that the material must be handled either manually or mechanically, and the same danger results from the lack of care in handling and the conditions under which the operators are obliged to work, including equipment involved.
Care should be exercised to prevent cores slipping In handling after they are cemented. Goggles should be worn for brushing and cleaning operations, especially where compressed air is used. Ventilation should be supplied in all cases where there is an abundance of dust or fine par-
Rubber Section .
1001
tides from cleaning and brushing molds. Where mold burning is done, it is well to ventilate the equipment at the point of operation to remove the fumes. This is also true of lead baths and cementing.
Brushing molds is usually a manual operation. In some plants, how
ever, mechanical brushing devices are employed. In either case, it is necessary to handle the molds, or at least the lids of the molds. These
result in numerous injuries to the fingers and hands and, frequently,
strains from hand lifting. Removing from Holds--This requires strong, robust men, if done manu
ally, in order to avoid strains, as it is cpnsidered quite heavy work for
the larger size molds. The balance construction and tension of bars
and equipment, are important. Men should provide themselves with good, substantial shoes and the floor and working area should be such
as to give them the best footing possible, in order to avoid slippage. It
is also important that ample working space be provided so that they are not unduly crowded in the course of their work .
Assembling and Unlocking--Assembling, and.unlocking cores and molds
consist mainly of operations whereby a segmental core is assembled or
unlocked or the lid of a mold, is removed from the lower section from the material to be molded between. This, particularly In the assembling
or unlocking of segmental cores, causes injuries to the hands and feet,
sections of the cores getting away from operators or getting fingers
pinched between the different members of the cores. This is also true of the lids, where fingers are frequently pinched and often severed in either
assembling or unlocking. Segmental cores should be carefully assembled and unlocked.
Seg
ments of cores have a sharp edge at the point where the two sections
come together to make a perfect radius and, if dropped, are liable to sever a toe or cause serious foot injuries. If dropped on the hands, the
injuries are usually serious, and they should be very carefully assembled
and made tight.
Stripping and Finishing--Tires and certain other rubber goods are
stripped from the cores. Some plants do this manually on some opera
tions, while others employ mechanical devices. As a rule, the manual
operations involve the greatest hazards, which are mainly strains, braises and falls, also from handling the various tools. Slipping is also an im
portant cause factor as related to these operations. In finishing, the
work is usually done by hand. Some lifting is done, which causes strains and fractures, if the operators are unable to hold the cores, or attempt to lift or move cores without the help of another workman.
Good, substantial shoes should be worn, preferably with arch supports,
and great care should be exercised when stripping by hand so that the tools do not slip off and fly, striking the operators. Segmental cores should he carefully piled, when taken apart to avoid contusions and
lacerations, and, wherever possible, substantial hand protectors should
be worn. Gratings should be provided where floors are wet and where
soap is used, and proper drainage to take away any excess moisture.
Even dry floors should be roughed or treated to eliminate the glaze.
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Twelfth Safety Congress
Rubber mats may be used, if secured; however, mastic fiooria^ or com
position is excellent for this purpose. Spinning tires on the spider war
rants very close attention, and it is well to keep the band* and arms away from the carrying arm, to avoid getting them pinched between.
Placing In- Clmck--(Machining and Finishing)--The hazards involved
at this point often result in crushed feet or badly bruised hands. Acci dents result from tire finishers placing cores on the pins in a haphazard manner. The core should be securely spotted on the chuck on both the
building machines and finishing stands, carefully observing that they are
spotted in the grooves and turned up securely. It is well for the oper
ators to try them to see that they are secure. It necessarily follows that
a proper maintenance should he provided to see that the grooves do not
become sufficiently worn to release the core from the chuck and that the
screw and hand wheel are also kept in good repair.
Painting--No serious hazards are involved In this operation. Fre
quently, however, small amounts of paint are splashed into the eyes.
Solution for painting should be carefully applied to avoid splashing in
eyes. Mechanical painters are used in some plants which lessens this
hazard, and other plants undoubtedly require operators to wear goggles.
Moving Cores on Supporting Hangers or Hooks--This operation results in various injuries to the hands and feet'usually quite serious. In some
plants, the cores are placed on trucks with supporting "T" arms, both
before and after the tire is finished and ready for curing. Often the
hands are crushed between the cores or between the pin and core or the collar or stop.
When placing cores on stake trucks, care must be used to see that fingers and hands are not caught under the cores being placed on the
stake. Likewise, the fingers and hands should be kept free from the stop
pins and collars, or mashed fingers and hands usually result. The tire
trucks most generally in use have a collar or pin provided at the end of the stake to prevent cores and tires from sliding or falling off. Fre
quently, the trucks are suddenly swung about and, if the stake is not
loaded full, the cores swing and shift about. Operators should keep free
from the cores when truck is in motion.
Opening and Removing Mold Covers--This operation Is also done either
manually or mechanically according to the various equipment and
methods of the various rubber manufacturers, and, if proper care is not exercised, this results in injuries to the fingers, hands and the arms, and
also in crushed feet.
'
Various methods are used in opening and removing mold covers, some
with Hand tools, others with hoists, hooks, conveyors and hydraulic rams.
In any case, the covers must be properly balanced and securely fastened
to prevent dropping on the feet or person of the workmen. If carried
overhead, when removed, strong barriers and guards should be provided
when workmen are obliged to pass underneath or in front of them.
Molds should be secure on hangers or spreaders to prevent their falling
off. If moved manually, they should be pushed and not pulled so that,
in the event of mold by any chance coming off of hangers or spreaders.
liubber Section
1003
the workman will be able to observe it with an opportunity at least of protecting himself. When lifting molds, sometimes operators carelessly fasten hangers or spreaders to upper half, instead of lower half, depend ing on the tire in the mold to hold lid and mold together.
Placing HTold CoTers--This operation is likewise done either mechan
ically or manually, depending on the type and weight of the covers and molds, but is usually done mechanically by means of hoists, and careless or thoughtless acts usually result in crushed lingers. Injuries to hands, fingers and arms, and sometimes injuries to the head, may be avoided if covers of molds are carefully placed over the bottom section.
This is frequently the result of getting fingers or hands between the upper and lower sections of the mold, and also at the time when the green tire is being placed in the mold for curing. Where the lid or cover is suspended overhead from conveyor or other mechanical apparatus, care should be taken so that operator does not get underneath the lid, in case it should become dislodged from movement of the lid or cover, or the possibility of the mold cover striking him in the head from swing ing of the mold. The covers should be carefully balanced and, when released, the operator should stand clear to avoid' the possibility of the covers becoming dislodged and falling on tbe feet.
Hand Tools and Fixtures--Many hand tools and fixtures are employed in connection with the use of cores and molds. These are usually adapted by the manufacturer to the equipment which is best suited for the construction of rubber goods. A number of the hand tools are prying bars, pulling bars, wedges, hammers, rollers, soapers and brushes, all of which constitute a hazard because of their frequent handling. Some of these are subjected to much abuse and often fail.
Hand leathers" or gloves should be worn to prevent burns. Leather should he as tough and heat-resisting as is possible. As mentioned in previous paragraphs, the hand tools should he designed of high-grade material with a reasonable safety factor to prevent over-stressing of the tools, also as to shape and leverage, in order to avoid strains from lift ing, pushing' or pulling, and reduce fatigue as far as is possible. It is equally essential that these hand tools he properly maintained and never used unless they are. in a satisfactory condition.
BOLLS AND FABRIC
.
Receiving--Rolls and fabric are usually received in box cars, and it is
possible for injuries to result from improper piling, faulty doors and con
dition of ears. These usually result in broken bones, mashed feet and
fingers, and are sometimes serious.
*
In receiving rolls and fabric, it is well to see that the doors, brakes
and cars are in good condition, in order to avoid the possibility of a
door striking the workmen, or the result of a door becoming dislodged
from opening. The same care should be used as in the foregoing para
graphs relating to receiving of other materials, in order to avoid this
type of injury.
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Twelfth Safety Congress
Unloading:--Unloading rolls and fabric involves removing the rolls and
usually taking them to storage in the warehouse or direct to the pro duction departments, according to the various methods of the manufac
turers. The usual injuries from handling this type of material are similar to the ones in the foregoing paragraph, and are due to handling and equipment used in connection with the unloading.
Many of these rolls are bulky and difficult to handle--varying in weight from 150 to 1,200 pounds in some instances. According to the piling in the cars, it is well tQ be sure that no one is below when letting them off the piles, and the same care must be exercised in lifting as found in the foregoing paragraphs as other material. Strains can be avoided from proper lifting and by using mechanical lifters or devices in place of manual labor.
Trucking and Conveying--Accidents from this source are rather numer ous and sometimes serious when large amounts of goods are received. These injuries are somewhat similar to the ones in the foregoing para graphs, as much handling is necessary in the trucking and conveying problems. Manual and mechanical devices are used, which constitute hazards in themselves. The majority of these accidents may be avoided by personal instruction, care and safe mechanical apparatus.
The rolls are usually trucked and conveyed to the weighing division and thence to the receiving and warehousing departments, flat trucks, lift trucks, tractors, conveying machinery being used for transportation. Care should be used to see that all the mechanical equipment is thor oughly guarded and that the hand trucks are sufficiently strong to with stand the loads to which they are to be subjected. They should be arranged with a sufficiently wide spread so that they will not over-turn.
Maintenance of these trucks should be such as to afford maximum protection, as many injuries result from Improper maintenance of what is termed splendid equipment when first put into use. Where elevators are used for conevying, care should be used so that the lifting capacity of the elevator Is not exceeded and that trucks are secure-on the plat forms to avoid running into the shaftways or gates. Rolls should not be piled too high and should be anchored to prevent sliding or rolling.
Weighing--In most plants, it is the usual custom to weigh in the rolls and fabric over a scale after they are received. There are no serious hazards in the connection, if the handling is carefully done, the equip ment substantial, and proper aisleways provided; also, if the proper care is exercised in spotting on the scale and giving the necessary attention to the anchoring of the material itself. It necessarily follows that the aisleways must be unobstructed and that observation is sufficient at corners for traffic coming in both directions.
Storage--In storing rolls and fabric, it is usually customary to place lengths of various size timber on the floor upon which the rolls and fabric are placed. These are also placed one on another with the possi bility of their becoming dislodged, unless they are very carefully piled.
Rubber Section
1005
which sometimes results in quite serious accidents. It is good, practice
to use cleats at the end of each section of timber for the upper tiers, and sufficient aisleway should be allowed for access.
There are various lifting or hoisting devices for reducing accidents. These are usually chain hoists, tiering machines or conveyors. It is quite essential, where tiering machines are used, that all the exposed gears, sheaves, cables, hinges, pulleys, belts, shafts, keys, keyways, etc., are always satisfactorily guarded. On some of the types of standard tiering machines serious injuries have resulted to the hands of the oper ators from the guides and sheaves. In the hand operated types, where there are intermeshing gears, it is well to see that these gears are thor oughly guarded, as usually when the platform of the machine is released, these revolve at a high rate of speed. Rolls should be secure on the platforms to avoid rolling off, and the machines should be placed suffi ciently close to the piling operations so they cannot drop between. Where hoists or cranes are used, it is well to arrange for periodical inspection of the hooks, slings or other apparatus, as in many cases these have failed at a critical moment.
Inspecting and Stamping--Inspection, as a rule, consists of passing the
fabric over an illuminated' plate and sometimes over a series of rolls for inspection and stamping. There are no serious hazards in this connec tion, with the exception of the handling of the rolls themselves and eye strain from improper illumination.
Attention should be given where the inspection machines with an illum inated glass panel are used, that proper lighting is provided. Eye strain and fatigue can easily result from this operation, because of the con stantly moving fabric and the close observance necessary. All gears, belts, pulleys and moving parts should be thoroughly and substantially guarded, and care should be used in lifting and handling the rolls.
Drying and Re-Rolling--Sometimes fabric is passed through a drier, which is usually a mechanical machine, consisting of a drive mechanism for pulling the fabric over drums or steam coils. These drums are usu ally constructed of boiler plate sufficient to withstand reasonable steam pressure, according to the operation for which they are to be used. The hazards from this operation may be from belts, pulleys, gears and inturn ing rolls and from handling and rehandling and burns.
Rolls, where dried mechanically, both passing over coils or drums, sometimes result in -injuries which can be avoided by strict observance as to the type and design of the machine itself, making sure that all moving parts'are thoroughly guarded, hot steam piping insulated, as well as any other portion of the frame or machine which can be consistently covered. Attention should be given to any series of rolls which come together, or turn in drawing the fabric between, so that the bite can be protected with a satisfactory guard to prevent employees' hands or arms being drawn between. A device for disconnecting the machine from its source of power, in addition to a brake, if the momentum is great, should be supplied immediately within reach of the operators. The rolls, when
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Twelfth Safety Congress
placed on hangers or stirrups involve hazards, such as crushed finger*, bruises and abrasions and strains from lifting. Ordinarily, care will
eliminate most of these, while proper mechanical arrangement may axoW
others.
.'
Calendering--The usual accidents are from crushed fingers, hands and arms, bums, shocks, bruises and contusions'. Some injuries are the result of shells and bars left standing on end and being knocked down. Others are the result of slippery floors, poor lighting, etc.
Calenders usually consist of three driven cast-iron heated rolls, be tween which rubber is passed, sometimes straight or impregnated in the
fabric. All moving parts, such as gears, keys, shafts, coupling*, etc, should he thoroughly enclosed or covered and a safety tbrowout priM at working points about the calender to bring the calender to rent a* quickly as possible in case of accidents. In most cases, mechanical or electrically governed brakes of- various types are necessary, la other*,
dynamic braking may be used to good advantage. In some
guards may be used at the point of the intermeshing rolls, while fa others they cannot. Operators must be alert and careful in passing the fabric through the calender in any case. It is well to keep the hands six inches from the end of the fabric. Leaders or stiffeners are used to
good advantage by some manufacturers to assist the operators in passing the fabric through the rolls.
The fabric is usually suspended from" brackets on the housing and
placed in a stirrup or bracket with a ring and a spindle. These should be supplied with positive locks so that the rolls cannot slip out and fall on the'operator's feet. Shells and bars upon which the fabric is wound
should be laid flat on the floor or otherwise secured so they do not fall
on the operators. Many calenders have raising and lowering devices, either for hand operation or mechanical. It is well to have means of quickly releasing the injured, avoiding reversing of the rolls until they
have been separated to a point where the member will not be crushed
again, usually resulting in amputation.
Safety throwouts are usually across the frame of the machine boch
front and rear, and in some cases, immediately at the point of windups.
These may be mechanical or electro mechanical, usually running to a clutch or to a disengaging switch. The details of construction are in cluded in the Safe Practices Pamphlet, covering mills and calenders, and details as to the best type of construction and devices can be bad from this pamphlet.
Delivering.--The usual custom is to remove this stock on hand trucks, lift trucks, conveyors, or elevators. This involves the nsnal hazards as mentioned In the foregoing paragraphs, and the best methods of avoid ing such hazards are proper mechanical equipment, using flat trucks where the material may be properly secured on the truck. Elevators and their appurtenances should be of the safest type. The lifting capac ity of the elevators should not be exceeded. Loads should be properly spotted, and care used in running off and on the elevators. Care should
Rubber Section
1007
also be used in running down inclines and in placing rolls so they will not topple over. If possible, it is best to hang them in racks as this avoids the possibility of their falling over and also assists In any mate rial damage to the rolls themselves.
EXAMINATION OF' EMPLOYEES FROM THE STAND POINT OF OCCUPATIONS IN THE RUBBER INDUSTRY
R. S. Qtjimby, M.D., Hood Rubber Company, Watertown, Mass.
There are several rather distinct divisions in the health program as it may be carried out today in almost any industrial plant. The rubber industry is not notably peculiar unto itself. The general medical program for the industry covers the story in the rubber industry as well as any other industry. However, there are several rather distinct factors on the health program of the rubber industry.
First, there is the physical examination. Second, there is the dispensary treatment of various abnormal sickness and accidents during hours of employment or work. Third, there' are disability cases followed throughout the disability
into the home or hospital, as the case may be, usually by the services of nurses, supplemented, by the services of physicians.
Fourth, there is a general health supervision of the plant. In spite of the work of safety men in spite of the work of others in the manage ment, there is still a condition on which the physician should be better able to advise on and perhaps control, than anyone else. So, the fourth function is supervision of general health--sanitation, hygiene of working conditions in the plant, and others which I will touch on a little later, such as relationship of beneficial plans of compensation.
What do we mean when we say physical examination in industry? You think, most naturally, of the type of examination you had when you were seeking' to take out life insurance, or you have in mind the
examination given by the Life Extension Institute, or in a few cases,
'you are in the habit of going to your own private physician as a matter
of routine.
-
That is not the type of examination we vizualize when we speak of
the ordinary run of physical examinations in industry. I think that I
might liken our general examinations to the coarse sieve procedure.
We are trying to sift out the coarser conditions, the most important conditions. We are letting pass through the sieve more or less condi
tions which may in time become of importance which we can't hope to
catch in their entirety at the time of the original examination of the
applicant. There are several elements that contribute to the necessity
of a coarse sieve rather than a fine sieve at that time. The time element
is one and quite important where the employment department wants
whatever is going to be- done done quickly and a man not held up. While we have entered into a contract with the man, yet, on the other
hand, pure decency alone prompts us not to keep him more than two
or three hours.
'
.
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Twelfth Safety Congress
The time element is important in industry. We say the examination
can be done in from five to ten minutes. Of* course that doesn't mean
all the cases can be done that way. I am talking of the 80 or 90 per
cent majority. time.
No one can criticise the expenditure of 10 minutes of *
It may seem to you that very little worth while can be discovered in
the course of such examination. However, those men come to the doctor
prepared for the .examination. In most cases the man is already stripped
to the waist and preliminary information has been gathered and already
is on the card, when the man comes through, so there is no waste time
there. A doctor, trained reasonably in routine physical examination work and having a fairly good knowledge of the occupations of the
plant, can vizualize fairly accurately whether the man being hired is
fitted to the work physically and can do a whale of a lot in 10 minutes.
A great many serious conditions are perfectly obvious to you or anyone
not necessarily medically trained. It doesn't take long to run over the
eyes, the hearing, look over the nose and throat, sound the chest, the heart and lungs, the abdomen; whether or not the applicant has varicose
veins and flat feet. The questions the doctor asks as he is going along
give a brief history as to what illnesses the applicant may have had, etc.
DEVELOPXCEXT OF THE rHVSIC-VL EXAMISATIOX
There have been a great many thousands of examinations that follow that general procedure, in most industrial plants today.
1 think it might be well to touch a bit on the history of this whole question and its development. It is not so many years ago that physical examination in industry was unknown or at least, limited to public utilities or unusual cases. We see every day even now, industries which have not taken up physical examination work and are very apprehensive of starting it. They don't see the motive in it. Not only that, but they are afraid to start it. They are afraid of reaction of the employees toward it; that they will say "What right have you to make me submit to an examination? We will walk out if you force our hand.''
The history of the situation has been that that thing doesn't happen if it is done with an intelligent degree of decency. The condition can be
brought about, but it is absolutely unnecessary to stir up turmoil. I
don't know offhand how many companies are doing physical examination work, but I have yet to hear of any serious condition where it has been done with any degree of intelligence, of an uprising among the employees.
I think it is vital that your management be sold the idea before any doctor starts out to do it. Until such time as sound belief is established, the matter should be held in abeyance, but once agreed upon, go ahead in a reasonable way. I think the best place to start, after once you have sold the idea to the management, is with the older employees and grad ually go through the rest of the employed force.
What do we seek to do by examining a man who comes in looking for a job? We seek first to keep out such individuals as are unfitted for employment in our plant. How many such are there? That percentage
,
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will depend on how you classify those unfitted and how strict your own standards are in that question of elimination. That is a controversial question brought up frequently to stigmatize our efforts: Are you going
to throw them out of employment on to society? That burden is already on society and always is going to he there? If we stick to the stand ards as fixed by the Conference Board of Physicians, we can always justify our position of rejections. Men are only rejected because em ployment would bfe a menace to themselves, to their fellow-employees or to the property. Then in the case of contagious diseases--tuberculosis ---we have no right to expose other healthy individuals who may be in our employ," to this danger.
On that basis, you reject certain cases. The general experience is about four per cent to six per cent varying with the particular industry and the standards of a given plant. I think of course in Army rejections it runs up to 33 per cent, among the selective age group.
We make no wholesale rejection, neither do we find it necessary to
make wholesale rejection. A great many of these people can be adapted
to selected occupations where they can be perfectly good producers both
for themselves and for their employer.
'
HEALTH HAZARDS OF RUBBER DfCUSTBY
Now then, you have a question of your people exposed to hazards in the rubber industry. What are those hazards? The chemical hazards, as yod well know, are liexatetramin, urotropin and benzol. Those, I think, are the three outstanding.
Then you have the question of your physical hazards outside of yoijtr
chemical hazards, such as heavy lifting, tire making, maintenance jobs, mixing room jobs, etc. Those are not so much different in the rubber factory than in any other factory. There are heavy jobs in any industry; it doesn't make much difference whether it is a bag of cement, a load of rubber or a wheelbarrow of bricks. So, from the physical standpoint, the question of occupation is not vital in the rubber industry.
Another important factor is the factor of female employment. What are you going to do with these women? As far as the physical examina tion is concerned, I have always felt that it was only fair and decent that we should furnish a female examiner. In the dispensary, it isn't important whether the doctor is male or female, but on the question or examination, I think it is fair and decent and proper to have a female examiner. I think they resent it much less. So we do that. Now, the examination need not be as detailed with the girls as with the men because in the first place, they are not going to be doing as heavy work and they are not subject to certain conditions which exist in the male employment, particularly hernia. Hernia in females is rare and the industrial liability practically negligible.
I think in the case of females we should make that examination rather
superficial except in cases .where more details are indicated to be
necessary.
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Twelfth Safety Congress
As to examination with reference to your chemical hazard, I do not know, neither do I know anyone who does know what we can do spe cifically to prevent the difficulty from lead, benzol or hexatetramine pois oning, aside from exercising our general Judgment as we do in other occupations to try to put individuals without serious physical defects where they "are exposed to lead, benzol or hexatetramine poisoning. But beyond that, it is a matter of watching and reexamination to determine what individuals are susceptible or, perhaps, that individuals exposed in a greater degree, develop a peculiar condition.
As I say, the management is where your drive should be made most intensely, in connection with any of this health work. So we should double our efforts among the management to sell this medical work and physical examination work and reexamination to prevent the develop ment of insidious conditions. We are doing everything to avoid the development of serious consequences.
The first thing you do after establishing a physical examiner in your plant, is to keep from your employment office a certain number of people who know, themselves, they are unfitted for the work. There is the first big preventative step right there. Yotf will find very roughly (it will depend considerably on the individual equation of how your doctor who rates people, standardizes) that may run to 40 or GO per cent, more or less.
We have heard a lot about pyorrhea and root abscesses. The idea is right; those dental facts deserve omsidemion. The thing should he car ried down to a point of correction The dental dispensary (with outside dental service next) 1 believe yon will find a matter of 10 or 12 per cent,
waxet* am naaa tvmdsrrasB or ecctssExcE
The gross eye defects, raovuly fi your clerical and footwear divisions
and your tire division. trout fNe to seven per cent.
Figures will run os hernia among men. I think, about five to seven per cent. This cover* cases that atre going to be controversial and that you ought to know about when they come in.
You will find about two per cent gross circulatory defects, heart defects, (not organic and not nece**arity to be excluded from your employ) and about the same percentage of lung conditions, some tubercular and some *ot tubercular. Some can be employed and others not.
We should of course seek to follow those defective findings through to their correction in our medical department or outside, if we are going to build as strong as we can on a constructive health basis.
A great deal of money can be saved by the work of your own medical department both in connection with examinations, treatment and the handling of your Compensation cases. A certain number of them may from force of necessity or apparent desirability, go to outside surgeons or outside hospitals.
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It may be desirable to have a beneficial arrangement so that people disabled may be tided over their disability, but don't do anything to invite them to put it over on you. If they put it over on you in benefits, they will put it over on you in something else.
Our experience over a period of five years indicates five per cent of our working time is lost because of personal reasons; our total absences are about five per cent of the working time. Six days of the working year are being lost on account of sickness and non-industrial accident. That figure of six days of a working year is relatively low, with 35 .or 40 per cent female employment.
I wish in connection with Mr. Lyons' report something might be done
as is being done in the Public Health Service. I happen to be chairman
of the Committee of Industrial Physicians and Surgeons' organization. They are' making a drive towards standard 'methods of collecting this
information and disseminating and comparing it. Get your information
on the same basis and as good as your compensation basis is today. Once
we have done that in the rubber industry, we have something to take to
the industry and say, "Here's ours; what is yours?" It is the only yard
stick by which you can measure what you are accomplishing and whether
the examination is worth being made.
.
You can save money in connection with your insurance arrangements and your beneficial arrangements by doing it.
DISCUSSION
``Mr. Hewitt:. How frequently would you recommend examinations on
compound mixers?
.*
Dr. Qulmby: Every three months, I think.
Mr. Schneider: I would like to know whether you carry on subsequent
examinations and how often with employees continuously `in employment and also whether employees are re-examined after they have been off for illness other than that occurring in the course of employment?
Dr. Quimby: I will answer your last question first. We have an arrangement whereby we follow cases out on account of sickness. As to the reexamination, we try to cover those exposed to industrial hazards every three to six months.
Mr. H. T. Martin (Fisk Rubber Co., Chicopee Falls, Mass.) : I would like to ask the doctor who has final authority as to whether the man should be accepted or not, the doctor or the employment man?
Dr. Quimby: Well, the doctor; he must have it, I think. The employ ment man can't Judge the physical conditions; it is the doctor's job, otherwise, you have no need of the doctor.
Mr. M. A. Quirk (Morgan & Wright, Detroit): Mr. Hewitt asked how often they are examined. You say every three months. Would you take a loss of . ten pounds into consideration ?
Dr. Quimby: Ten pounds loss in the weight of a man will attract
c your attention.
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Twelfth Safety Congress
Mr. Quirk: I am wondering whether you would follow that closely to
observe the weight. I know of some cases where they watch the weight
In some departments and others they don't.
Dr. Quimby: We weigh when we hire and every time they are reex
amined. We also take blood pressure and bring them up for check and
classification.
Mr. Martin: Do you acquaint the foremen or assistant superintendent
with, a man's physical defect? Dr. Quimby: It is a. routine matter. He is acquainted only by
numerals as to that man's condition. Ordinarily we endeavor to keep such information as we feel can be kept to ourselves without hurting anyone, either the man or the foreman. We Intend to keep that infor
mation as confidential as we can.
Mr. Martin: What I had in mind of course, doctor, was what were the number of cases you distribute safely through Judicious selection at the
employment department? 1 have a case of mine now where a man. had
a. hernia. During a period, when common labor was scarce, he was put
on a laboring job. In this particular case, the foreman knew it and took
the chance. If trouble had developed, it would have been even more
serious if he hadn't known about it.
.
Dr. Quimby:
check up inter-department transfers pretty carefully.
Some get away from us. I suppose you could make it holeproof, but it
is pretty hard to. There are not such a great number of occupations
that it makes such a great difference. Of course the intra-department
stuff may slip up as you say, where a man is shifted from one operation
to another.
.
FIRE HAZARDS IN CHURN AND SPREADER ROOMS
W-\t. D. Miue, Supervisor of Surveys, Underwriters Bureau of New
Eyglakd, Boston
`
The process of softening a rubber compound with an inflammable vola tile solvent, and spreading the resulting material upon a fabric must always be attended by important hazards of fire. The property losses due to this hazard must remain as a charge upon the business until such time as progress in manufacturing methods finally results in the elimina tion of the use of the volatile, inflammable 'solvent.
Experience has resulted in the establishment of certain practices and habits in spreader and churn room operations which have reduced the dangers in these areas soemwhat, but it is only when the nature of the hazard is correctly understood, and intelligent and constant effort Is
made to offset it, that a minimum of danger will be present.
Tbe hazards are those of gasoline, benzine, benzole, naphtha, acetone, amyl acetate, and other solvents. Between the several solvents commonly used, no distinction should be made as to hazard. If the solvent will burn, and will evaporate at ordinary temperatures, it is a dangerous material. There may be differences in the "flash points," in tbe range of the explosive mixtures with air. and in the specific gravity of the
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vapors of the several solvents, but with a suitable Combination of cireumstances;>serious fire's or explosions may occur in connection with the
use of any of them.
In Order to ignite a so-called inflammable liquid it is necessary first, to change of or that liquid into vapor, mix it with air, and apply
heat at some point sufficient for ignition. Thereafter the liquid burns
only as it is transformed into vapor and the supply of air is needed for
the combustion is maintained. If the mixture of vapor and air is intimate,
and the mixture is in or near that proportion at which all the oxygen of
the air will combine with all the vapor, the combustion is propagated
so rapidly that an "explosion" occurs, the apparent violence of the explo
sion depending upon the rigidity with which the field of the combustion
is confined. The application of this phenomenon is usefully made in the
modern automobile engine with which we are all familiar.
.'
In a churn room, vapors of solvents are more or less regularly given
oft Into the air, while in a spreader room the solvents are deliberately
driven off, so that it is apparent that combustible for explosive mixtures of vapor and air must be present constantly or at more or less frequent
intervals. With such conditions it is only necessary to introduce the
igniting agency to have fire or explosion result. That such a result
occurs as infrequently as it does, is a constant source of surprise, for
mixtures as low as .7 of one per cent of gasoline vapor to air may burn,
and such feeble sources of heat as a static discharge from the human
body may be sufficient for ignition.
The problem of securing safety from fire in areas where inflammable vapors are or may be present at once resolves itself into three parts:
First, the isolation and covering of the main bodies of inflammable
liquids or mixtures so that large quantities will not be exposed to fire.
Second, the prevention of evaporation at such stages of the processes
In which It Is unnecessary, and the prevention of the formation of com
bustible vapor and air mixtures in so far as possible at other stages of the
operations.
.
Third, the elimination of all possible sources of heat likely to cause
ignition.
SAVE STORAGE OF SOLVENTS
It is general practice nowadays to store gasoline and similar solvents in underground tanks away from buldings, and there are well established
underwriters' rules and state or municipal laws which regulate the condi
tions of such storage. Familiarity with gasoline however, breeds con
tempt o its hazards with certain types of people, while ignorance of the
proper methods of safeguarding storage leads others to err. Both factors
lead to the existence of undesirable conditions in many cases. Among
the undesirable conditions frequently found may be mentioned the fol
lowing:
'
(a) Tank cars of solvents set alongside buildings.
(b) (c)
Storage tanks above ground near unprotected buildings.Storage tanks discharging by gravity to outlets Within buildings.
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Twelfth Safety Congress
(d) Discharge systems not equipped with controls allowing the ready
regulation or stoppage of the flow from outside the areas where fire may
occur.
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Lesser quantities of solvents or churned mixtures may present oppor tunity not only for dangerous room atmospheres but for serious fires,
if they are not properly cared for. The not infrequently found practices of carrying solvent in open pails, and having a number of uncovered tubs
of churned mixtures standing or in use in work rooms result in fires in such areas being more frequent and more severe than they should be.
Flash fires at spreaders are not infrequent, but they seldom result seri
ously if the supply of solvent or churned material is properly covered.
It is very easy to say that solvents and solvent bearing mixtures should
always be kept under cover, but it is a much more difficult matter to con
duct manufacturing operations and at the same time maintain conditions
ideal to safety. Any recommendations made in specific cases must be thoroughly practical or safety will be sacrificed. It is almost always
possible, howover. by giving a little attention to the matter, to improve
on existing conditions and offset the tendency of operatives to become
careless in their habits. A system of 'delivering churned mixtures to
spreaders and similar machines by a piping system is ideal, while delivery
is wheeled truck tanks, wholly enclosed is nearly as good. Such wheeled
tanks as are used in garages might be used to advantage in many
factories.
.
The yrt readon -of needless evaporation of adrest is deserving of effort for the m)cc of economy as well as of safety from fire. Open churns and ope* tub* arc ot now as frequently found as formerly, but in spite of the rm of modern equipment, the atmosphere in churn rooms is often i-ttfficSently charged with vapor to be dangerous. It is absolutely essential to the safety of such rooms that the ventilation be such as to dilute the vapor below the danger point, prevent the formation of pockets of vapor,
and **> stir up the atmosphere that zones of dangerous mixtures will he
of small extent The solvents ordinarily ssed give vapors heavier than air and adequate floor ventilation Is essential to safety. Serious explo sion#. with loss to both life and property have been due to pockets of gas in churn rooms set'below grade. A prime requisite for churn room
safety is that the floor be above surrounding grade, anad that there be direct openings at floor, level to outside.
Natural ventilation, with permanent openings at floor level, open swing sash in numerous windows, and a high roof having louvred monitor, gives good protection for churn and spreader rooms. Artificial ventilation, may be satisfactory, but seldom is so. Blower fans are always a hazard, and when running in - a duct system where there may be a stream of in flammable vapor, or condensation may occur, there may be very dangerous conditions. There should be no bearings or motors in the path of the air. and fan blades should be of soft metal. The intake or discharge openings for forced ventilation systems should be numerous and well
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distributed- both vertically and horizontally in order to secure even
conditions in the atmosphere. Inlets to fan systems should have screens
to exclude dirt.
. ` EN'Cr.OSCRES MAY PROVE HAZARDOUS
In many cases efforts to recover solvents from' their vapors, or to
remove toxic or unpleasant vapors from worlc room, lead to the enclosing of' the devices so as to entrap these vapors. It may readily he seen that such enclosures must necessarily, at one time or another contain danger ous mixtures of vapor and air, unless by careful provisions, they are kept charged with inert gas. Granting that an agency for ignition is introduced to an enclosure filled with an explodible mixture of vapor and air, the explosion that follows is of a force, the magnitude of which depends on the size of the enclosure and on the ratio of the vapor to the oxygen present. The effect of the explosion will depend chiefly on the character of the walls of the enclosure. The force that might be devel oped by such an explosion is so enormous ' that no structure could resist
it. Enclosures if necessary should he built of the lightest possible material anad be constructed to open on the slightest increase of pressure. In'the case of enclosures about very large machines it may be desirable
to provide rigid side walls, but in such cases free and easy vent over
the entire top area directly to the outside should he provided. Such
enclosures, arranged to relieve upward within the confines of a building,
have given opportunity for very serious explosions occurring secondarily
in the space under the roof.
When solvent recovery operations are practiced, it is essential that
the apparatus for condensing and distilling be located well away from
work rooms and buildings of high value, in order that the pronounced
hazard of these operations may not be' important in their effect on the,
whole. Safe aand successful recovery of solvents involves Intricate
problems requiring great care, experience, and intelligence in their
handling.
.
After churn and spreader rooms and their equipment have been ar
ranged with a view to securing effective ventilation and safety from fire
involving large quantities of inflammable materials, or areas otherwise
occupied, special precautions must be taken with respect to minor equip ment and manufacturing practices, to prevent the presence of those agencieq which may cause Ignition of vapors necessarily present. A very ordinary understanding of the dangers will lead to the elimination of all open flames or lights, and to the prohibition of smoking. Good practice calls for the prohibition of the carrying of matches.
Electrical equipment is at best a constant source of danger, for even minor electric sparks may effect, ignition of vapors. All motors should be. excluded from churn rooms, and preferably from spreader rooms. Electric lights and wires thereto should be of the vaporproof type as prescribed for hazardous locations by the National Electrical Code.
Switches should be excluded from the areas where vapors may he
present. .
.
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Twelfth Safety Congress
Shaft bearings must receive constant good care in order to avoid over heating. Fast running machinery should be avoided on account of the greater danger of hot bearings and breakdowns, while high speed belts are frequently troublesome sources of static electricity.
STATIC EUEOTBICITT
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Probably the most baffling cause of fire is static electricity. Charges
of "static" are built up under certain conditions upon belts, on moving
surfaces of cloth, on the bodies or clothing of workmen, in vapor clouds, and perhaps sometimes in flowing solvents at nozzles or jets. Discharges
of "static" electricity occur between bodies having different electric po
tentials, and if the proper air-vapor mixture is present fire may readily
follow. The problems of avoiding fires from this cause resolves itself
into the question as to how all - the bodies in the danger area may be
maintained at the some potential.
'
Static charges on belts may be avoided by connecting the driving and
driven shafts to a common ground, and by picking small charges from the
belt to the same ground by means of contracts of fine comb point
collectors. The difference in potential between the cloth being treated^ and the
machine, may be eliminated in part by connecting the knife of the
spreader, the steam pipes of the table, and the frame of the machine to a secure and permanent ground. Unless the ground is well done and well
maintained the protection afforded will not be satisfactory, and further
measures are frequently necessary. Experiments show that static charges
exist on the cloth as it is unrolled before the spreader, are largely dis charged silently by a properly grounded knife, but build up anew im
mediately after the cloth passes the knife and rapid evaporation of the
solvent occurs. These charges may continue on the cloth and be rolled up
with it so that when it Is unrolled for a secondary coating they may cause considerable trouble. These charges are very difficult to avoid,
and thorough grounding of the steam table does not fully effect their dissipation. Where such charges give recurrent trouble it may be neces
sary to resort to special humidification to drain them away. Static charges are frequently developed on the persons of the workmen,
some men apparently being more subject to this phenomenon than others. In this connection there is more or less humor in the case of the famous Providence tom-cats. The city fathers, for the dispatch of stray cats, provided a tank filled with illuminating gas for suffocation. In several instances when lively "toms" were cast into the tank, explosions occurred, being caused by discharges of "static." Good practice in spreader rooms provides for the common grounding of men, machines and material tubs, so that all may have the same potential. This is achieved by providing grounded metal floor coverings in front of the machines aand under tubs, and requiring workmen to wear brass or copper pegged shoes.
A frequent cause of fire is the discharge due to difference in potential between discharge outlets and containers into which solvents are received. It is important that the discharge device and the container be grounded
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together. Failure to properly ground tank trucks has taught the oil companies what is needed in this respect. Serious troubles have occurred in connection with scale tanks where properly interconnected grounds were not provided, while the mere operation of pouring solvent from one pail to another has caused lesser fires.
Grounding is of little value unless it is done with great care, thoroughly
and intelligently, and constant attention is given to the maintenance of
the grounds.
`
.
Analysis of churn and spreader room fires over a period of years shows
that such fires are frequent when the relative humidity of the atmosphere
is low, and infrequently when it is high. Low relative humidity has been
shown to be the most important single factor affecting the safety of
churn and spreader rooms, and its frequent occurrence at certain seasons
under our American factory and climatic conditions is the explanation of
the greater troubles experienced from "static" not only in rubber works,
but in cotton mills, in this country than in England. A high relative
humidity apparently allows "static" charges to drain off silently through
the atmosphere. It has been shown that a relative humidity of 40 to 45
gives a "safe" atmosphere, and it is fortunate' that natural humidity
falls below this on but few days in the year.
While artificial humidification has been generally adopted in cotton mills to advantage, it is not so commonly found in rubber mills. It can be used to improve conditions where trouble from static is experienced. It has been found oftentimes that the use of constant steam jets at spreaders has prevented the flash fires to which these machines are subject, but general humidification, arranged to operate automatically when required may be the most satisfactory solution In many cases.
Electrical devices, known as "static neutralizers" dissipate static by
alternation of light high potential charges on the goods. The experience
with these devices in the presence of inflammable vapors has not been
entirely satisfactory.
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EXTINGUISHERS
_
Having properly provided for the quantity storage of inflammables,
carefully isolated by fire walls the spreader and churn rooms, made
adequate provision for ventilation and humidification, thoroughly inter
connected by permanent electric "grounds" the various machines and
equipment, and having established proper habits of work on the part
of operatives, there remains the question of providing proper means
for extinguishmeiit of fire.
.
Automatic sprinklers should of course be provided. Sprinklers will
not prevent explosions, and may not be as effective as may be desired
in extinguishing fires in open containers of solvents, but they will, if properly supplied with water keep fire out of other materials, and prevent
loss to machines and equipment by keeping them cool. The chief danger
in connection with the operation of sprinklers in such cases is that open containers of solvents may be overflowed and fire spread.' By so curbing
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Twelfth Safety Congress
and draining floors that overflowing solvents will be led away to safe,
points, this danger can be minimized, aand sprinklers should never be
omitted by reason of it. '
'
Hose streams may by their powerful action spread blazing materials
about, and they are much more dangerous in this respect than are
sprinklers, the fine spray from which has smothered many fires in con
tainers of solvents.
-
Steam hose has proved most effective in handling spreader fires with
out damage to materials, but the use of powerful steam jets has sometimes
resulted in the spread of fire from tubs of material. The proper covering
of tubs, tanks and pails is as important a factor when fires occur, as it is
in affecting the evaporation.
Foam extinguishers of various types have proved to be of great value
in extinguishing fires in which inflammable liquids are involved, and
their use is to be highly commended.
DISCDSSIOX
Led btEE Gkaef
There are two kinds of spreaders; one known as the Scotch type of spreader, used to coat fabrics by means of applying a dye to the surface of the cloth; the other, is the dip spreader and the process is entirely different- The cloth is Immersed in a solvent which is of a very fluent nature and cannot be used in as small quantities as with the Scotch spreader. It is in a far more inflammable condition due to the fact that the percentage of solvent is higher. There are firms who are willing to take the chance of using Scotch spreaders In a building adjoining or even in a part of the main plant. If they are willing to take that respon sibility that is their affair. I think anyone who uses a dip spread process in a building adjoining or connected to or in a part of the main factory building is taking a chance that I wouldn't want to see taken around the factory I am associated with.
In the actual churn and spreader rooms usually, the solvents and' cements are in containers of comparatively small capacity. It is one thing to have a container with a. cover; it is another thing to keep the cover on. A good many employees are apt to be careless about taking covers off and failing to return them. I think you will find it is a com paratively easy matter to adjust any of these containers so that the cover is a part of the equipment and is normally in a closed position.
Also, in the churns in which cement is manufactured, there are .two ways of emptying these churns, one through a large spigot in the bot tom; the other, by dumping the churn in order to remove the cement which is thick, in as short a space of time as possible. In the latter case, instances of fire occur while these churns are in process of being dumped. That is a very inopportune time to have a fire because you have a large volume of cement exposed to the air and being emptied from one vessel to another. It is a very easy matter to have it overflow
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on the floor or spread about by sprinklers or other equipment. It is possible by a simple mechanical contrivance to regulate them so that they will assume a normal vertical position. In other words, it is neces sary to hold them in the dumping position by force. As soon as fire occurs, they erect themselves to vertical position.
In the regulation of humidity, you will find some production men who
will tell you this is impractical due to the fact that you will get pre
cipitation of moisture on your product which will destroy the value of
the goods you are making.
'
We have tried for a good many years to regulate the humidity in our cement and spreader rooms. We found the statement that it cannot bedone is wrong. By proper regulation of the temperature in conjunction with humidity regulation, it is possible to keep the humidity within a certain range which reduces the possibility of static discharges to a minimum at the same time never reaching the point so you will not have a deposit of moisture either on machinery equipment or goods you are making.
We have found that there is a great deal that can.be done in case fires do occur to minimize the extent of the fire. Every man in the depart ment is trained as a volunteer fireman and is a member of an auxiliary volunteer fire force in our plant. Some factories, I suppose, do not have their own fire department and depend for this service upon the city departments.
No matter where that fire department may be that you are depending on, it takes time to turn in an alarm and for the fire department to reach the scene of the fire. In our own factory, it takes a minute and a half from the time the fire alarm in the cement house is sounded for the company fire department to reach the cement house from the central fire station. We have felt that to cut down this minute and a half was ex tremely important where the risk was so great and where there was so much material that could be damaged. So we have organized this aux iliary volunteer department consisting of the men in our churn and spreader rooms. They are trained to know exactly what they are to do with the fire-fighting equipment available in that department. To show you how satisfactory this arrangement has been, I can tell you in the last three years' time, we have never had a fire in our cement house or spreader room which has not been extinguished before our own company fire department could reach the scene, which means, we have not had a fire which was not out within a minute and a half after it started. We have been successful enough in the extinguishment of the fires that have occurred to confine all our fires to the machine where the fire broke out and to minimize the damage to about 10 or 15 yards of fabric.
in'S'DBAirCB BEGtn.ATIONS
Mr. Mitchella: One of the most insistent regulations which the fire insurance companies have is the disposal through pour drains, perhaps, of these volatile liquids or whatever liquids may be on the floor at the
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Twelfth. Safety Congress
time of the fire. They insist these shall be carried away to a cistern of a capacity equal to the total capacity of volatile liquids or cements within the 'particular room being drained.
At the same time, they insist upon putting sprinklers within that room
which will probably discharge many times as much water as the actual
contents of the room. This of course carries the volatile;liquids down
into the cistern through the overflow Into perhaps a sewer or river, wher
ever the main discharge is.
-
I think that is one of the most vital points of the spread of fire. Some
times a fire will be carried down through the cistern, and sometimes it is
smothered before it gets that far.
--
I would like to bring out a point also with regard to a sash within such a room. It has been insisted that we install a certain kind of glass so that the explosion will burst out the glass and not damage the walls or throw the glass into the building. I would like to suggest that the insur ance companies recommend a type of sash with wire glass, hinged at the top to act as a flap which will immediately close and confine the fire within the room, thereby enabling you to use the steam extinguishment, so that it will be confined in the room.
We have not had occasion to try that out in our own plant, but -in another place where we have been bothered some time with explosions and which damage the buildings, we provided such flaps without further damage to the building. We. had explosions later where we thought such a system would prevent it altogether and without damage to the building.
I would like to ask the speaker if he knows of any type of recovery system upon which no fire or explosion can occur?
Mr. Milne: I studied quite a number of solvent recovery systems but I don't know of any on which explosions cannot occur. There is a sys tem which is especially designed for "safety which, if it is in operation, certainly will prevent an explosion or trouble from occurring, but there have been accidents in plants where that system was installed. .
SAFETY CODE COMMITTEE
/.
Chairman Beck: Inasmuch as there is .a meeting to take place in a
very few minutes, I would like to mention the names of the committee
that it was suggested that the chairman appoint to work with the New
Jersey Department of Labor on the Safety Code. I will suggest four
names and make another suggestion that the four elect their own chair
man. The names I suggest are: Air. Congdon, of U. S. Rubber Co.; Mr.
Mitchella. of B. F. Goodrich Co.; Mr. Hoener, of Firestone Rubber & Tire
Co., and Mr. Blanchard, of the Hood Rubber Company.
.
REPORT OF NOMINATING COMMITTEE
Mr. Lawler: The nominating committee wishes to present the follow
ing names: Mr. C. F. Horan, for chairman; Mr. E. L. Hewitt, for vice
chairman; Mr. C. T. Wilson, for secretary.
-
Rubber Section
1021
Mr. Mitchella: I move that the secretary cast one ballot for the unanimous election of the nominees.
(Motion seconded and carried and the secretary cast the ballot.)
Chairman Beck: Then it is very becoming for me at this time to present to you our new chairman and I assure you that he has his foot on the gas and will keep things hopping during the next year.
APPOINTMENT OF COMMITTEES
Chairman-Elect Horan: It is the policy of the new chairman to Imme diately appoint some of the committee members. I am pleased to appoint the following: statistics committee, Mr. Partridge; membership. Mr. Graef; program, Mr. Harvey Wilson; bulletins, Mr. Lyons; safe practice. Mr. Schneider. Chairmanships on the engineering, publicity and health hazards committees have been left open. They will be appointed within the next couple of weeks.
ADJOURNMENT.
Steam Railroad Section
October 2, 3, 4, 1923
Xi. Gr. BENTLEY, Clialrinan
General Safety Agent, Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad, Richmond. Va.
J. G. FITZHUGH, Vice-Chairman
Superintendent of Safety, Colorado and Santa Pe Railroad, Galveston, Texas
GREEN, Secretary
Superintendent of Safety, St. Paul and Sault Ste. Marie Railroad.
Minneapolis, Minn.
TUESDAY MORNING SESSION
HAIRMAN BENTLEY: "What a difference there is this morning as compared with last year and the year before when we were beset with curtailment of expenses," and when many of the members of the Steam Railroad Section withdrew their membership because of those conditions which confronted them on their own properties. The Steam Railroad Section of the National Safety Council has re ceived during the past year the most hearty cooperation of the council. There has been no subject that any member of the Steam Railroad Sec tion has offered to the National Safety Council that they have not given every assistance in their power to carry through. The Engineering Section of the Council has gotten out some of the most educational pamphlets on. industrial hazards, and the cooperation of the bulletin editor with the chairman of our bulletin committee has been 100 per cent. Without the assistance of Mr. Solensten, the bulletin editor, I doubt if even the superior work of Mr. Cott could have pro duced the high-class bulletins that have been produced during the year. The National Safety Council has emphasized the trespassing problem in every possible way. Bulletins have been circulated throughout the other sections of the National Safety Council concerning the trespass evil. In our Careful Crossing Campaign, which closed on October 1st, the support of the National Safety Council in distributing our bulletins throughout the sixteen or twenty sections was all that could be desired, all that we could ask. We do know that tremendous impetus was given to the Careful Crossing Campaign through the interest and service of the National Safety Council.
1023
1024
Twelfth Safety Congress
The National Safety News has carried from time to time articles not only on the highway crossing problem but on other problems of value to the railroads for which we cannot afford to show other than apprecia tion.
In the school work, which is after all the foundation of safety for coming generations, I think it cannot be gainsaid that the National Safety Council is the biggest moving factor in the world to educate our boys and girls so that years hence when they come to us as railroad men to carry on the transportation industry of the country, they will be men already trained in safety and we will not have to re-educate them and correct unsafe habits of long standing.
I want to refer also to the matter of the safety film bureau of the National Safety Council. As all members of the Steam Railroad Section are aware, the council undertook last year to create a film bureau. The membership was circularized; we were urged to subscribe to the film bureau in order that' first-class railroad films might be produced. The responses, because of conditions which I have mentioned before, were not all that could be desired. Some few of the railroads, I think about 12 in number, agreed to subscribe to the bureau of film production.
REPORT OF MEMBERSHIP COMMITTEE
Robert Scott
At the last Congress the Steam Railroad Section had 82 members.
During the year, it has secured 13 new members, which are Ann Arbor
Railroad. Tennessee Coal, Iron Railroad Company, Dominion Atlantic Railway Company, North Eaat-Oklahoma Railroad, Southern Railway
Company, Fort Smith and Western Railway, Georgia and Florida Rail
way, Sacramento Northern Railway, Oahu Railway and Land Company,
Ringham and Garfield Railway Company, Chilean State Railway, Guilford
S. Wood Company, and Hayes Track Appliance Company.
Five roads cancelled their memberships, leaving a total membership
of 90 with a net gain in membership for the year of 8.
.
'
It might be of interest to you to know that the Class 1 railroads not
now connected with this section are Boston and Maine; Chicago, Bur
lington and Quincy; Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis and Omaha; Florida
Bast Coast and Rock Island Lines.
REPORT OF COMMITTEE FOR CO-OPERATION WITH OTHER AGENCIES
J. F. Geodzki
The various agencies which this committee recommends to be solicited are:
Group 1
National, state, county, city, and police officers, as well as the railroad or public service commissions of the various states. Group 2
Schools, churches, newspapers, and other publications.
Steam Railroad Section
1025
Group 3
Rotary; Kiwanis, Lions, Railway, and other clubs, as well as commer
cial and civic organizations..
Group 4
'
The National Education Association, the American Association of Engi
neers, the United States Chamber of Commerce, various motorists' asso ciations, trade and labor organizations, fraternal organizations, the
Travelers' Protective Association, Insurance companies, particularly
those handling accident and automobile insurance, industrial associations,
transportation companies other than railroads, radio forwarding stations,
and others, which could be added from time to time.
\
Group &
Highway and county road map manufacturers and distributors.
- REPORT OF BULLETIN COMMITTEE
. E. R. Corr
There has been a new idea developed by this committee on making
bulletins.
We made a selection of a certain number of hazards which we wished
to call employees' attention to in bulletins. This was reduced to writ
ing, scenes were laid, and finally Mr. Solensten, of the National Safety
Council, Mr. Mitchell, of the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad,
and myself went down to Richmond, were there joined by Mr. Bentley,
and the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad was turned over to us; we hired the
best photographer we could get in the city of Richmond and worked four
days staging those scenes, photographed them, and our year's work was
practically done.
I have made four trips to Chicago since the photographs were made.
There I met with Mr. Solensten, the bulletin editor. We worked up
enough bulletins to keep running for two or three months and I went
back home. Mr. Solensten, at press time now reaches in a drawer, takes
out three photographs and sends them down to the printer. They are
very much pleased with the idea and they are now trying to get the
members of the bulletin committees of the other sections to follow that
plan.
.
I want to give you just a few figures. The number of railroads which
have ordered bulletins during the period from September 15, 1922, to date
is 70. That means that a certain number of our members are not pur
chasing bulletins from the National Safety Council. I have interviewed
a few of them and they state that they don't seem to suit their needs.
The number of bulletins ordered by the railroads during the same
period is 197.9S1. The number of Steam Railroad Section bulletins
ordered by members of the council other than railroads is 52,956, which,
gentlemen, shows yon that about 250,000 safety bulletins, both large and
small, have been purchased during the fiscal year of the council and dis
tributed among the membership and among non-members of the Steam
Railroad Section. That is one point that we should not overlook in our
1026
Twelfth, Safety Congress
bulletin work, the fact that there are a large number of Steam Railroad
Section bulletins .purchased by industrial members of the council, and the
safety work particularly of a public nature covered by bulletins of the
National Safety Council is distributed among the industries and schools
that we wish to reach.
*
I wish to acknowledge the assistance of Mr. Mitchell. Mr. Solensten of the council, and the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad for the kind manner in which they just turned over the railroad to the bulletin committeefreight trains, locals, yards, everything was tied up as might be required for our use. We seemed to have blanket authority to run the whole railroad for the three or four days that we were down there.
(Motion made, seconded and carried to accept the report.)
REPORT OF COMMITTEE ON PREVENTION OF HIGH
WAY CROSSING ACCIDENTS
.
T. F. BsEirisrAW
In submitting a report on the prevention of highway crossing accidents your committee is not so much concerned about the alarming increase in casualties at crossings as might be supposed from the number of deaths due to carelessness in driving over railro'ad tracks at grade.
The mystery is why there were not many more, when the great increase
in the number of motor vehicles manufactured--approximately 3,000,000
for 1923--is considered.
"
The joy rider, the illicit, and generally stupifying quality of, liquor imbibed by many persons driving ears have accounted for many of the deaths. Inexperienced drivers and the laxity of the laws governing the issuance of licenses to drivers of motor vehicles, together, contribute
stupendously to the mortality lists.
The "business influence," not to make the requirements too difficult,
less they retard manufacture and sales, must be borne in mind.
These, and other contributory causes, explain the growing lists of fatal accidents, not only at railroad-highway crossings but on the public high ways, remote from railroads, and in the great cities as well.
The consolation is in the fact that the percentage of fatalities has been decreased by just -such activities as those of the Steam Railroad Section, cooperating with the American Railway Association Safety Section.
Supplementing the extensive Cross Crossings .Cautiously bulletins of the American Railway Association were the excellent bulletins No. 1260 and No. 1275 issued by the National Safety Council, reproducing the poster of the American Railway Association crossing campaign.
Following up the work, the American Railway Association contracted with the Elliott Service of New York and issued a series of photo repro ductions. of automobile accident results at railroad-highway crossings, featuring the wrecked motor cars, but avoiding the gruesome human wreckage element of the tragic story.
Steam Railroad Section
1027
It is shown that coordinating the work of the two committees, so as to bring them into general harmony, has eliminated much of the lost motion and possible contradiction in methods. Such coordination was vital to the success of the crossing campaign, by the American Railway Association and by the National Safety Council, Steam Section.
In the problem of grade crossing safety, even more than in any other, it was vital to the success of such movement that we have the coopera tion of National Bodies, such as the United States Automobile Chamber of Commerce, National Highway Traffic Association, Automobile Manu facturers Association and similar bodies, as well as the most emphatic endorsement and backing of the movement by the railroads themselves. In addition to such approval and cooperation, the railroads asked the cooperation of city, town, county and state authorities on the question of improving the view on approaches to grade crossings. Coincident with such cooperation the work of track supervisors and section foremen, to keep shrubbery and sand embankments cut as low as possible, where they obstruct the vision of enginemen or that of persons driving vehicles near the approaches to grade crossings, was very generally observed.
Periodical talks by safety men to groups of crossing watchmen, with a view to the discouragement of unsafe practices by the crossing men, particularly the tendency to be "too accommodating" and thereby taking chances in allowing vehicles and pedestrians to cross the tracks when approaching trains are in sight, were given by safety men on most or the railroads, with gratifying results.
Road foremen of engines talked to the enginemen and firemen on the rigid observance of the rules governing the use of the whistle on ap proaching crossings and to repeat the crossing signal when this was
necessary.
EXTENSIONS' OF WHISTLE CORD
A recommendation that the whistle cord^be extended to the fireman's side of the cab, as has been done by some or the lines, did not meet with general acceptance. In fact the exception is the rule.
The question of part time protection of grade crossings by gates has been forced to keener attention by the increase in the vehicular and train movements over crossings so protected. It has been strongly urged that 24-hour protection be made standard practice. It has been recommended that where such full time protection is not advisable the gates be re moved, for the reason that the traveler on a public highway usually assumes a raised gate means it is safe to cross.
Long handle disc signs--Not to be less than six feet in length, are used instead of the short handle disc sign by some of the roads, for the reason that there is a tendency on the part of crossing watchmen to allow the short handle disc to rest on the ground or carry It under the arm in such a way that it is not visible. This cannot be done with a disc having the long handle, as recommended. There are many other reasons for substituting the long handle disc sign for the short one. One of my colleagues does not agree with me and feels the short handle disc
sign is sufficient.
''
1028
Twelfth* Safety Congress
Action looking to the discouragement of the erection of large - bill boards near grade crossings has been considered- The advisability of seeking the cooperation of abuting property owners In the discourage ment of leases of land for this purpose, where it endangers the view to approaching trains or the view of approaching trains to approaching vehicles on the highways, has been taken up by individual roads, as the question is local.
The rapidly increasing number of persons' driving cars on the high ways and who are unfamiliar with railroad operation, especially with the hazard of double track operation may eventually demand the consid eration of a departure from the varied types of grade crossing signs. This may even imply abandonment of the present type of sign. On some lines the multiple track is indicated by a board nailed over the present sign with the word "Two," "Three" or "Four" indicating multiple track. This, if adopted as standard would lead to the eventual education of travelers who would use more caution at such crossings.
The question of extending the time period in which the crossing whistle shall be blown, has been given considerable discussion and investigation by some of the lines and there is much merit in the thought that the fourteen seconds whistle as used on the Chicago & Northwestern might be used on many of the other lines. Some of the larger systems, after an extensive investigation of the merits of this, however, found by con sensus of opinion expressed by enginemen, superintendents and others that the present signal, approximately six seconds, served the purpose and where necessary a repetition of the standard whistle signal, might be given. An objection to the longer whistle, -in cities and other con gested territory is, that the noise would probably bring the railroads under the inhibition laid down by the Department of Health in the ter ritory directly affected, where unusual noises are regarded as a nuisance and a violation of the health law. However, some of the roads have adopted the Northwestern method, with gratifying results.
One of the big problems confronting the steam railroads is some way to raise funds to pay for the elimination of grade crossings.
What has made this question of elimination so dominant? We must all answer that question alike: The automobile.
` The financial burden on the state, the municipality and the railroad for a speedy elimination is so large as to be prohibitive under the present method.
It is a fair conclusion that the persons directly to be served should pay the greater part of the cost of elimination. To this end it has been suggested that an additional fee of ?5.00 per year be made for every automobile, the sums thus raised in each state to become a "Special Grade Crossing Elimination Fund." With approximately fifteen million auto mobiles in 1924, a fund of $75,000,000 could be raised the first year after legislation to make such fee and fund effective. This would lesson the burden on the general taxpayer, create a large fund, increasing yearly, and reduce the cost to the railroad, the state and the local municipality.
Steam Hailroad Section
1029
The highway commissioners of ten states have favored a trial installa
tion of the ordinary cross buck grade crossing warning sign in the
middle of the highway, similar to the one at Meadow Grove, Neb., on the
C. & N. W. R. K,. Seventeen other states were opposed to the plan, the
remaining states not committing themselves.
THE RAILROADMAN'S APPROACH TO SAFETY THROUGH THE SCHOOLS
Du. E. Geokge P^yne, Fjrofessor of Educaxiostax. Sociology, New Yokic
UifiVEBSiTr, .New York City
The very.rapid development of the railroads during the Twentieth Cen tury is remarkable to me, and equally remarkable is how the railroad men met those conditions that were arising at that time with reference to safety of the employees and safety of the traveling public.
Beginning with the period from the 60's to the 70's, railroad building pro ceeded with unimagined rapidity and the problem of the railroad men was the training of a constantly increasing new group of employees who had
not been trained and equipped to handle the problem of the railroads,
and the traveling public likewise was not trained in traveling on the
railroads, and as a result it was during this period that the peak of accidents occurred, but they were largely, as I say, to employees and to the traveling public.
It is, tben, in the Twentieth Century, that we come to a period where
the problem is entirely different, where the problem is one not of dealing with the employees mainly and the traveling public, but with those who
are crossing the railroads and crossing them with that new instrument of
Twentieth Century development, the automobile.
.
The problem of accident prevention in the Twentieth Century so far as the railroad is concerned is a problem of reaching the public with definite information and definite notions of observing safe practices. I am over and over met with the feeling that it is dare-deviltry and taking chances on the part of the driving public that- causes accidents, which I do not believe is at all true.
I think in studying the statistics of accidents after devoting a number of years to a study of this problem from a point of view of causes, it becomes very clear to me that there are two causes. One is the habit of crossing railroads that has been developed in most of us does not .meet the situation of crossing railroads today. "We have been used to crossing railroads either on foot or in slow-moving conveniences, because the automobile is a very recent development. It was 1910 or '12 before many of us rode a great deal in automobiles, and the great mass of the driving public have become owners of automobiles, as you know, within the last three or four years. They are new at the business.
Another thing Is the ignorance of the public with reference to the
time that should be allowed before attempting to cross a railroad track
if a railroad train is approaching.
'
.'
1030
Twelfth Safety Congress
SPEAKER SUGGESTS .SOLUTION
What is the solution? The solution involves, it seems to me, three
elements. One is a new visualization of the dangers of railroads to the
automobilist. The old "Stop, Look and Listen" sign will not do the trick
because the sign is a thing that was developed when we had pedestrians
and slow-moving vehicles. It does not suggest to the driver these days
the danger that he is meeting. In the.first place he.doesn't have any time to stop if he Is driving an automobile, and I never haVe seen an
automobilist yet who liked to stop when he was driving, and I have driven
100,000 miles. He can't listen because the whirr of his motor is making
too much noise for him to hear very much else, and he can't look very well because he is observing the road and his driving. The "Stop, Look
and Listen" and numerous other signs are inadequate to meet the situ
ation at the present time. There must be visualization by new methods that are far enough back from the railroad itself that they will call the
attention of the driver unmistakably to the situation that is ahead, be cause you have to establish new habit with reference to this particular
situation. The second is with reference to a consistent newspaper publicity that
will put this whole problem before the American people as it is. Ninety-
nine of the people with whom I have talked blame the railroad for acci
dents, I care not what they are. The very fact that in most of the states,
in all of the states as far as I know, every accident to an automobile
credited to a railroad accident is an indication of the attitude and
point of view with reference to the public, and they are not responsible. for it. Therefore, there must be newspaper publicity that is- turned upon
the realization, that calls to the attention of the public that the railroads
are public servants that have their tracks and have the right of way,
and it is the problem of the public, if we are to have railroad service, that
they do have the right of way and the pedestrians and motorists keep
off the railroads when the train is there.
.
. The problem with which I am concerned is that of school safety as a
means of reaching the public. Are you aware, ladies and gentlemen, that there are in the United States today 800,000 public school teachers and
20.000. 000 pupils in the public schools? Are you aware that there are 1.000. 000 teachers in public, private and parochial schools, and 25,000,000
children in public, private and parochial schools in the United States?
Are you aware that every family, virtually, in the United States is rep
resented either directly or indirectly in the schools in the United States
today?
.-
-
I have a friend who is one of the Vice Presidents of the National Biscuit
Company, and he said to me a few years ago that if he could put into the hands of every child an announcement of "Uneeda Biscuit" to take
home to the parents, he would not ask what it would cost to get that privilege, he would not only provide the material, but he would not ask
the cost 'of that privilege. That is a privilege that you have of putting into the hands of every father and mother and every child in America the situation with reference to accidents to the public.
Steam Railroad Section
1031
I say this because I know the situation now. I know the interest from the teacher point of view and the public point of view, because I have been dealing with that for five years. This is the Sixth National Safety Congress in which I have taken a very active part.
When I began five years ago to make 'speeches on safety education, the average educator merely smiled. He said, "What does the school have to do with accident prevention?" He said, "Payne, you are crazy to talk about the schools having anything to do with accident prevention. It is not their problem; it is the problem of the police, it is the problem of the railroads, it is the problem of the automobilist, it is the problem of everybody else under the sun but the schools." It was with difficulty that I could be heard upon the problem of accident prevention before a body of education. I should have to slip in under such disguised names as the conservation of human welfare, which might mean anything. I
disguised my speeches under all sorts of names before bodies, when I'
was called upon to speak, in order to be heard. If I had said in any one of these places that I would like to speak upon the subject of accident prevention with respect to school education, I don't believe I could have been heard.
THE CHANGE 1ST THE ATTITUDE OF EDUCATORS
What has happened since that time? Superintendent Cody of Detroit was one of the first who became committed after the plan was worked out. Mr. Reszke, under Superintendent Condan of Cincinnati, undertook the work in Cincinnati. Little by little the propaganda of the school program has gone on until it is one of the most popular subjects among teachers of the United States at the present time. That has been one of the things that I have seen grow during those five years.
A year ago one of our leading universities, the New York University, with. 20,000 students and perhaps 25,000 students this year, established a course for teachers in education in accident prevention, and I have, in my classes now after the first week of school, some 500 teachers who are taking courses devoting a whole half year to a study of the accident prevention problem from every, point of view. That is the only university so far that has done this, but during the past year in Columbia Uni versity I was asked to address the students. I was asked to address a group of the faculty, and one member of the faculty not only said, at that time,' but said afterwards to his classes that he regarded the con tribution to education in accident prevention as a phase of the recon struction of the curriculum as an integral part of the curriculum and one of the greatest contributions made to education in Che Twentieth Century. That was Professor Kilpatrick of Columbia University, who is one of the leading educators at the present time.
The five years seem to me to have been a period of propaganda. It is a period in which we have sought to bring to the American educator and to the American public the necessity of accident prevention as a part of school routine and as a part of school instruction. I do not need to point out to you here some of the results that have been accomplished
1032
Twelfth, Safety Congress
in the reduction of accidents. In every city there is a reduction. Kansas
City is the most recent one that has come to my notice'in which they cut
their accidents to children in two after beginning the work at the begin
ning of this year, and not only that, but it has had a reactive effect
upon the people in the community. The fact is that the American Schoo'
teacher for the most part Is now ready to undertake this job. Our great
problem from now on is that of providing adequate material and putting,
adequate material in her hands that will help her to solve the problem.
There Is adequate material that can be had at the present time because
that has been going on with the idea of developing material to supply the
needs of teachers, and X think the railroad men of the country-can accom
plish an enormous amount of good and can have 25,000,000 school children
in the United States getting the right attitude toward the railroads by
participating in the movement of providing adequate material to the
teachers who are demanding it all over the country in getting the safety
message home.
` -'
ADDRESS OF PRESIDENT DOW
There is one suggestion I want to make in connection with the.Careful Crossing Campaign, a suggestion that I am making because of the fact that during the past year in my connection* with safety work in the great est city in the world where we have applied advertising principles to safety, there would be a certain psychological effect upon changing the type and style of your posters. Don't think for a minute that I am criticizing the poster that you got out this year; I am merely offering this to you as a suggestion from my observation of advertising principles applied to safety. When you first see this splendid poster that you have put out on the railroad crossings, you are curious, your curiosity is aroused. The average driver will stop and look at that poster the first time he sees it to find out what it is all about. It makes an impression on his mind. Now it is a question, of course, as to how long that impression will remain on that person's mind. On some person's minds it will re main a great deal longer than on others.
If it were practical and if it could be so arranged that you could get out a series of four posters, each and every one of them a different type, a different style, appearance, and send out your first issue during the month of June, your second in July, your third in August and the fourth in September, you would simply multiply the effect of your message four different times. It would be very much like trying to drive a nail into a plank. You give that nail one blow with the hammer and you drive it in a little way, but you- could take hold of it with your hand and work it around and pull it out. You give it a second blow and it goes a little further and it would be a little more difficult to take it out. But by the time you have given it four distinct, hard raps you have driven that nail in so far it will stick. It is the same proposition in getting out safety advertising of any character.
Let me close my few remarks by saying that the railroad men from my past experience are the livest wires we have in the Public Safetv
Steam Railroad Section
1033
Movement- They are a credit to the National Safety Council and to the
American Railway Association because of the worthy safety service they
are rendering In those sections. It is a great and noble work that you
are doing.
'
"What is noble gives a finer
Portion of the mind and heart
.
Linked to something still diviner
. Than mere language can impart.
Ever seeking, ever finding.
Some improvement yet to plan
To uplift our fellow-being
. And like man to feel for man."
PUBLIC ASPECT OF THE WORK OF THE BUREAU OF EXPLOSIVES
Con. B. W. Dxjnn, Chief Inspector, Bureau of Explosives. New York City
To appreciate the public aspect of the work of the Bureau of Explosives we must know the nature of it and why it was undertaken.
The object of the work is to promote safety in the transportation of explosives and other dangerous articles. Interest of the public in this work is measured by the volume of the traffic. Its actual and potential hazards, and the number of people directly affected by the safety rules whose development has been one of the principal features of the work.
About 400 million pounds of explosives are produced annually in the United States- and Canada, .and much of this total i3 shipped more than once. During the year 1918 when the production of explosives and am munition was at its peak, over 50,000 cars bearing the explosive placard were constantly in transit. A list of the principal dangerous articles other than explosives shows 182 commodities. The following compilation from our records of transportation property losses for the past 12 years show that 13 of these commodities have caused total losses exceeding $100,000:
Total Amounts of Losses Reported 1910 to 1922, inclusive.
Name of Article Gasoline ........................................................................... Nitric .Acid.................................................................... Petroleum, Crude ................................................... Alcohol ............................................................................... Matches ............................................................................ Charcoal ........................................................................... High Explosives......................................................... Sulphuric Acid.......................................................... Naphtha .............................................................. Motion Picture Films ................. .-................. Black Powder ........................................................... Carbon Bisulphide . ..........................................
Amount of Loss . .$4,863,096 . . 691,064 . . 661,852 . . 623,852 . . 488,420 . . 259,967
. . . 210,531 . . 208,845 . . 207,698 . . 138,803 . . 122,417 . . 110,978
Benzol............................................................................................ Does not include Black Tom disaster
.. 104,645
. $20,000,000
1034
Twelfth, Safety Congress
The average annual production of gasoline is increasing rapidly and exceeded 40 Million pounds in 1922. To load this amount of gasoline in tank cars each '40 feet long and holding 8,000 gallons, would require 5 million cars which, united, would form a train reaching once and a half times around the earth at the equator.
To estimate the number of people directly affected by the transpor tation safety rules, we start with more than two million employees of the carriers, add unknown thousands of manufacturers and shippers for each of the principal dangerous articles, other thousands of shippers of unlisted dangerous articles and other thousands of manufacturers of ship ping containers for these articles. To the grand total thus obtained we must add the balance of the people living in the United States and Can ada. They are interested since the public furnishes the majority of the victims when serious explosions and fires occur in transit.
ORIGIN OF BUREAU
The American Hallway Association is an organization of the railroads of the United States and Canada formed to promote efficiency in operation. In many respects, it functions for the railroads as a general staff functions for an army. Its work is done by committees composed of railroad offi cials, geographically distributed, and serving without compensation- These committees investigate and recommend. When their recommendations receive the approval of the association they become a recommended standard for the guidance of all members. The final step making them
effective is the order issued by the individual road.
In 1905 the attention of this association was drawn to the fact that explosives were being transported in rapidly increasing quantities without the protection of a uniform set of rules to govern the preparation, ac
ceptance and handling of this dangerous freight. The danger was em
phasized by reference to several disastrous explosions of material in
transit.
To prepare a satisfactory set of rules required technical knowledge and experience not possessed by the average railroad official. This was a typ ical problem illustrating the necessity for the American Railway Associa tion. It appointed a new committee whose membership included the most experienced chemist in this line in the railway service. This Committee on Transportation of Explosives conferred with experts representing the explosive industry, the Army and the Navy, it prepared a set of rules that was approved by the association in November, 1905, and prescribed thereafter by many individual roads. Theoretically, the problem was solved and this dangerous traffic was safeguarded.
A year later this committee reported to the association that, practically, the problem was not solved- The rules were not effective. Many shippers and railway employees were not familiar with the requirements. A few of the roads had employed special inspectors in an effort to make the rules
effective on their lines and these inspectors reported many violations and many difficulties in securing compliance. It was evident also that one road could not protect itself against danger due to violations of the rules
Stea-m Railroad Section
1035
originating on one of its connections. A car transferred to its line at a junction point might contain dynamite improperly manufactured, packed or loaded in the car, and an explosion might occur while the car was being properly handled by entirely innocent parties. Inspection work on all lines, under a central control, was recommended to the association as the next necessary step. Students of the evolution of a centralized author ity under the spur of necessity will find this incident interesting as well as the subsequent steps in the development of the work of the Bureau of Explosives. Previously, the American Railway Association had assumed no responsibility for the enforcement of its recommended standards. This was accomplished by individual action of its members. If an operating rule was disregarded on one line and a collision resulted, other members of the association were not affected primarily. The explosive problem was different. There was a lag between cause and effect. As a rule the man at fault was not the one to suffer for his error.
To obtain this centralized inspection, the committee recommended the
organization of a Bureau for the Safe Transportation of Explosives and
Other Dangerous Articles, for which it had prepared a constitution and
by-laws. This recommendation was approved by the association in No
vember, 1906. During the Spring of 1907, President Roosevelt was ap
proached. and he consented to the loan of an officer from the Ordnance
Department of the Army to assemble and train the personnel of the pro
posed inspection force.
_
ixitiax. I'ouccv successful.
A survey of the situation showed that the manufacturers of explosives were antagonistic to the plans of the railroads. They claimed that ex plosions had been due to carelessness of railroad employees, rather than to defects in manufacture or packing of explosives.. They - resented also an. attempt that had been made by a railroad official to secure -federal legislation placing federal inspectors in all powder plants at the expense of the manufacturers. At that item these manufacturers were divided Into two groups, the Dupont Company arid the independents. The commer cial rivalry between the groups was acute but they were in agreement in their opposition to the railroads.
The Chief Inspector had been in many of the plants of both groups in connection with work for the War Department, and had many personal friends and acquaintances In both groups. At his invitation a well attended and extended conference took place at which prominent men sat at the same table with their commercial rivals for the first time. They were invited to become partners of the Bureau of Explosives and to help make the rules what they should be to promote safe transportation of their products. This safety was even more essential to them than to the railroads. This new policy removed their opposition. A committee repre senting both groups was formed to work with the Chief Inspector and from that date a most gratifying harmony has existed between these manufacturers and the Bureau. They helped to revise the rules and agreed to make them more stringent. They consented to strengthening their
1036
Twelfth, Safety Congress
packages that cost them many thousands of dollars annually. They gave
our inspectors free access to their plants and storage magazines. They
made changes in their methods of manufacture whenever recommended
by our chemists. When our experience showed later that we needed more authority back of the rules, they helped us to draft and get through
congress a law that invested the Interstate Commerce Commission with
power to prescribe rules. They applied for membership in the Bureau
of Explosives and for years have contributed from $8,000 to $10,000 annually to its support. Can anyone cite an instance where a plea for the cooperation of an avowed antagonist has met with a mare generous
response?
.
The same policy has brought .to the Bureau the friendly support <*f
many other organizations of manufacturers and shippers of daaperott* articles other than explosives, including acids, drugs, matches, cfcaro--t.
compressed gases, fireworks, etc. As the rules developed. syecHlcttiwtn for shipping containers of dangerous articles became an important part of them, and the same policy brought us the cooperation of the snaswfac-
turers of these cpntalners.
LEGISLATION
Many changes have been made in the rules since the American Railway Association prepared its small pamphlet in 1905. The pamphlet has grown into a hook, and for recommendations of railroad officials we now have the requirements of a federal law with penalties for violations. This growth is pregnant with suggestions and lessons of general interest.
As citizens we complain frequently of our legislative machinery. A.
statistical report of the number of laws passed annually by the legislative - bodies of the United States, federal, state and municipal, is impressive.
Many of these laws are "filed for reference only." The average citizen remains ignorant of their provisions.
For more than 16 years the Bureau of Explosives, with the cooperation described above, has been engaged in devoloping a law that is of vital interest to millions of our citizens because it affects their daily activities. This development has been based on experience and reason. It furnishes an example of legislation by true democratic methods that should find other applcations in the future.
When a new rule, or modification of an old one, is suggested, the first step is a thorough joint investigation by the Bureau of Explosives, rep resenting the carriers, and a committee representing the industry affected. The probable effect of the proposed rule on manufacturing and transpor tation practices is gauged from all angles. The practicability of the rule is a prime consideration. ' Long since, we learned that unless reasonable enforcement is secured a rule is of no value. The cost of enforcement is also of prime importance. A rule that curtails waste by $5,000 is of no value if it costs $10,000 to enforce it. A rule that increases safety generally means additional cost to some one.
Frequently, as in rules for better packages, the cost is paid by the shipper, while the immediate benefit in reducing losses is reaped by the carrier. When these naturally antagonistic agencies agree, the Inter-
Steam, Railroad Section
1037
state Commerce Commission Has prima facie evidence of the reasonable
ness of the proposed rule. Congress has authorized the commission to
legislate for it in this limited field! By its approval the commission can
transform this agreement reached by the`Bureau and the industry into a
law. It is a federal law amply supplied with teeth, and yet the federal
legislature has taken no direct part in framing it. No direct part in
settling the details has been taken even by the representative of the
federal legislature, the Interstate Commerce Commission. In every sense of the word it is a law "for the people and by the people." It is worded
by the best informed of the men who will be affected by it. In the
process their object is worthy, the .promotion of safety, and their reasons
are well on the table. The men who suggested the law assume also much of the responsibility for enforcing it. For such a law enforcement is
relatively easy, since the parties affected want to comply with it. The
teeth in the law are used rarely, but they are necessary to control the
occasional rebel.
{
Occasionally the Bureau of Explosives and the shippers cannot agree
on a proposed rule. The Interstate Commerce Commission then calls for
evidence and arguments, and after a hearing decides the issue.
About once every three years a general revision of the rules becomes
necessary to incorporate in them the lessons of experience and to provide for new conditions. Suggestions for this revision from all sources--
shippers, manufacturers, railroad officials, and our inspectors and staff,
are compiled by the Bureau and proofs of the proposed revision dis
tributed to railroad officials and to representative committees of interested
shippers.
.
From constructive criticism secured in this way successive proofs are
prepared and distributed, after which a final proof is submitted to the
Interstate Commerce Commission. The practice of the commission has been to then appoint a date for a public hearing on the adoption of the
proposed revision. At this hearing all interested parties are invited to
record their objections.
This unique method of framing and checking a proposed law before adoption and promulgation seems to offer a maximum of insurance against
mistakes. The Chief Inspector of the Bureau of Explosives, after confer
ring with his inspectors, who are practical railroad men of long experi
ence and geographically distributed throughout the United States and
Canada, and after receiving the constructive criticism of railroad officials,
is able to gauge quite accurately from the railroad standpoint, the advan
tages, disadvantages and the practicability of a proposed rule. In a
similar way these qualities are gauged from the shipper's standpoint.
Another great advantage comes from our. ability to change a rule, to correct a mistake or to meet a new condition. 'It'is unnecessary to call
a special session of a legislature. The Interstate Commerce Commission
can make a change effective on one . day's noticed
-
ESTFORCE3.IEXX
' j\
The second important feature of the work of the Bureau relates to the enforcement of the rules whose origin we have described. We know too
1038
Twelfth Safety Congress
well the defects of the normal method of enforcing a law. The citizen is assumed to know the law and it is immaterial whether he approves it or not. Use of the teeth of the law for punishment is the normal way to force a compliance.
Our policy has been to invoke the teeth as the last resort. Our experi
ence indicates that no law affecting a large number of widely separated
people can be enforced unless the great majority of these people are
familiar with the law and approve it. To enforce the required packing
of dynamite for shipment by a given company, the officers of that com
pany who approve the rule are more useful to us than would be a score
of policemen. The shipper of a dangerous article is required to certify
on his written request to the carrier for transportation, that he has
complied with the regulations of the Interstate Commerce Commission.
Under normal conditions this certificate is a passport to acceptance by the
carrier, so that the shipper is practically placed on his honor to know and
honorobey the law to which he certifies compliance. The
system works
with honest people and only the exceptional are dishonest.
_
edecatiox
.
It is difficult for the average man already fully occupied with his regular duties to become familiar with all the details in the book, of rules that affect his work. The principal part of. our work for enforcement is educational. Our inspectors are frequent visitors in shipping depart ments where errors originate and they deliver illustrated lectures to audiences of railroad employees and shippers. They visit, for careful' inspection, the many railroad stations in their districts. They inspect, periodically, all explosive factories and storage magazines in their terri tory to detect and condemn before it gets into the stream of traffic, material that is not in a proper condition for safe transportation.
The mental attitude of the average shipper toward our work is indi cated by the fact that he welcomes these inspections and tries to profit by them.
_ RESULTS TO DATE
#
We can never hope to eliminate expensive accidents in any department of railroad operation. The best we can do is to establish and hold' an equilibrium between our maximum effort for safety and tbe average of forces that work for destruction. We have reduced our transportation losses for explosives to about 533X00 per year. For all other dangerous articles the total is about 1*4 million dollars per year. The possible losses that constantly confront us, however, are very disturbing.-- At
Black Tom Island, New York Harbor, in July, 1916, a fire started in a
railroad yard by a German agent or sympathizer, produced an explosion that cost over 20 millions of dollars. At Ardmore, Oklahoma, in 1915, an accident caused by a tank car of casing head gasoline cost over one million dollars. In spite of our best efforts, the destructive forces that menace us may duplicate or approximate these disasters at any time. _ In the meantime, let us take comfort and encouragement from the fact
Steam Railroad Section
1039
that in. the year 1922 the total losses incident to the transportation of explosives, ammunition, and fireworks of all kinds in the United States and Canada, amounted to the magnificently small sum of ?75, and not one life was lost.
RAILROADS AND THE rUBLIC
Fortunately for us nature tends to make us satisfied with our lot in life. A coal miner is sorry for his unfortunate brother who has* to labor in the hot sun. The man working in a dynamite factory is sorry for the man. who works in a black powder factory. Familiarity with danger breeds contempt for it and handicaps the acceptance of safety recom mendations. An advocate of safety methods could accomplish little on a battlefield. He might command some attention in the rear lines. A railroad operating man is always in the front line and is always con fronted by forces inimical to safety. More than average credit is due, therefore, to the railroad man who overcomes this handicap and works with us for safety.
The writer came from the public to this railroad work of the Bureau of Explosives and for over 16 years he has had every opportunity that intimate personal association offers to become familiar with the railroad man, official and employee. Efficient operation of a large railroad, is a stupendous task. Above all it requires energy that is well symbolized by its ever revolving wheels. It demands red blooded men with endur ance, courage, balanced judgment and a realization of the responsibility that rests on them as guardians of the life and property of the public. Without stopping to make further Inquiry the public should gratefully salute the personnel of a well run railroad, and in the United States and Canada we have the best railroads in the world.
WEDNESDAY MORNING SESSION
Chairman Bentley: We will proceed with the program at the point where we left off yesterday morning.
(Resolutions expressing best wishes to John T. Broderick and Ralph C. Richards, both absent on account of sickness and congratulation to Arthur Ridgeway on his promotion were adopted.)
(A report of the Publicity Committee made by Mr. Adams, chairman, was adopted.)
THE, MENTAL CAUSES OF PERSONAL INJURIE\ S
Isaiah Hale, Safety Scpebinteitdent, Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe
Railroad, -Topeka, Kansas; Cirairman, Safety Section,
American Railway Association
--
At the annual meeting'of Safety Section, American Railway Association in St. Louis last spring, I recall that with that modesty which is so char acteristic of me, I offered to tell you of some mental cruising-1 have been doing in a sea which had, up to that time, been an uncharted one, but inasmuch as my offer to spread this aggregation of ideas before you
1040
Twelfth, Safety ` Congress
produced no wild public clamor that I was unable to control, I tied a bit of mourning on xny ambitions, took them back home with me, and refused to be comforted until some one told me if I came down to this convention, and if some other person on the program fell and broke a leg and couldn't get here, my chance would come automatically. That should prove a
rather pleasing circumstance to you all, because it proves that ones' chances -are never irretrievably gone--If you don't get In at St. Louis, you may get In at Buffalo.
Seriously, however, my thoughts slowly arrived at, but honestly believed, may not be new to you at all. I only know that I have never heard the subject of safety talked along the devious lines which I shall follow. This isn't an offering which -I have prepared for this occasion; because I have talked It on our line for the last year to audiences made up, so far as I could control, of our supervisors, our foremen, and the new men in the service, but with special attention to getting our appren tice boys in, and being somewhat .more acrobatic than learned, will stand me in good stead, because I am going to jump around from one high spot to another, and if my talk seems to lack sequence or continuity, it is due entirely to the fact that I feel a certain time limit is put on me, and that my subject is so much larger than my mental horizon.
I long ago made up my mind that the real reason why a Safety Movement years ago was because, as some one aptly put it, it was realized finally that a physical disability is a great moral injustice to the man injured. With our men, I argue every railroad man should be a safety booster for the reason that the safer we can make our line, the better railroad it is bound to become. The better it becomes, the bigger it will grow, and. the safer and better it becomes, the safer and better and bigger their job and mine is going to be.
The fact that in 1921 there were 932 fewer railroad employees killed
on American railroads than the year before, the lowest number killed in any one year since 1889, 32 years before, was a migbty pleasing-cir cumstance. Frankly, I know of no large railroad tbat today does not show quite an alarming increase in the number of injuries to employees, especially over last year. But even at that, I am not discouraged, because I know that the Safety Movement has done more to harmonize the rela tions between employer and employee than any other one influence that has ever been felt in American industry.
I am going to try to talk common sense to you people this morning, and that, in spite of the face that one of the most uncommon things in the world is common sense. I read a book a few months ago - on the Mental Causes of Accidents, by Boyd Fisher. If you haven't read it, I hope you will. A great many of my ideas are culled from Mr. Fisher, and in two or three instances I quote him outright.
GROUPS ARE CAUSE OF RAILROAD SHOWING
As a base for starting, I am told that industries have made a better showing along safety lines than have the railroads.- The reason advanced by some Is because men in industries work in larger- units than is the case on railroads and therefore are given closer supervision, but if that
Steam Railroad Section
1041
were true it should he equally true in our shops--and It Is not. Not only within the last year, but within other years, the larger number of our injuries have been in our shops. I am rather inclined to believe the real reason for it lies in the fact that the industries have taught safety to their men, while the railroads have only preached ft to theirs, a distinc tion, and a difference, if you please.
It is claimed a man is six times as liable to injury in the first month of his service as in any other 30 day period following his first year. If that is true, economy of effort should suggest more painstaking care with the new man who comes into the service. A. good part of the accident hazard with beginners is because of nervousness due to strange environment, to distractions due to unfamiliar poises and confusion. This confusion can be reduced by a more friendly and considerate intro duction of the new man to his job than he usually gets, by painstaking effort on the part of the foreman to coach and instruct and train him how to do his work safely, and by reassurances from time to time to give the new man confidence in himself. I might add that a word of praise now and then would help a lot.
I tell our foremen that times are changing. The successful foreman of the future is not going to be a driver of men; he must be more than a mere leader of men, he must be a teacher, an educator of men, and I tell them that the foreman who believes he is going to "get by" during the next five or ten years with the same degree of efficiency he has shown in the last five or ten, is headed towards the discard, just as sure as I am standing here.
I hold that safety is a by-product of Interest in the job. We say a man was to blame for an injury because he allowed his mind to wander. I take the position that the foreman' has it in his power to so interest the man In his work as to preserve his equanimity so his mind will not wander. We, or you, get a report that a man stumbled and fell; if the foreman who made the initial report gave it any thought at all, it was to make only the most casual inspection of the location to see if there was anything there that might have caused the man -to fall. We give no consideration to the mental condition of that man's mind which made it possible for him to fall or, at least, that made it impossible for him to keep from falling. We take no cognizance of the fact that in nine out of ten cases of personal injuries there was some defect in the mental process of the man who was hurt. We look in our machines, we look in the air, we look on the floor, we look everywhere for the cause of per sonal Injuries, except where the cause actually lies, in the mind of the man.
Of any number of people exposed to a contagious disease, compar atively few succumb and a much larger number remain immune to it. It is just so with mental influences.
SAFETT INSTRUCTIONS MUST BE REPEATED AGAIN AND AGAIN
All men cannot be reached by the same cause. Mr. Boyd Fisher in his excellent book "The Mental Causes of Accidents" says that no analysis
1042
Txvetfth, Safety Congress
o the causes o personal injuries should, be attempted without keeping
rorever in mind the fact that there are certain types of men who are
especially prone to mental failure. Once in a while we find a foreman
who speaks a word of safety to the new man, but too often it is never
mentioned to him. Safety instructions given the first day of a man's
employment, as valuable as they can be, are absolutely wasted unless
they are repeated often enough for him to know. Telling a man a thing
once does not make him know it; knowing is a condition of his mind,
and not of the mind of the man who is telling it to him.
I think you will admit that the average workman has no better or
more active brain than the average college student, and yet I have
heard it said that the average student has a brain that is curiously constructed so as to resist the intrusion o knowledge. If that is true,-
and it is found necessary to pound things into the head of the college
man, I ask you why in God's name should we expect any lighter task in
connection with our men?
Mr. Fisher says, until you have broken down a new man's resistance to helpful information, on the score of inexperience or Ignorance you must consider that man an accident risk. If a new workman gets off to a bad
start and forms bad working habits, he. must unlearn all that he has
learned wrong. You will agree that good working habits can be made just as big a factor in efficiency as bad habits can be made a factor in.
inefficiency and, with proper training, good working habits are just as
easily formed as bad ones.
'
At no other time of a man's service does a workman so consciously
and so willingly place himself under the helpful influence and the guid ance of his foreman as he does on the day he comes to work for him.
I tell our foreman that if they do not, in the early days of a man's service,
get his sympathy, his interest, his friendship, and his respect, they will
never get it as long as they live. The need of this is emphasized by the
old truth that first impressions are more lasting.
THE I'KKSOXAI. KKt.ATlOASUI t"
How often does a department head on an American railroad give in structions that he wants to see every man who is hired to work under his jurisdiction, who brings that new man into his office, sits him down across his table, Teans over on his elbows and looking that new man square in the eye, gives him a kindly heart-to-heart talk for five or ten minutes--who tells him of the privileges and possibilities of the service which he is just about to enter; who tells him of the responsibil ities of citizenship in the little town where he may have just come to live; who tells him what is expected of him and what in fairness he ought to be willing to give; who tells him of his obligations to every man with whom he works, of his obligations to give an honest day's work for an honest day's pay; of what his company has done to provide him a safe and a pleasant place in which to work and which will all go for naught unless the man will use those facilities, and use them intel ligently? It isn't done at all, or if it is, it is done so rarely as to be
Steam Railroad Section
1043
almost negligible, but yet, in the same breath I want to tell you that just as we so often fail to start our new men right, the Communist, the Socialist, the Bolshevik or I. W. W-, who are with us to an extent that some of us little know or dream, never lose a chance to start that new man wrong, and they do it by pouring into his unsuspecting ear the vitriol of hatred- against society as a whole, against you and me, against our gov ernment, and even against the company whose benefaction he then en joys.
It is because of this that an undesirable not infrequently gets into your
service, an undesirable who has the same effect on the balance of the
organization as has a bad apple or a bad potato in a bin or barrel of the
same. He taints every man with whom he comes in contact.
.
The managers of industry are just beginning to appreciate the dif
ferent levels of intelligence in men. How many of you know that out of
the 1,700,000 men who were given a psychological test in the war draft,
70 per cent were given a mental rating of a child 14 years of age or less, and how many of you know that 45 per cent of that number or 31% per
cent of the entire total, were rated as morons by our government ex
perts--;a- moron being defined as one who is "non-capable of complete
self-guidance."
With that before us, 1 hold it is nothing short of absurd to hire any number of men, give them all the same handling, treat them all alike, and then expect the uniform results which we do expect. I contend that if you hire 100 men, you have 100 different temperaments and 100 different dispositions, and to handle thebi intelligently and successfully, you must handle them in 100 different ways.
THE VALUE OF TRAINING
Safety is a state 'of mind, a state that can be brought about only through education and training, and of the two I should say training is much more important. If that education and training is not going to come from our serious-minded, right-thinking older employees, and our supervisors, whence is it to come? I have always believed that If I were the head of a department employing a large number of men, if I were a shop superintendent or a master mechanic, and a man was in jured, especially if he was a young man in. the service, when he was able to go back to work I'd bring him up to my office, ask his foreman, to come along and to complete the family circle I'd bring in the general' foreman. I'd let the workman tell me exactly how he was injured. I would develop by a set of questions just how much time his foreman had ever given him in the way of instructions, or training, or coaching. I should particularly want to know if the foreman had ever shown enough interest In him to invite him up to his house some night, saying, "I have a book, or a set of books I'd. like to loan you, which will help you towards a systematic course of study, by means of which you may improve your condition." I should like to develop what constructive help of any kind had ever been given that young man by his foreman or his general fore
3044
Twelfth Safety Congress
man, since the day he came into the service, and fn 99 times out of a
hundred you could put It in your eye, because there hasn't been any.
From this point I am going to talk from every angle of railroad service which, of course, includes safety. Our principal task as I 3ee it, in fact, firmly believe that the biggest task confronting the management of American railroads today is to change the mental viewpoint of their men.
I feel that odr biggest task is to get men to think right! I have preached for years on our railroad that the very first essential of a good railroad man, which is equivalent to saying a good safety man, is that a man must think right; no man can think, crooked and work straight.
I don't want you to think from anything I say here that I belong to any particular cult, that I believe in any particular creed, because I do not! However, I was privileged a few weeks ago, to hear a wonderful lecture by a gentleman who, I afterwards learned, formerly had been a Jewish Rabbi. I will say for him, he was one of the most scholarly and cultured and learned gentlemen I have ever heard talk. He built his hour and a half talk on this statement:
"The greatest of English writers, William Shakespeare, said: 'There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.' For years'the world has recognized this as a truth because, in an old Hebrew proverb we have , `-Vs a man thinketh, so is he'.''
THE FAIXACY OF A VKOXG ME3TTAI. ATTITUDE
.
1 have heard both quotations scores of times but because of my mental
capacity being unable to grasp their full meaning, they had gone over my head, until this gentleman gave me my first insight into their real mean
ing when he asked this question: "If, therefore, thinking is the cause of
all results,- what kind of thinking is it that produces good results, and what
kind of thinking is it that produces bad results?"--a question so simple
that a five year old child might answer it. His reasoning, to me, is
very sound. If it is true, and I am convinced it is, I contend that it must
be your duty and mine to make the men with whom we work realize that if a man would be happy in his every day work, if he would be happy in
his relations with other men, if he would be happy in his own home--and
we must be all of these things, if we are to be strong as individuals
and strong as organizations--we must cultivate the habit of thinking
useful, beneficial and good thoughts and exclude from our minds thoughts
that are useless, harmful and bad. When I say good thoughts, I don't
mean pious thoughts at all. I mean thoughts that are uplifting and fair.
Our vice-president, to whom I report, finding that statement in a talk
of mine not long ago, wrote me, saying: "I don't believe what Shakes
peare and you say is true, for the very simple reason that there are many things that are inherently good or bad and no amount of thinking
will change their complexion."
-
It isn't always the prudent thing for a man to argue a matter with
his superior, but I took the liberty of replying to his letter by saying:
"What Shakespeare meant (and I am mentioning this only because of
the fear that the same thought may come into your minds) as I see
Steam Railroad Section
1045
It is this: so far as we personally are concerned, a thing is either made corrective or corruptive by reason of.our mental attitude toward it. In
other words, a thing becomes either helpful or harmful to us as our thinking makes it. I don't believe that bad thoughts are any more apt to grow in a properly cultivated mind than weeds are apt to grow in a properly cultivated field." I contend that our lack of attention and con sideration in showing new men who come into our service, only serves to increase the fertility of the soil in .the field that we turn over to the man with the, extreme views, the radical, and in connection with that statement, I would remind you that it is not your conservative, loyaiemployee, who talks to, who offers the new man his kindly advice and help, not at all; that type of man never opens his head to the new man, the-
man who does all the talking is the radical.
I claim that improved thoughts' are like improved living conditions;
they are like a daily shave, like a daily bath. We people who have in our
ithomes every modern convenience would think
impossible to go back
and live as our parents and our grandparents did; we would think we
were being trained for the hobo squad if we had to go back to that time.
When, In spite of my youthful appearance, when we shaved only Wednes
days and Saturdays. The man who enjoys as much as anything his daily
ablutions in a modern tub would think it impossible to go back to that
day, which, again I remember very well, when on Saturday nights only
we went down in the cellar and brought up the family wooden wash
tub, put about two inches of water in it, and stood It in front of the open
oven door of the family cook stove'. Our forebears tolerated that sort of
thing because they never dreamed of anything better. I don't believe the
itman who is thinking wrong thoughts always does
maliciously, wilfully;
I believe that much more often than not he.does it because he has never
been taught differently, has never been taught the sheer beauty of right
living and right thinking.
THE HANDICAP OF A WROXS -ME.VT.VL ATTITUDE
One of the most serious self-imposed handicaps with which a man
can burden himself is the wrong mental attitude towards his work.
By It he can become a chronic grouch; he can become a human crab, he
may acquire habits of irritability and pessimism that will make him gen
erally undesirable among his associates. Yes, and I believe it is even
possible for a man to bring about a physical disability by reason of his
indifference, his resentfulness, and his feeling of distrust of everybody
about him.
`.
I have no wish to bring any indictment against any particular class of railroad service, for the very good reason that I don't believe the mental attitude in any one department is vastly different from any other department.
As proof of my statement that good thoughts bring good results, I want to remind you that two or three years ago following a long period of conferences, and in some cases actual wrangling, between the manage ment of the American railroads and the so-called Big Four organizations.
1046
Twelfth Safety Congress
new agreements and contracts were worked out and I know, because I have been told by thousands .of members of those organizations, that they immediately took a new interest in their job, because of their feeling that maybe, after all, there was a disposition on the part of the management to be fair with them.
They were given a little here; they had to give a little there, but the net result was quite satisfactory to everybody, and the men went back to their work with an interest, relish and enthusiasm that they hadn't felt for a year.
In 1920, 1855 train yard or engine men were killed on American rail
roads. Upon the completion of new working agreements the old fog of
dissension and distrust that had settled over the minds of these men all
over this broad land of ours was lifted like a fog. and the neat year there were only 1,032 such railroad men killed, a decrease of S23 or 44 per cent. It was that circumstance that caused the Brotherhood of Rail way Trainmen to show a net reduction in a year of WS5.000 on claim payments; it was that which let them grant an increase of 35 per cent in the amount of their insurance and without additional cost to the insured. The sam reduction that was in" evidence in the year 1921 con
tinued during the first half of 1922, and it is part of my story that I have no knowledge of a single large railroad that does not show either a
noticeable, a marked, or an alarming increase in the number of casualties
among train, engine and yard men following the first day of July last year. That I am willing to confess on our own railroad our injuries among trainyard and engine men in the last six months of last year as compared with the first six months of the same year, show an increase of 91 per cent; there is a very nice problem in psychology right there. I want to ask you seriously just as I have asked nearly every organiza
tion man on our railroad, if you do not regard it as a very great pity that we are so lacking in poise, so lacking in fairness to ourselves, so lacking in strength of character, or whatever you want to call It, that for the privilege of allowing our sympathies to run away with us. we are willing to pay with an increase of 91 per cent in the number of our
own fellows, our own brothers, who are being crippled and killed, right
on our own railroad.
-
YOUSG 2UETST JtUST BE OPTIMISTS
I claim that we must make optimists out of our young men when they come into the service. One of our superintendents a few days ago asked if I had heard the latest distinction between an optimist and a pessimist. He said a pessimist is a man who puts two and two together and gets four. An optimist is a man, he said, who puts two and two together and immediately gets 22.
I was walking through one of our yards a few weeks ago with an assistant superintendent, who called a young fellow over to us. and intro ducing me, said, "Mac is the youngest conductor ou this division*' (which happened to be the largest of our twenty-seven). He added. "McMahon
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passed his examination yesterday, and a very good one. He came up this
morning, and I have just given him his punch, reports, and hat checks, and he is a full-fledged conductor." .
I said, "Mac, that is a very nice distinction you have, that of being the
youngest conductor on this division, but has it ever occurred to you that
that is a distinction you can't keep very long; do you realize there is
one thing you can be as long as you stay here?" He said, "What is
that?" I said, "You can always be the best conductor on this division,"
and a few minutes later when he shook my hand and left me, I felt amply
repaid for the momentary interest I had taken in that young fellow.
He said to me, "Mr. Hale, I wonder if you know just what that chance
remark means to me? Some day, you are going to hear me spoken of
in that very way, as the best conductor on this division!" You know
and I know, that young man is going to come nearer being that very thing than if I hadn't given him something to think about.
I remember reading a good many years ago, something like this: "Our thoughts, more than any other agejncy directly fix our status in life."
Our mental attitude towards our work or our aim in life has everything
to do with what we actually accomplish. I have been telling our fore men that it is part of their job to make our men, our new men especially,
realize that the man who' goes to his work with the attitude of a slave,
lashed to his task, who sees in it only drudgery, who sees no light ahead, only poverty and hard work as long as he lives, who thinks he is des tined to a hard existence, that the Fates have been unkind to him, and a lot of bunk of that kind, that the good things of life were all meant for someone else but not for him, has no reasonable right to expect to find
as he goes through life anything other than just what he is looking for.
If he is looking for the worst of it, the worst of it is the best he will get.
Anil I contend it is part of their job and .yours, to make -young men
realize that if they will believe in and actually see a better and brighter future; if they believe that some day they are going to rise above hum
drum work, that some day they are going to get out of the basement into the living room of life where comfort and happiness awaits them, if their ambition is clean cut, if they keep reasserting their belief in their abil
ity to accomplish what they have undertaken, they are sure to make a
success out of life.
'
I used to ask pur men to fix a definite goal in life and then keep shoot ing at it until they accomplished it, then set another goal and keep shoot
ing at that. I have changed my viewpoint. I believe that if you fix your mind on something an Indefinite length of time ahead you are apt to
overlook your opportunity of today.
LIVE BIGHT TODAY, AND TOMORROW WIIX TAKE CARE OK ITSEr.F
I am now trying to get our men to see that today is all they know
anything about, that if we live today rightly, tomorrow need offer no
vexing problems.
"
I tell our young men that the fellow who.>regards as hopeless his chance
in life, who is .constantly marking himself down in his own estimation.
1048
Twelfth- Safety Congress
putting- a low valuation on himself, hasn't any rJshi to expect to meet any man who is going to take the trouble to mark Mm xp. or pot any higher valuation on him than he puts on himself. X say to yow. X dare any man to tell me any reason why a man shonU esyoct to meet some
other man who is going to take the trouble to do for Mm. sonnothing that he is too lazy to do for himself.
Any man who has ever worked in an organization of any kind knows
that all the conceit, boastfulness and generally swelled s i* not confined
to the offices of our managers and superintendents ms many sms contend,
and you know and I know that if all the men on your property and mine
were putting in at hard work the time they are now spending tetttag what
they would do if they were in the boss's place, we'd have lota more suc
cessful men than we have now.
The realization of a person's ambitions, his advancement in responsibil ity, the acquisition of those things he values most in life, the respect and confidence of his family and his friends--and most of all, his own growth--are all dependent on his mental attitude towards his Job. I am telling our young men that if they do not like their work, if they don't enjoy doing it, in fairness to themselves they ought to make a change, because there is work somewhere'that they can and will enjoy, and they will never be either happy or successful until they find it.
It is a part of your job and mine to help get a good many of the square pegs out of the round holes in which we now find them. I contend that If you can get the minds of your men into the groove of right thinking, you may forget all about tbe upturned nails. Due to wrong thinking, there is too much counterfeit labor being offered to many in exchange for good dollars; counterfeit labor reacts on the man who offers it in trade, and in time he becomes exactly what he thinks and acts--he becomes a coun terfeit himself.
It must be a part of your job and mine to try to make the men among whom we work realize that the man most likely to succeed Is the man who works, not merely for the money he gets but for his own good, who works for a stronger personality, who works for a sturdier character, who looks upon his job as a means of making himself a better man, a more worth-while citizen and all this by being honest with himself and his employer.
I contend that it is your duty and mine to make our men realize it is the positive, constructive, affirmative attitude of mind alone that will carry a man forward, that it is the man who takes hold, who builds up and doesn't find delight in tearing down something that other men have painstakingly and laboriously built, who. steps In wherever he is wanted or needed without waiting to be asked or without looking at the clock, that wins promotion; I am reminding them that never have they heard of promotion going to a critic or a. fault finder; I am telling them that while I hold no brief either for or against an eight-hour day, no man ever climbed very high on the ladder of success who confined his climbing efforts to eight hours, a day. I don't mean by that I would
Steam Railroad Section
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have a man stay in the shop over eight hours; not at all, but rather I
would ask what is he doing with his hours outside of the shop when he
is not getting necessary recreation and rest? It is what a man is for,
not against, that will open to him the door of opportunity.
-
In my job, like you, I am sort of a father confessor to a great many
men; they come to me with their confidences, some even tell me their
troubles. It seems as though nearly every day some young fellow conies
to me and cries that he has no opportunity. I tell him he may cry about his lack of opportunity until the crack of doom, but it will never change one bit the fact that a man's only main-spring is inside of him
and not outside, and nobody in God's world can wind that main-spring
and keep it wound except the man himself!
I realize that this is not something that can be brought about over night. I know it is something that cannot be brought about through a correspondence school course; this, for the very good reason that the man who is thinking wrong thoughts is quite happy in the belief that what he knows, he knows, and has his mind made up that no one is going
to change his opinions. I am not even prepared to argue that we may not have to educate another generation of men,, but I. contend that the time for us to begin to build is now.
BETTER MES MAKE BETTER ORGANIZATION-
I am asked quite frequently, "How would you keep your full quota of
men if you were going to be more discriminating in picking them, and
more exacting after you got them?" I believe that is a situation which happily would solve itself. I believe, speaking for our railroad, that if
it became known among the railroad men of this country that we people
on the Santa Fe were trying to build, not merely an organization but a
super-organization, we would at once create in the minds of the very
finest type .of railroad men everywhere, a wish that they might get into Santa Fe service where they could work in an organization of that kind, and where they might raise their children in what they knew would be
the wholesome atmosphere surrounding such an organization.
It must be our duty to get serious-minded, right-thinking men. and supervisors especially, to use their influence to get other men to quit
thinking those unfair, unwarranted, and sometimes, actually vicious thoughts that are robbing them of a peace of mind they otherwise might
enjoy Wrong thinking is not confined to any one social or industrial
strata; regardless of the direction you turn or the distance you go you
will find Inactive and misdirected minds. One of our greatest faults is
that too many men know too many things that are not so.
I picked up a paper a few days ago, and read that the Italian Ambas
sador at Washington had been given a banquet the night before in
New York by tbe representative men of that city. Seated next to the
ambassador, as a guest of honor was a New York contractor who was
invited because it was he who gave this Italian immigrant his first job in America not many years ago, that of pushing a wheel-barrow in a
construction job in a New York subway.
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Twelfth, Safety Congress
This gentleman did not get there as ambassador from the Italian Government by a process of wrong thinking, by a wrong mental attitude towards his opportunities, nor by waiting for some other man to do for him what he was too lazy to do for himself.'
Tears ago, when I was chief cleric in a railroad office out in Omaha, a young fellow came into my office, a tough little guy, who came swagger ing up to me .and said, "Are you Hale?" I acknowledged I was. He said, "I have got a pal who is working for you. and he tells me he is going to jump his job Saturday night. I just came up to ask you if I can get it, see?" One question developed another, and I found that he was working as an elevator operator for $40 a month; when I asked him how much schooling he had had, he said, "Nix on the school stuff, boss. 1 haven't had any. My father died when I was nine years old; I had to leave school and go to work, and I have had to work ever since; I'm sorry, but you can't count on me knowing anything learned in school, but I'd like to have' that job. Give me one crack at it boss." I said, "Listen, my boy," (because I bad even then begun to like him) "this Is a clerical job you are asking tor, and yet you tell me you have no education. Do you believe you can do the work?" He leaned over my desk and looking me straight in the'eye, said very seriously, "Has anyoue else ever done it?" I said, "Yes, certainly." Very greatly relieved, he said, "All right, then I can do it."
I said. "I will take a chance on you," yet down in my heart I knew I wasn't taking any chance at all, "You come down- here Monday morning and I will give you $45 a month," and when he went out of that office he was so happy he had to turn sideways to get his smile through the door.
HOW SELF CONFIDENCE ENABLED YOUTH TO OVERCOME MIGHTY OBSTACLES
He came to work for me and was there a year and a half when I
got an old-time friend of mine with a packing house in Chicago to give
him a job.
,
Before lie left Omaha, I said to him, "Jack, because neither of us know
what you are up against over at Chicago I am going to hold your Job
here 90 days; if you don't make good, come back." When I offered him
a round trip pass he said to me, "Surely you don't understand what
this chance means to me; I'm going to Chicago for only one purpose,
to make good; therefore, tell me, what do I want with a return pass?"
I was in their offices just a year and a half from that day, and meeting'
the department head for- whom this young fellow worked, among other
questions I asked was, what salary he was getting. "In fairness, I should
tell you he is worth $10,000 a year to us, but because we have spoiled
so many young fellows over here by advancing them too rapidly, we
can't take a chance on spoiling him, so we only give him $5000," the
department head said.
I lost "sight of him for 16 or 17. years, except at Christmas when we
sent each other our cards, but two years ago this month I met him in
Los Angeles and found he was with a Wall Street concern, the strongest
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financially of any bond bouse in the world. I had no hesitancy In asking him any .purely personal question, so I said, "Jack, what do you earn?" He said, "My earnings vary." I said, "All right, what did you earn last year?" and very modestly he said, "A little over $40,000." ~
I never knew a character just like him. He hadn't a great many of the qualities that are generally regarded as essential in business success, but he had something that was worth`them all. He had the most su
preme confidence in hiinself of any one I ever knew; he lived the clean est life of any young man I ever knew; he was just as strong physically as he was mentally, and if he wanted to he could have gone into the ring and been the best man of his weight of his time.
One of our greatest troubles today is, the minds of men are so filled
with the thought of getting something for nothing that we are sitting
around waiting for the world to make good. I am telling our young men
that this world doesn't owe them a living or anything else. Whatever
obligation there is is on their part and not on the part of the world. Elbert Hubbard never said in all of his wonderful writings, a truer thing
than this: "I am today what I am because yesterday I was what I was."
It is nothing short of tragedy that men should accomplish average before
we finally realize that no man can take out of this life or out of his job
more than he puts into it.
I have no wish to appear vulgar, but. I want to remind you that success
is not at all a question of luck. Success is merely a question of the
proper intestinal investiture, if you please. If you are properly equipped
in that way you will- be successful, and if you are not. you never will be
In the world.
S __
' TRUE SUCCESS IS BASED OA* TRUE FRIENDSHIP
Mere money is not a mark of success; unless a man uses his time and his effort and his money (if he has any) to bring help or added comfort or greater happiness to some one other than himself, he is not a success. One of the most wonderful privileges in this life is that of friendship. Irately I have been trying to drive home to our men something of what friendship really means, and I want to read you something along tbis line, because it will give you something to think about.
"What is friendship? Somebody has described a friend as whoever by preference promotes the welfare of another. The description is worth thinking about, and would be interesting to apply.
"A wife is her husband's friend,' a husband is his wife's friend, and a father and mother are their children's friends. Friendship is a mutual affair. Our friends are glad to help us, and we in turn must be glad to help'them; otherwise there will be no friendship, because true friend ship is not one-sided. The least any fellow can do is be a friend to the chap who is a friend to him,, and the better friend a fellow is to us, the better friends we ought to be to him. Every fellow's best friend is entitled to that fellow's very best friendship. But who is every fellow's best friend? Who pays the rent and buys his clothes, and settles with the grocer, the butcher, and the doctor--who is it that finds new hats
1052
Twelfth Safety Congress
tor the wife, and shoes for the children? You and I and the other fellow
have a lot to be thankful for. We not only hare the necessities, but many
of the luxuries of life, but where did we get them? Why, we got them
from our Job!
.
"Has any man any better friend than his job? Does any friend do anything more for any one of you men than your job does for yoe? Isn't our job pretty nearly our best friend, and if a man's job is good to him, is it any more than decent .for the man to be good to his jot? And if the job is the best friend we have, isn't it just ordinary every-day fair play for us to treat the job like a friend and be good to It?
"Did you ever know a man who made himself a socccm who did not recognize that his job was a friend, and show himself to be a friend
of his job?"
It is the way of the world but too often we do not realize what our friends mean to us; we do not realize what a very vital part they play In our lives until such a friend has passed on and is gone.
In traveling over our railroad, I frequently meet a man who was formerly In Santa Fe service, and maybe for a long term of years, who
is now out of it, and who tells me that he never realized that his job
was the best friend he ever had until he 'lost it.
PUBLICITY AS AN AID TO THE RAILROAD SAFETY
OFFICER
*
Roy D. Weight, Managing Editor, Railway Age, New York City
The question of publicity is a tremendously important one in these days. Publicity men the world over, are beginning to realize that they have got to approach the situation in a more scientific way than in the past.
Let us remember that at the most conservative estimate, 75 per cent of our accidents are due to non-physical hazards, they are due to mental hazards such as absentmindedness, carelessness, and things of that sort, and the way in which we are going-to overcome the greater part of these hazards is through educational processes. I have spent quite a bit of time trying to get a real good definition of publicity, because publicity is a thing that we have got to use in order to carry on this educational campaign, and I found that a man named Higham in England, gives us this definition: "Publicity is the partisan of truth. True publicity sees principles in their right relations. Publicity in the long run becomes a moral force. The right kind of publicity breaks up crusted prejudice, and sows the seed of truth."
Now, if we are going" to create this great moral force in this day and generation, we can't do it with so-called propaganda. But we have got to have facts, and we have got to marshal those facts in such a way as to create a real impression if we are, as I say, to create this moral force.
If we are going to get these facts and marshal them in such a way to produce an impression, just whom have we got to shoot at in this great American commonwealth? I imagine most of us are familiar with the army mental tests and the astounding revelations they made to us. Think
Steam Railroad Section
1053
of it, of over 1,700,000 men examined in a period of six months, 41,000
of them officers, five and one half per cent were rated with a very superior intelligence, nine per cent with a superior intelligence, and sixteen and one half per cent with a high average intelligence. Now those three classes cover jus't 30 per cent. The next is average intelligence, 25 per cent, and the statement is made that very few of that 25 per cent had sufficient intelligence to pass a high school examination, or to take a high school coarse. Now this isn't a test of knowledge, mind you, this is a mental test, and only 30 per cent of them were mentally equipped to take a high school course. Very few of. them, indeed, below that 30
per cent were fitted for that.
,
Now these, are only mental tests; discount them 50 per cent, and is the situation not astounding? Let us agree also, if you will, that railroad men are of a higher average intelligence than others, although I question that when we take the railroad employees as a whole. We still have got to'recognize the fact, men, that if we are going to reach and make a real impression upon the rank and file, we have got- to direct our pub licity in such a way as to get down to a fairly low standard of mentality. We have got to arrange our facts and marshal them in such a way as to reach pretty well down, and an awful lot of safety publicity I have seen is entirely too high brow, it is going over the heads of a great per centage of the men we want to reach.
AVEKACE. 3OT SUPERIOR MESTA1ITI MUSI BE .APPEALED TO
,,
One of our great newspaper publishers is said t.o have given orders to
his editors to prepare their material and put it in the paper so as to
appeal to a mentality of 12 years of age. Can't we take a great lesson
from that publisher, who today is reaching great masses of our people,
and I might say, with not always the best sort of things?
'
There are a few things that we must then keep clearly in mind. We must make our statements clear and simple. We have got to watch the newspapers and pick out things which are making the strongest appeal to the greatest number of people. Study their methods and utilize them so far as we can. We can't turn out a great mass of type without dress ing it up and expect to reach the men. We have got to make free use of pictures and cartoons, remembering, however, that with the cartoons and the pictures that we don't want them to go over the heads of people. Sometimes we see some cartoons that would make a college graduate scratch his head and wonder what in the world the fellow is shooting at. Let us not use that kind of a cartoon.,
Then we have got to present things so far as we can in a graphical
form, because that seems to be the thing that today is making the largest
impression.
' .
We have had some splendid safety pictures that have been put out to appeal to the public, and that one which has been displayed so widely during the past summer, that colored picture of the highway crossing, has made a great appeal. We need more of that sort of thing.
1054
Twelfth Safety Congress
Mr. Wollner, the Chairman of your Program Committee, recently wrote
an article on the use of charts, in safety work. I want to quote just one
or two things that he said, because he has been successful to quite a
degree in the use of these charts. He said, "Among other things, it is
practically impossible to present the need for safety without using a great
many things showing the frequency with which accidents occur, and the
benefits that occur from the observation of safey rules. Remember this:
That statistics are always boring to an audience, and then again it is
necessary to use so many figures, it is impossible for the audience to
retain them in their minds with sufficient accuracy to use them, should
they desir'
do so." On that basis, he suggests the use of charts, and
he warns us against certain kinds of charts, find he recommends one
kind--that which shows the horizontal or vertical blocks, blocked in black
so that they stand right out, and not use curves and circles and that
sort of thing. Then he makes this observation, and I want you to think
of this now in the light of those army statistics. "Plan the charts to
suit the group that you are appealing to. Some of your groups can fol low charts much more easily than others. In some cases, it is going to,
be a mistake to use a chart at all."
-
Keep that in mind, and then there is one other thing that is true in publicity work, and that is, show as little as possible on It, or one thing; emphasize one thing rather than attempting to show many things.
I think also, we can take a great lesson from some of these graphical charts that are being shown in the movies in these days, and we ought to be able to adopt the best of their ideas to our own use. These moving picture people are studying great audiences, audiences representing a cross section of all our population, and they find that sometimes a thing doesn't get over, and then they find again, another thing does get over, and we ought to profit from the observations and the progress they are making in studying these graphical charts.
SELLING SAFETY TO THE MAN ON THE FIRING LINE WltUAlt N. Done. Vice-Presidekt, Brottieehood of It att.roa Traixmex
Those who have made a study of the psychology of salesmanship tell
us that the first thing in order to be a successful salesman is to have faith
in the product offered for sale, and that the second most important thing
is to know human nature, especially that part of the buying public with
which one is doing business. If this Is true in selling merchandise, then
1 am fully convinced it is doubly true of those to whom is entrusted the
duty of selling the far more important thing, safety to the men on the
firing line. It then unquestionably requires more patience, study and
tact to be a successful salesman in the safety movement than that
required of almost any other business or professional man. By the same
token, 'it will require a great, deal of tact and skill on the part of any
one in attempting to state new. ideas or thoughts to you experienced Safety
men if'we do not cover the ground already gone over by you in your
efforts.
.
Steam Railroad Section
1055
I come to you from the men who face the dangers, endure *the incon veniences and hardships incident to conducting transportation on all the steam railroads on the continent. Then men who, regardless of climatic or other conditions must respond for duty and faithfully discharge those duties in order that we may have a highly developed and properly work ing transportation system; the men who constitute that great army of train and yard service, employees who are among the most Important in our industrial life and on whom rests so much of the responsibility for the success of this great Industrial machine of this, the greatest country on earth. It Is almost beyond comprehension when viewed from the standpoint that almost all the raw material, finished products and traveling public must be handled by these men. Yet they are about as successful, and many times I believe more so than any other class engaged in industrial activities in our confines. This bespeaks great training,, constant co-operation and years of education and endeavor to cope with the purely human element of the institution itself, to say nothing of the other factors that enter into the industry.
THE TTECESSITX FOB CABEFDXBESS
.
In order to be most helpful, those of us who have given any thought to the subject are convinced that the most ^important step in this move
ment Is to impress upon all the absolute necessity of being careful. Care
ful not only in action and deed but as well in thought and speech. An unfortunate spoken word or harbored thought oftentimes leads to heart aches and hardships. A careless act on our part often causes anguish of mind and agony to ourselves or others. A deed committed is beyond recall, and may be the cause of pain 'or untold future suffering. Neither
need, be of a premeditated or malicious character, yet the effect may
be just as far reaching and injurious.
' ..
In carrying Safety to the men to whom Safety is a most valuable
asset and an ever present need, we should exercise care and discretion
in order that the thought may he conveyed as well as the act, the spirit as well as the intent, and that the heart goes with the act as well as the deed. Influence is a world factor in any line or endeavorr.it is the foundation of faith, and faith works wonders not only in social inter course but in industrial relations, as well. Then I would couple up as the very first step the principles of honesty, trust, and faith in the fair
ness of all mankind, and from this viewpoint proceed to build the super structure of safety in the railroad business.
We must trust one another; if so then why should we not begin charity
at home by doing that only which merits trust and confidence? We are firmly convinced that in order to be successful salesmen of safety the prime essential is to be worthy of the trust that we expect men to place in our endeavor. If we live, think and act in a safe manner, then our
example so shines forth that others, seeing oar good works, follow. On the other hand if we preach safety and live carelessly, we become the
proverbial hypocrite. This lessens our prestige and almost, if not entirely, destroys our efforts. This brand of salesmanship is more than lip service.
1056
Twelfth Safety Congress
^
more than mere declarations or declamations, more than minor efforts; in fact it is an enormous task and requires high courage and strong effort.
ATTRIBUTE OF SAFETY MOVEMENT
Right living, right thinking, right working and right playing are some
of the attributes of the Safety movement. We have more Interest than
the mere effort to teach carefulness insofar as our bodies are concerned;
more in common with humanity than to. teach men to look out for their
physical needs and wants--we have the higher duty of creating in them
the interest in all humanity, that of looking for the best in our fellow
men and helping them to express these good things.
More serious are our duties and responsibilities than ordinarily thought.
We must search and reach by honest endeavor the heart and conscience
of those we strive to help. Safety among those engaged in the opera
tion of trains is most essential and all important. There can be no
faltering, hesitating or escaping the responsibilities by these men, and
there should be nothing left undone to throw around them every safe
guard in their employment. Co-operation, respect and properly placed
confidence must prevail all along the line, from the top to the bottom,
from the chief to the lowest in rank of 'the subordinate.
We should dirdct our energies toward finding the best means of ac
complishing desired results in our endeavors toward ideal conditions, and
we know quite well the men assembled here have devoted untiring en
ergies toward these results, and apparently it will be a presumption on
the part of an amateur to attempt to make recommendations. However,
at the risk of appearing ridiculous, a few suggestions which are conclu
sions resulting from observation and experience are offered for your
generous consideration.
.
THE POWER OF THE PRESERVATION INSTINCT
The first impulse of every individual is self-preservation and the pro tection of his loved ones. Endanger him personally or mistreat his de pendents, and he ceases, generally speaking, to be a kindly personality and becomes a desperate individual. We must first reach him from the standpoint of protection, not only to himself but to those near and dear to him. An appeal of this kind never fails of proper results.
Contentment, peace of mind, security in employment, good wages and proper living conditions are prime essentials in the accomplishment of results along sane, sensible safety lines.
The peace of mind of the individual plays a more important part in our successful endeavors than one may imagine at first glance. Worries of any character will no more mix successfully with railroading than will oil and water. Many things may cause worry or disturbed condition _ of mind. The more frequently brought' to my attention are those con cerning the administration of discipline and the personal handling of employees by superiors. An invariable barometer of railroad success, insofar as transportation men are concerned, is established in propor tion to the reasonableness and fairness with which discipline Is admin-
Steam Railroad Section
1057
istered. Train delays of apparent unnecessary duration, partiality and favoritism, together with over-zealousness on the part of officers and .fel low employees, many times tend to disturb the peace of mind of em ployees, and as a result carelessness and indifference follow with the > attending accidents, resulting In injuries, death, or property destruction. Weed out elements of discord as you would the tare from the wheat.
Security in employment Is of paramount importance to successful per formance of duty. Were each employee who is worth while, properly impressed with the fact that he is secure in his position so long as he obeys Instructions, lives up to the rules and is careful, we would find the best results following. On the other hand, let employees feel that their remaining in the service is uncertain or let the impression become general that discriminations are to follow, or that there is indifference as to the employee's efforts, that be will in all probability be let out, you had just about as well suspend railroading for the time being, because this is not only unprofitable but extremely dangerous. Give the best assurances of permanent employment provided care and discretion are exercised, and the best results are obtained. Above everything, eliminate the feeling of "It's hen If you do and hell If you don't." This spirit will not only wreck your safety efforts, but as well, the success of your industry.
Good wages, properly and dlscriminately distributed in such a manner
as to compensate in proportion to the services performed, are of such mag
nitude that we may well turn our attention to them as having the most
telling effect in the operation of trains and the general Safety First move
ment. Tour safety men should lend your every effort toward a just, equit
able and adequate wage adjustment. No railroad men may reasonably be
expected to work for wages that are insufficient to maintain himself and
his family properly in accordance with reasonable American standards.
Cheap, dissatisfied labor Is not only a handicap to industry but a danger
to our free institutions, as absolute menace to our railroads. Men must
have food, clothing and a few comforts, not only for themselves but for
their dependents, or they will become calcontents. Safety First principles
demand that we aB boost *r fair wages as the best step toward respon
sibility, and rerogutsed responsibility leads to safety.
.
tfZjOMer or fiooo uvuvc to safett
Put your energies into the movement to furnish proper living conditions for the men on the American steam railroads. You can engage in no more SandaMe endeavor than to make men more cleanly, their home lives better, and their environments more wholesome. Do this and you have taken a great forward step in the interest of the safety movement. Make a man's condition of living right and you have almost without exception made him worthy of your confidence and the world's respect.
Rhetoric, oratory and academic theory advance ns very little. The thins that counts most in the Safety movement Is a practical every-day application of efforts. We must live safety, as well as teach It. Safety, like good wine, ripens with age, and the more we practice it, the better we like it.
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Twelfth, Safety Congress
Our forty or fifty years of agitation for safety legislation in the state legislatures and Congress has given, the Railroad Brotherhood a fair in sight into safety progress. All movements contemplating changes in thought and action are slow, and in general the Safety movement has been slow, but fortunately progressive and forward. People generally are not quick in starting reforms and are more conservative in pushing them. It is, therefore, important to educate the masses along forward thinking lines.
For example, it took fifty years of:agitation, education and persuasion to enact and make fully effective the Safety Appliance Act- From the time the first resolution was introduced in Congress in 1871 until the Safety Appliance Standards order of the commission became fully opera tive in 1921, fifty years had elapsed--however, we fought undauntedly for
this great humanitarian legislation, with unbending faith In the justice of the cause. We were sure we were right and forged ahead.
EVIDENCES OF ACCOMPLISHMENTS
=
There are other evidences' of what has been' accomplished by constantly
keeping at a right principle. For instance, your own movement is a
splendid example. Your Safety First movements were regarded at one
time as unsound theories, or hobbies. However, recently I was told by a
high official of an important railway that the best asset his line had and
the biggest dividend payer was their Safety movement. Others have told
me that through the good work of their Safety movements they had turned
losses into profits--thus disproving the old theory of these movements
being expensive. The public is also taking up the slogan, and now a
splendid spirit of fraternity is springing up universally to crown your
efforts.
_.
Labor organizations, such as ours, at first looked with some skepticism
upon the safety movement, but have now so far changed their viewpoint
that "Safety blatters" are not only a part of their work, but ah order of
business in their ritual, thus making it an important part of organization
work. The reason for this change of opinion is education and fair dealing.
The results are written in undeniable evidence on our accident records
and insurance reports--thereby proving that the movement" has had tang
ible value to us from a purely organization standpoint in dollars and cents. The psychology of the situation is that if the higher-ups do not tote
fair why should the lowerdowns do so? Then an important part of your work is to not only advocate co-operation and good management but to prove it by results. Boosters are always live ones.
You know I never lose faith in three things--my God, my country, and my people. They are all true as steel. If you feel yourself doubting,
remember that your God is always right. Were he not, you could not exist. Your country must be right, because it is your country and has withstood all the assaults from without and from within. Our people must be trusted--If our own cannot then what other people can be? The best rule to -apply in case of doubt is the rule of introspection, and you will almost alw'ays find that the fault rests with you, not with others. So
Steam Railroad Section
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when you hear people bemoaning their fate or envying every other one, apply your Safety rule of taking the .safe course and running no risks with them. Get such fellows on the track, or take them off the line en tirely. A disgruntled, whining individual is an unsafe railroad man; therefore fix him, set him right, or encourage him to enter other fields of endeavor. I would also recommend as part of your program the education -of all in the one important principle of being fair and truthful, the Golden Rule being the very best measure to insure success. If we approach this question from the standpoint of being safe for the other fellow's sake be cause we, in turn, expect him to be safe for our sake, we have about solved the problem.
NEED OE CO-OPERATION '
"Am I my brother's keeper," has sounded down through the ages as a hindrance to progress. It seems hardly fair to assume that people in this enlightened age of progress and advancement should ask this question, yet day by day in numerous ways it is being propounded to the world. My answer is "yes," more so than at any time in' the past, for at no time has the absolute need of co-operation been so apparent. Never has there been such a demand for the practical, everyday application of Christianity in industry and every line of human endeavor. A simple little phrase of a French chemist went around the world causing humanity to think and act by its suggestion; then why should not our slogan of "Be Careful" be changed to "I am careful every day in every way," and by its repeated suggestion reach all mankind? It is worth while--I would suggest giving it a try-out.
We should all realize that there Is danger in false propaganda. He who lives by the sword must also perish by the sword. Improper, selfish and unsound reports when circulated only rebound in the most harmful way. I am sure there is a great amount of harm done by the attitude of selfish ness which is so prevalent by the railroads, and this in many directions. Cost is being placed above service, commercial advantage above efficiency, and profit above safety. The great masses of our people are being unduly preyed upon by the cure-all quacks who are holding- forth alleged remedies to cure railroad ills. These people are just as menacing to industry as quackery is to the public health.
There are those of us who have thrown down the gauntlet and are demanding the truth and a square deal for the railroads, management and men, and we invite all to join in this campaign of education. It is believed to be an essential part of the Safety movement. We cannot bankrupt the railroads, half starve the employees, and then expect safe conditions to prevail. We do not expect any more favorable conditions for the rail roads than we do for industry and the public in general, but we do expect at least halt-way fair treatment. The public should not demand any more than they may reasonably be expected to give. The public demands safety --and in this demand they are right. The railroads expect to give safe conditions and generally they are doing their best. The public on the other hand must accord to them the opportunity of making good. The
1060
Twelfth Safety Congress
reformers and. dreamers demand safety in travel and in their daily
endeavors--then they should practice safety in their program of reforms.
No institution can, or ever has, withstood the ravages of time unless es
tablished on truth, hlo individual can, or ever has, succeeded long if he gained his position by unfair methods or resorted to unfair means. Xn
your program be fair, be fearless, yet be true to the convictions of right.
Measure only by the yardstick such as you would like to be measured byl
The experience gained by the years spent on the firing line, together
with the others years that X have lived with the men who are constantly
under fire in the railroad business, all told, which constitute a lifetime,
brings me to the conclusion that the industry is of the very highest class. Management and men are the salt of the earth, and they deserve the most
favorable consideration. These men,, given a half chance, will develop
the transportation industry of this country into the most marvelously
perfect machine on earth--capable of- caring for the needs of the world.
They need no paternalistic agency to guide them, nor no' favorable subsidy
to sustain them, nor no efficiency reformers to uphold them. All they
need is a square deal, the right to live, and the opportunity to do a first
class job of railroading as practical railroad men.
.
DEITIES LACK OF tUTITV
An erroneous idea has been too long prevalent in this country that the railroads and their employees were pitted against each other. Of' course, there has been the desire on the part of some to cause friction in the hope that these two may not unite for mutual benefit and protection. There is no industry on earth where closer co-operation should prevail than be tween investor, management and employee of the railroads. Their Inter ests are common and they should be encouraged in their efforts at co operation. The only reason they are encouraged to do other than work together Is because some outsider desires to profit by their differences. In selling Safety to the men on the firing line, instill in them the spirit of co-operation and confidence.
The thoughts desired conveyed in this brief talk are simply that in the general Safety movement we should take into consideration all the ele ments that may tend to cause dissatisfaction, worry or other things that would tend to divert the attention of the employees in other directions or that may in any manner cause carelessness. In my judgment, we must give the most careful consideration to all factors, because anything that results in carelessness or indifference, regardless of what it may be, is the proper subject for corrective remedies by those entrusted with safety meas ures. We should not, m my judgment, permit cost, bias, or even Illadvised public opinion to in the slightest maimer divert our attention from the real object, "Safety First."
If the public Is being unduly disturbed by wrong propaganda or im proper information, it should be our duty to correct all such false rumors, thereby assisting in giving the public the facts. If employees are being improperly influenced by unwholesome conditions of employment, includ ing inadequate wages, some one must rectify this situation in the interest
Steam Railroad Section
1061
of safety--consequently we cannot escape the responsibility of doing our duty. We can assist in our own way, and I am sure your Congress can do very much in the interest of common Justice. Investors are entitled to a square deal in order that honest efforts are had in providing the means for proper equipment and facilities, and management must be encouraged to be able to function properly without fear or hindrance at all times.
A SQUARE DEAL. FOR ALL SOUGHT
. We must go out to the public armed with the love for one another and
the public, holding up the banner of a square deal for all, never forgetting
that the prime essential in our civilization is protection of life and limb,
and that this principle extends not only to the employees and the rail
roads, but by the very nature of the interests it serves it reaches almost
every home in the Republic. Then, in order to provide the proper assur
ances of safety, all interests must have every consideration, and the very
essence of co-operation must prevail among all. In other words, the public
should understand that in our endeavors to give to management and em
ployees the proper measure of safety, the public is a party to these efforts
and must contribute toward the means as well as give hearty co-operation
in other ways.
.
Were we able to carry to the men on the firing line the assurances of whole-hearted co-operation and they were to know that all parties were In
earnest in giving the public, the investor, the management and the men
a square deal, the problem is solved. Were all to understand that every
other one believed in safety, was willing to live safely, as well as talk: and
act it, this great humanitarian movement would reach the zenith of its
glory in leaps and bounds. It then, in our judgment, is well to consider
the so-called little things, for as certain as we live all things are founded
on a multiplicity of small things, each working with others for the good
of the whole. Clean lives, pure hearts and righteous souls, free from all selfish reasons or ulterior motives, working for the good of themselves and
the advancement of their fellow men, which in the-end means the edifica
tion of humanity and the glorification of God. Let these sentiments go out
from this Congress, not only to the men who are employed on the steam
railroads, but to all industry and to every household in every city, town
and hamlet in America--you may be sure it will bring peace to all and.
the blessing of this great people of ours.
.
Go forward* my friends, with renewed energies. Reconsecrate your lives and stimulate your efforts, resolve that in this the most laudable of endeavors, the preservation of human lives and the prevention of acci
dents and injuries, you will use the very best that is within you. Your calling Is of the highest character, your influence Is the most far reaching in effect, and your example without parallel in brilliancy. Merit its high position of honor and trust by keeping the faith. Let not by any degree of temptation your aim be subordinated to selfishness, neither permit in fluence, pressure or social prestige to sway you one iota In your movement.
10S2
Twelfth Safety Congress
but go forward with the determination that you will serve humanity as it never has been served, devoid of any tinge of selfishness or monetary gain.
This Is, indeed, a great honor and a rare privilege you have accorded me in meeting with you, and it goes without saying that my heart is with' you, my every influence is behind you in your splendid work. Therefore Z wish you success as a body and each individual among you that greater regard, the assurance of "Well done, thou good and faithful servant."
In closing I am reminded of that beautiful poem. Stop! Look! Listen!
written by Florence G. Chapman:
'
"We think we can'live this old life as we please.
As free as the birds of the air.
*
The years, they are ours to use and abuse.
Our acts, just to do and to dare.
'
We think it a jazz, a mad, dizzy whirl.
Who cares for a heart or a smile?
'
Just keep to the right--leave the laggards behind
And "get there"--live life every mile.
But Stop! Look! Listen!--the sign reads ahead. There's a fellow out there you have known,
And a woman who loves you and stands by your side. You can't play the game all alone.
.
It's a funny old world, in truth, through and through. On the level and square if we choose;
Make the man on the highway your brother and friend. Or take It from me, you will lose."
SELLING SAFETY TO THE MANAGEMENT OF A LARGE
RAILROAD H. A. Abams. Asoctaxt to Gcram. Haxages, Dkios Pacific Railway,
Omaha, Neb.
Salesmanship of this character has been simplified with the light of recent years* eapcriemoe which has furnished visible evidence of the saneness and sonwlaow of the arguments lehind it.
A few of the larger system* are out of alignment in this movement and "Safety First- is more of a platitude or precept than a policy with them.
No railroad iram moment to the Sand can be uninformed or indifferent to the achievement* of this safety plan. It is therefore evident that such roads as have not as pot awakened to importance of this work must needs be convinced bjr uniljjiitPin, arguments and silencing evidence, to bring them to its rcaUrttkms.
Admittedly, officer* totrusted with the management of class one rail roads of our country are of broad vision, so when any of their group
Steam Railroad Section
1063
fails to enlist in the cause of Safety First, it can be attributed to mis
directed effort of someone. Feel safe in the assertion that, had this
plan been earlier and impressively placed before men in high places,
there would be no class one carriers in the country 'today without its
safety organization.
*
The extent of Investment in money and men engaged In the work
must vary, of course, on different properties, dependent upon the needs
and the financial ability to carry on the work. We should exert every
effort in our appointed places to bring the safety work to the approval
of all to whom it comes automatically and perforce commend it in the
strongest form to those carriers whose methods are luke-warmly prose
cuted or totally in-operative.
-~
Why the manager of a class one road fails to follow an extensive
safety program suggests a number of other questions. First, "Is this
manager a `regular*; that is, does he whole-heartedly support-the move
ments approved by the American Railway Association?" The answer
usually is: "Yes, he does." Then why is his road backward in these
forward-moving matters, or does it follow old style methods, indifferent
to the welfare of employees and patrons?
t-
Certainly no road is indifferent to public welfare, or to the safety of life, limb or property protection.
Again, history shows that employees themselves have in the past, urged safety devices, sometimes going so far as to inspire laws forcing them upon reluctant lines. So it follows that on roads without a safety program the operatives, seemingly, are nonchalant. Otherwise they would force the issue. When the managements do not take hold of the movement, it is clear that neither group is convinced of its essentiality.
When this is true it is an emergency and up to the men themselves
to convert the management. But first, someone must convince the men
who and how?--there's the question.
;
Prospective purchasers must he convinced that our commodity is one of necessity and economy and not the fantasticv dream of a faddist. That which we offer must te p first quality which will stand opposition and become its own best, salesman.
There is no argument about usefulness of the common, household broom but the man of today who would distinguish himself as a broom salesman must convince us that the broom which he Is selling has qualities superior to others offered by competitors.
SEASONS FOB URGING SAFETY
`
We can urge the purchase of Safety for many reasons, but certainly
for the following:
..
'
It is American.
-
It is based on the cardinal principle of justice.
It is humanistic. It is one of the best vehicles of the day for
expressing our belief in the brotherhood of man and our acceptance
of responsibility for our brother's welfare.
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Twelfth, Safety Congress
.i It. Is economically .sound.' The American Railway Association has
indicated its faith in the necessity and practicability of the program. In these times carriers, having so little to offer, other than expedition when greater safety can be added, it looms large in the line of possi
bilities. -
It makes for efficiency. Labor turnover is one of controlling im portance in maintenance and operation of railroad property. "Safety First" stabilizes and makes for contentment and dependableness. There must be increased efficiency and loyalty in Safety. While Safety first should never be accepted solely on the basis of economy,
it is established that in guarding against personal injuries and casualties, working conditions are bettered. .
It should be remembered that Safety work is most successful when
its enforcement is complete and persistent as are the exactions of
other departments such as maintenance of way, maintenance of equip
ment and transportation. It cannot attain full working value in a limit
of one or two years.
.
Its principles become operative and the achievements sought assured only through edueatioA and co-operation of employees and their families.
This instructive effort has final fruition ' only when applied to large
groups; greatest lasting benefits flow from consecration of the individual
employees--they who leaven the whole.
On a class one railroad, with 25,000 or more employees, there must
be leadership Inspired to make effective this educational program and
until Safety First shall have been thoroughly sold to the individual
employee in the man-to-man way, safety is neither effective nor
understood.
.
In a division organization, one might illustrate the thought in the
following manner:
The superintendent, as the responsible head of the division must first
be thoroughly inoculated and enthusiastic in Safety First and in addi
tion must gradually be brought to understand that while starting as
somewhat of a missionary movement it. must be persistently prose
cuted until it shall be the understanding and the practice, that compli
ance with safety rules is as obligatory as compliance with the operating
code of rules.
-
Equipped with a thorough understanding of the mission of Safety First in all its ramifications, the superintendent will impart this thought and spirit to all his staff, each of whom, in the handling of their work, comes more closely in contact with individual employees.
FUNCTION OF THE SAFETY COMMITTEES
Division safety committees should be the charging plant, energizing and distributing Safety First vitality throughout all the arteries of the division, reaching impressively the Local Safety Committees. From these committees will proceed the individual employee whose understanding of Safety First will prompt him to work with his co-workers, and thus
Steam Railroad Section
1065
we- finally- reach the men who form fundamentally- the footing of Safety
activity and progress. It is obvious, of course, that superintendents
will not have a right start nor a clear conception of their responsibilities
in this important phase of the work, unless the management, from the
president down, is unreservedly and unchangeably committed to the'
cause.
5 This cannot be accomplished under a passive attitude on the part of officers or men, but must have behind It, a most aggressive, uncom-c"' promising, determined policy of belief and enforcement.
Circulars, bulletins, motion pictures, rallies--all are helpful in edu
cational work. Individual" understanding and endeavor, pouring their contributions into our Safety First treasury, produce the final results obtainable only where Safety First is thoroughly understood and properly
sold.
Safety. First, .once sold, is not enough. It must have satisfied pur chasers. Experience has shown that where greatest results are obtained, there frequently comes a reaction leaving an apathetic condition, worse than before; this is a branch of our work which must dominate and
Safety First will .flourish only where nourished by our best thought, __ by our untiring activity and our never ceasing regard for the welfare of
our fellow-man and the properties we serve.
To be a successful saleman of Safety; you must first be a safe man yourself, as far as humanly possible. Let us remember that there are
many angles- to the Safety problem, and that the preservation of life and limb is but. part of the many subdivisions of the program. We shall do well to remember at all times that he who is safe in thought and safe in word can more reasonably be expected to be safe in action. By adherence to these principles we will furnish that more valuable thing,
the example, which even more than the precept, will be most persuasive of all arguments to be employed in selling Safety First.
But, don't forget when selling Safety to the management, your best argument is your performance; that is, the yearly reduction of casual ties, which reflects in a tangible financial asset, let alone the Intangible asset which Is obvious, as well as the higher morale, efficiency, content ment and happiness among the railroad's family, which follows in the
channel of accident prevention. When these things are accomplished you have sold your management, unreservedly, to Safety First.
Think it; talk it; work it; prove it.
SELLING SAFETY TO THE MANAGEMENT OF A SMALL RAILROAD
A. V. Rowedeb, Supervisor of Safety, Duluth, Messabe * Northern Railway Coupnnr, Aim Ddluth & Iron Range Railway Company Duluth, Minn.
In the first place, to sell anything, you must have confidence in the produce which you hope to sell. A man selling advertising, for example, in a national magazine, or in a local magazine for a railroad, or in a
3066
.
Twelfth Safety Congress
special supplement of a newspaper, has a definite object in mind. He
works out the definite program of what he' hopes to sell to the prospective
advertising buyer.
'
'
. The same thing applies to the selling of safety to the management of a small or large railroad. You ought to make a survey of your accidents, you ought to figure out what you want to do to eliminate each specific accident cause, namely: in the line of bulletins, in the line of correcting conditions on your property, in the line of holding motion picture meetings, public .safety meetings for the elimination of public accidents, the matter
of holding safety committee meetings, the expenditures in connection
with that such as the time of the men attending meetings, dinners, cigars,
and other things that may go with that program.
In addition to that, you ought to include in your program a budget
system of running the safety department, the same as the ordinary de
partment, the three standards department, the operating maintenance of '
way, mechanical departments, operating on practically every system in
this country.
-
I have been operating on our railroad for over five years on a budget
system. I work up, in December of each year, a program of expenditures -
for the coming year. That can be done from your past experience. I
don't mean by that I am trying to outline the expenditures for safety
that may be made to correct conditions and practices on the railroad,
but to work up a budget tbat will cover the bulletins, the crossing cam
paigns, the expenditures in salary, meetings, and things of tbat kind.
There is one other feature in connection with the program as outlined, and that is the'selling of each individual suggestion made by the man who is selling safety to the officer of your company who has under his juris diction that suggestion. I have always felt that when a trainman, for example, made a suggestion in connection with the conditions on our properties, it was my duty to see that every argument possible was put up for the passage of that suggestion, if necessary to the president of the road, so that it would have a good, thorough discussion and adoption if deemed practicable.
The result of tbat has been that we bad had more than 97 per cent of
our suggestions adopted, and as the vice-president of the Brotherhood
of Kailroad Trainmen mentioned this morning, we have gone even a little
farther than the safety proposition as some railroads call it, we have
gone into the matter of sanitation, welfare and working conditions on '
the roads.
'
Just recently there was an article in the Trainmen's Journal In con nection with improvements on cabooses on the Atlantic Coast Line. I
was glad to see tbat article. It is the same thing we are working for; we are working for the contentment of the men operating the trains, repairing our cars, bridges, and track on our railroad, and that is one of the biggest safety features.
Steam Railroad Section
1067
SAFETY MEW SHOTTED BASK WITH OFFICERS
But getting back more directly to the subject at hand, I believe that
in the first instance, the safety officers should be of equal rank and meet
on the same basis as any other officer of the railroad, whether that officer's
position be general superintendent, or the head of the mechanical or
transportation departments. The safety officers should be in on all new
suggestions for improvements in the line of bridges, and buildings, equip
ment, and things of that kind, so that they may have an opportunity
to study those improvements and sell the safety features In connection
with them directly to the management.
Mr. Adams stated in his paper that the best argument you have in
selling safety to the management is your performance. That unquestion
ably is true. No one is going to stay with a sinking ship very long.
If you have the confidence in-the safety movement. If you have the proper
spirit and pep, and put it into the work instead of letting it drift along,
you can get results such as Mr. Adams has attained on his railroad, and we have obtained on ours, and following Mr. Carrow's suggestion, I
might mention that during the first eight months of 1923 we bad seventy-
nine accidents, that is figuring all accidents where a man has more than
one day's time. We had seventy-nine accidents on our properties, with somewhat over 6,000 men, compared with 452 when we started out work
in 1917, and I might also add that we have not bad at any time during
the past six years, an increase in accidents for any three months period.
During 1923 we have been successful in going without a fatality during the first eight months to our employees, and at times handling as high
as 5,000,000 of iron ore over about 90 miles of track.
There is one other point in connection with the selling of safety, and
that is the matter of efficiency. I wonder whether every safety officer
makes it a point to go into the shop, take the car department for example,
and try to put over a real, sincere safety campaign that will result In
not only a reduction in accidents, but an increase in efficiency in that
department. We have a good example of that in our property where we
specialized on car department accidents largely, because it was one place where we were having serious and fatal accidents, and the result has
been this--that we have had only one lost time accident with 350 men
employed in the car department on inspection, and most of our work is
steel, 99 per cent of it, and we had only one lost time accident In over
two years.
*
WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON SESSION
Chairman Bentley: I take great pleasure and am honored In Intro
ducing the Reverend Walt Holcomb of Cartersville, Georgia, son-in-law of the Reverend Sam Jones.
AM I MY BROTHER'S KEEPER?
Rev. Walt Holcomb, Caktebsvilee. Ga.
There Is a wonderful spiritual atmosphere in railroad circles, whether you have detected it or not. I find it In your safety ungMtnw that a
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Twelfth Safety Congress
number of you are kind enough to mail to my borne address. Some of the conservative labor journals that come to my desk have that atmosphere permeating their pages, and I think that it really pervades the railroad world. Some of the highest classed, highest toned, spiritually minded men; that I know personally are .among- the presidents, vice-presidents and general managers of our American railways.
As I travel on the trains and meet conductors and engineers and flag men; speak to ticket agents and drop into shop meetings, I am struck yith the spiritual atmosphere in as cold, grimy a place as a shop, as ail en gineer's cab. or a conductor's caboose.
The spiritual atmosphere can be detected in railroad circles. I find that this is affecting not only the general public but even tike pulpit. It is manifesting itself in the attitude of preachers towards your efforts and of your men toward the ministers.
You gentlemen working In the capacity of Safety Supervisors, have as high a class of men in the railroad service as you will find in any in dustrial pursuit is life. I don't know of any men who save their money like railroad men; that invest it in homes like railroad employees; that try harder to educate .heir children; that are more liberal and generous with the churches.
I believe that the greatest enemies these'working men have; the men who own railroad stock; and the men who operate railroads, are the little petty politicians. They have rvnwart more friction between railroads and the public than any other group of men. They have stirred up more strife in labor circles than anybody else.
You hare had your differences between capital and labor. Your diffi culties have been economic, mostly--not personal; and, when settled you have the most loyal bunch working in the United States. Because we have a misunderstanding and a fuss every now and then, that is no sign that we are not practicing the wonderful teachings of my text.
It is my humble judgment after years of thinking that if we could somehow or other just eliminate these little ward politicians, railroad men and railroads would settle their own troubles and difficulties.
When the first man disappeared from the earth, God came on. the scene and said, "Adam, where art thou?" When the second man was missing, God appeared and did not ask a direct question, but an indirect one, say ing, "Cain, where is thy brother?" When there was but one man, ac cording to the story that is told, he was responsible for no one but him self, but the moment that two or three men appeared in the world, they became responsible for each other. Individual responsibility for our brother was born that day.. In this complex and complicated age in which we are living it may be more difficult to fathom and ferret put that responsibility, but the railroad men are on that job.
THE NEED FOB "PUSHEBS"
In the past men have led movements; in the future movements will lead men. In .this Safety Movement I can't, see that there is any man or ahy set of men in the lead. It seems to me you are all a part of it. The
Steam Railroad Section
1069
movement of safety Is leading the nation, rather than a few men leading
the movement of safety. That is more democratic, more catholic and more
Christ-like. It will eliminate bullylsm and bossIsm from every depart
ment of American life.
.
A great many of our colleges today are training men to be leaders.
It is better to train some to be trailers. They are going to train some body ont of a job the first thing they know. We need "pushers" rather than "pullers." Fullers pull apart and can disrupt a movement like this Safety Movement. Pushers push together and can push the Safety
Movement into every nook and corner and crevice oC the industrial life of America.
On the N. C. & St. L. Railway between Atlanta and SfeshviHe. going
north, I usually ride the ten o'clock train, and when t see that big old
Mogul approaching, I wave at the ii.ngfm.ii, saHaf the
^aifTTghr
and say, '"Old Fellow, I'm counting on yoc* St itmim * alive that I
can almost hear It pulsating bade. "I'll pn you throe.gh." I go> t atMp,
hat I can always tell when they are palling into the shed at
and then I say, "One hundred and fifty miles to Nashville." and gt> back
to sleep. Then about a third of the way to Nashville, I wake up apafn I hear something tugging, going slow, and I say, "The old train is going
over the Cumberland mountain." Presently she comes to a standstill. There is a little engine that stays there--It never gets down to Chat tanooga--it never goes to Nashville. It gets in behind that big old train
and begins to push--pushes it over the mountain. My hat is off to that
little old engine that never gets to town/ I am glad, of the cooperation yon men have from the railroad officials
and from the working men. If I had but one last plea to make to indus
trial workers and railroad officials, it would be for every one to be a pusher, and push this wonderful movement forward with leaps and bounds that will go beyond our most sanguine expectations.
The railroads started preaching this gospel of safety, and, cities are
sending out the Macedonian cry, "To come over and help them." I see the effects of your work started in a small way, in, Atlanta, Buffalo, New York, Chicago and everywhere. You know we need It here in America
more than in any other nation of the world. I studied safety every
where I went in Continental Europe, and I want to tell you when it comes to personal safety they have got us "skinned a mile." America, with its automobiles, is the most reckless nation in the world.
I expected, when leaving this meeting, to go to Japan, Korea and China for six months, hut the big earthquake stopped me. I had a cable a few days ago cancelling my engagements in the Orient. That awful
catastrophe has disturbed my soul. I was figuring this morning. They
don't have those things over there but about once a century or a half
century. America kills people every day with automobiles. I believe we have killed and. maimed more, proportionately speaking, than the earthquake blew up over yonder the other day. If it all happened at
once, what "a stir it would create here in the United States. It would
outquake the earthquake.
1070
Twelfthi Safety Congress
The automobile is giving us more trouble right now than anything
else. Our trains have got to run across the public highway; they have
a right to do It; and the automobile Is, the thing that is putting gray
hairs in some of your heads.-
.
.
You put on a wonderful campaign of Safety this year. You advertised
it, gave your money, your time, and good was done. I haven't got the
exact figures yet, but whatever they show, if you hadn't put that cam
paign on, it would have shown up a whole lot worse. Keep that in mind.
But we haven't got the autoists imbued with the spirit of the text, "Am
I'my brother's keeper?" It is -the hardest thing in the world to-get it
into his noodle.
North Carolina has passed a law that autoists must stop within 50 feet
of a crossing, and along the side of the "Stop, Look and Listen" sign,
there is another sign, which says, "North Carolina Law. Stop." Some
autoists come right on up, tut if they don't stop the law will stop them.
If we can get that law practiced and enforced, then we are going to
reduce highway crossing accidents to a minimum.
ROUND TABLE DISCUSSION
(Mr. C. El. Sill took the chair at the request of Chairman Bentley.)
Chairman Hill: The highway crossing situation is one that is .second
in importance only to employee casualties. .1 have no panacea to offer.
However, we do have suggestions made -to us from time to time "by those
who are really sincere in their desire to help, but perhaps do not stop
to consider the things they are suggesting.
My thought is that we must give consideration to the situation as it
exists. We have 252,000 highway crossings in the United States; we
must meet the situation. There is a joint responsibility between the
railroads and the public. The railroads I believe I can consistently say
are making an honest effort to meet the requirements in removing
obstructions to view.
,
Outside of switching limits I believe the best form of crossing protec
tion is the electric flashlight signal, of which you have seen demonstra
tion and with which you no doubt are familiar. The Signal Section of
the American Railway Association has recommended that type of protec
tion. I believe where it has been tried out it has been found to be quite
effective.
I think in so far as the part the railroads of this country can play in
the elimination of highway crossing accidents is concerned, the first
thing to consider is crossing protection and the second, train operation.
Now we will pass to the public. The public ought to be as vitally con cerned In this movement as the railroads are. A statement was made in the meeting of the Public Safety Section yesterday, I believe, by one of the speakers that there are in this country 15,000 people killed and 1,700,000 injured each year as the result of automobile accidents, or at least the figures will approximate that number this year. About twelve per cent -of all automobile casualties occur on the railroad highway crossings of this country. About 85 to 90 per cent of all the highway
Steam Railroad Section
1071
crossing accidents we have are with the automobile. It is for that rea son that we have to glvd the automobile the greatest consideration. -
Up until 60 days ago I was opposed to laws "in the various states of
this country known as the stop laws, but after giving this subject con siderable thought and making inquiry extending over a considerable period and working up some analysis, I have reached the conclusion that the only logical way by which we can eliminate or at least reduce this class of accidents is by having the various states throughout the country enact this "stop, look and listen" law.
THE USE OF DANGER SIGNS
Mr. R. A. Shaw: The use of advertising in conjunction with highway railroad crossing signals, in my opinion, serves to increase the hazard rather than to diminish it. The advertisement detracts from the danger ahead and the driver eventually will forget to "stop, look and listen."
It is only logical to assume that if the advertisement is a success and
draws the attention of the people, the danger signal is not, and vice
versa. So why join them?
I would like to cite a particular instance in which distraction at a
railroad crossing caused the death of one person and the permanent
disability of another. One of our leading chemists, a very keen gentle
man, was driving with his partner along a cement highway between two
of our plants. As he approached a railroad crossing he spied men off
to one side engaged in grading for a new track with the aid - of mules.
Having traveled extensively in South Africa, the scene recalled to him
some incident which occurred there and which he immediately proceeded
to narrate to his partner. While thus engrossed in conversation, he
drove on the tracks in the path of a passenger train.
.
My contention is that if the mules had not been there to distract his attention he would have looked cautiously both ways before crossing the tracks, as he was ordinarily a very careful driver.
Mr. E. R. Seoville: The question of the crossing watchman's disc was recently called to my'attention, and I suggested it here for discussion. The present A. R. A. standard provides for a white background with black letters. The suggestion is on the question of changing the colors to red background with white letters, the reason for that being that it is well known that red Is a universal danger signal. It doesn't matter to a man crossing a railroad whether he can read the words or not; if he sees a red signal that indicates danger to him.
Mr. Galaty: I can't agree with Mr. Seoville. It seems to me that we should keep the red flag or the red sign for just the one purpose of Rule 99. Everybody is familiar with the crossing signal that the watch man has. I certainly would not feel that we should make any recom mendation of change.
Mr. Harry Adams: I would like to register the same objections to the red signal.
1072
Ttoelfth. Safety Congress
I am afraid that you are treading on very dangerous ground when you want to change the American Railway Association standard of crossing watchman's disc to appear red in any way.
Mr. Scoville: A few years ago it .was the custom on .most railroads to transfer to the position of crossing watchman an employee who was incapacitated for other service, .but since the advent of the automobile that man is not a suitable man to be placed on a highway crossing.
The suggestion came to me not long ago that the railroads employ a traffic policeman from the city to replace the present crossing watchman, and give the crossing watchman some position where the public would not be endangered by his inability to properly handle the traffic. X would like to hear some discussion on that subject.
Chairman Hill: I really think there couldn't be any difference of opinion as to the qualifications of a watchman, or flagman, and I think about all this convention could do would be to go on record to the effect that we believe there should be an improvement in this situation.
Mr. Wiley (Illinois Central): X want to say a few words in regard to the capacity of the man in the performance of the crossing gateman's duties. Upon our system we have a great many trainmen who have lost their arms in the performance of their duty. They are very vigorous and energetic and men who I believe are well able of handling the job. Xf we put up restrictions by stating that a. man cannot work upon a crossing who has but one arm, I think we make a grave mistake.
A SAFETY DEVICE FOB WHISTUBS
One of the most important agencies for the prevention of highway crossing accidents is the locomotive whistle. Indistinct, inaccurate, half hearted whistling, the kind that satisfies the rule book and perhaps the law is not effective and, unfortunately, such whistling is all too common.
In the last few years many of the railroads have recognized that the matter of proper whistling is directly associated with accident prevention at highway crossings and have put out the following instructions:
1. The whistle signal for railroads shall be two long and two short blasts.
2. .The blasts must be of sufficient duration so that at least nine seconds elapse between the starting and the completion of the signal.
3. The blasts must be properly spaced. 4. The whistle valve must be opened so that the full volume of sound is produced.
The question is, how can we obtain loud, clear, accurate and unfailing highway crossing whistle signals, signals that the autoist cannot fail to hear? The answer is obviously a mechanical device. Such a device has been fully perfected and Is now in use. The mere pressing of a lever, involving only a fraction of a second of his time and no more physical effort than pressing the button on a kodak, starts the device to operat ing and it blows a crossing whistle of predetermined kind and duration loudly, clearly and accurately. At the same time the bell, which is inter connected, automatically rings and continues to ring until the crossing
Steam Railroad Section
1073
Is reached and passed. Some roads use what is known as the nine second whistle, occupying nine seconds of time from the start of the first long blast to the completion of the last short blast. Other roads have a standard of 13 seconds'. The device referred to will blow any signal that may be desired.
The device is. so constructed that while the steel plate is revolving air, automatically supplied to the air bell ringer so that the bell begins to ring as soon as the whistle begins to blow, and continues to ring for a considerable time after the whistle has ceased to blow. This complies with the usual legal requirement that the bell shall be sounded until the crossing is passed. -And'all of this Is accomplished by the slight and almost instantaneous movement of the engineer's hand in depressing the operating valve. He presses the button and it does the rest--blows the crossing whistle loudly, clearly and. accurately and rings the hell.
This device has been in use for nearly two years and has been tried out on both steam and electric railroads. What few defects developed in- the earlier models have been corrected. The attitude of the engineers to the devices has proved interesting. Almost universally their reaction has been favorable as they feel that it will not only relieve them of a considerable burden but will remove a potential cause of friction between them and their superiors. About the only criticism that has been urged is that when this device is used the whistle makes too much noise, and this is not a criticism which will condemn it in the mind of executives, operating officers or safety committees. One enthusiastic engineer has described in detail how the device saved the life of a switchman. - This switchman, was so busily engaged in his work that he did not notice the approach of the train. The engineer touched off the automatic whistle and then had both hands free for the throttle and brake valve. He is firmly convinced that the seconds thus gained saved the switchman's life.
THURSDAY MORNING SESSION
THE NATIONAL COST OF RAILROAD ACCIDENTS
Lew R. Palmeb, Conservation Engineer,- Equitable Life Assurance Society* New York: City
When one realizes that the railroad industry of the United States in
volves approximately two million employees (2,072,971, year 1920) it be
comes evident that railroad safety is not only a railroad, problem, hut is
unquestionably a national problem; and all can view with deep interest
the splendid work now being done along preventive lines by the various
railway units throughout the country. This very large-exposure in a com
paratively hazardous industry naturally carries with, it a correspondingly
heavy toll of accidents, and it is fortunate that there are available, through
.the Interstate Commerce Commission, relatively .complete statistics, which
should assist- railroad safety men and their respective managers in pro
moting preventive measures.
'
1074
Twelfth Safety Congress
Chart 1
PASSBJfGEKS, EairLOYEES, AND OTHER PERSONS KILLED IK REPORTABLE StEAM
Railroad Accidents in the. United States fob Five-Year
Periods From 1889 to 1922, Inclusive
Five year period
Number of persons killed
i
1889 to
1893 Inc.
Passengers ............. Employees . ............. Other per.. ............. Total............. _______
1,464 12.364 19,752 34,680
1894 to
1898 Inc.
Passengers ............. Employees . .............. Other per. . ............. Total............. .............
1,118 9,146 22,063 32,327
1899 to
1903 Inc.
Passengers ............. Employees . ............. Other per. . ............. Total............. .............
1,470 14,010 26,391 41,871
1904 to
1908 Inc.
Passengers ............. Employees . .............
Other per. . ............. Total............. .............
2,328 18,861
31,205 52,394
m
1909 to
1913 Inc.
Passengers ............. Employees ............... Other per. ..............
Total............. .............
1,509 16,944 31,896
50,349
1914 to
1917
Inc.
Passengers ............. Employees . ............. Other per. . .............
Total..........................
1,217 14,238 32,920
48,375
1918
to 1922 Inc.
Passengers ..............
Employees .. Other per. . . .......... Total............... ..........
1,381
22,924 35,543
Of til efte I. C. C. accident statistics Ur. Lucian W. Chaney says in a recent publication: "No other American industrial group has been re corded with equal completeness lor so long a time. The most significant column is that of employees killed. While the number is irregular, it shows a. distinct tendency to decline, which would be conspicuous if it were possible to relate these occurrences to the greatly expanding volume of employment during these years. The very great Increase In injuries
until about 1916 in part is due to the expansion of railway operations and in part reflects a more complete. recording than was possible in earlier years. The number of 'other persons' killed bears startling testi
Steam Railroad Section
1075
mony to the steady increase of hazard to the general public from the
grade crossing. A very large part of these casualties are due 'to the
growth of automobile traffic."
Chart 1 has been developed on a five-year basis, and the importance of
railroad accident prevention is emphasized by the magnitude of the figures
shown. Chart 1A gives the totals for 36 years, 1888 to 1923 inclusive. The
fact that these accidents have occurred over a period of years and are
an accumulation of relatively small day-by-day casualty lies--as is the
case in general with our industrial and public accidents--is no doubt responsible for their passing more or less unnoticed as compared with tragedies such as that which has recently befallen Japan, arousing the sympathy of the entire civilized world in the appalling loss of life. It
would be unpardonable to speak lightly, -in any sense, of this terrible
catastrophe, which was unforseen and apparently unpreventable. But
does it not serve to bring home to us the amazing fact that an even
greater sacrifice of life stands charged against a single industry of the
United States; and that, in contrast, this loss of life is due very largely
to preventable causes.
.
Chart 1A
-
Total XVmbeb of Passengers, ESmplotees, and Other Person's Killed is Reportable Steam Railroad Accidents in the United States 1888 to 1922 Inclusive
Number Killed
Passengers -................ Employees ................. Other per..................... Grand total ..............
10,802
`
98,871
B
190,048
300,821
.
WASTE OF PRODUCTION
While one cannot measure human life in terms of dollars, we know that waste of life carries with it a very material waste of the nation's productive power. From" insurance records and * estimates of life ex pectancy it is possible to assign an approximate economic value to a group of lives of varying ages. ' From the Proceedings of the Eighth Annual Safety Congress, 1919, we find that the late Dr. F. S. Crum esti mated that the 45,000 public fatalities which occurred daring the year 1917 resulted in an economic loss to the nation of $557,289,000- On the basis of this calculation (the estimated productive value of a life at the av erage age at death being $10,377) the 300,821 railroad fatalities for the 36 years, 1882-1922 entailed an economic loss to the nation of $3,121,619,517. Wbat Dr. Crum would charge us for the 3,552,931 reportable injuries which occurred during this period can only be approximated. On. the basis of his $1,671,867,000 charge for 5,625,000 public Injuries recorded as occurring in 1917 ($300 per injury) it is safe to assume that he would charge our railroad casualty account with at least $1,066,779,300, or a total economic waste for the 36 years of more than $4,188,398,817.
1076
Twelfth Safety Congress
Chart 2
"Tbanspobtation Waste," Class 1 Steam Railroads
(Not including switching and terminal companies)
Yeabs 1916 to 1922 Inclusive
"Transportation Waste"
Year
due to--
1916 Total inj......... Clear, wrecks
,$29,485,700 5 163,122 wmm
Dam. to prop.
3,861,769
Total ...............
38,510,591
1917 Total inj.. . Clear, wrecks Dam. to prop. Total ...............
33,699,135 7,889,955 4,553,502
46,142,592
^
.
1918 Total Clear, Dam. Total
inj........................... 33,369,199 wrecks................. 14,504,371 of prop............... 4,794,750 .............'.................. 52,668,320
1919 Total Clear, Dam. Total
inj.......................... 37,254,954 wrecks............... 14,049,662 to prop.............. 5,883,293 ................................ 57,187,909
1920 Total inj......... Clear, wrecks. Dam. to prop. Total ...............
1921 Total inj......... Clear, wrecks Dam. to prop. Total ...............
1922 Total inj......... Clear, wrecks Dam. to prop. Total ...............
56,338,169 20,887,706 10,100,089 87,325,964
31,953,423
9,967,746 6.336,097 48,239,266
33,417,497 9,451,022 5,356,628
48,225,147
"Transportation waste" Years 1916 to 1922 inclusive
Total injuries ........................ Clearing wrecks ................................................................................ Damage to property ...................... Grand total.............................................................................................
$255,500,077 81,913,584 40,886,128
378,299,789
Chart 1 shows the variation in the number of fatalities for "Passengers," "Employees," "Other Persons" and "Total." It is generally conceded that in the earlier stages of accident statistics the records of fatalities were more complete than the records of injuries, and for this reason Chart 1 is shown on a fatality basis. The striking feature of this chart
Steam Railroad Section
1077
is the comparatively large number oC fatalities to "Other Persons," a fact that justifies serious consideration. Fortunately, during the last five year period (including the year 1922) the number of fatalities re* corded under this classification was reduced by 10,000. The number of fatalities to employees recorded in the last five-year period was the low est for any period with the exception of the second.
Chart 1-A compares the total number of "Passengers," "Employees,"
and "Other Persons" killed in reportable steam railroad accidents In the
United States during the years 1888 to 1922, inclusive. The fact is again
revealed that "Other Persons'' is a class of railroad accidents that de
mands special attention.
,
Chart 2, based on information on file at the Interstate Commerce Com mission, shows that for the seven years from 1916 to 1922, inclusive, there has been a "Transportation 'Waste" due to personal injuries, clearing wrecks and property damage, of 1378,299,789.
Chart 3
Ratio of Thais spoktatioit Waste to Total Revenue, Class I Steam; Railkoads
aWa># P* 1911 1912 1913 1914 1915 1916 1916 1917 1918 1919 1920 1921 1922
(Not including switching and terminal companies)
Yeabs 1911 to 1922 Inclusive
a
_ 3o J^art *03Sa3t abo * 5
*5 S
KE-i So,
O
SnSO 0%S3 P
1
=e *3
*3 s o "3 E~ 3
$2,692,518,403 $63,339,439 2.35
2,744,342,277
65,812,238 2.40
3,043,324,782
74,606,274 2.45
2,969,898,838
79,677,345 2.68
2,871,563,047
67,864,316 2.36
3,381,597,866
61,911,597 1.83
3,596,865,766 4,014,142,747
65,607,043 85,745,052
1.82 2.14
4,880,202,255 113,493,816 2.33
5,144,466,361 167,830,504 3.26
6,178,192,428 216,057,347 . 3.50
5,516,556,455 134,267,730 2.43
5,559,092,708
91,009,479 1.63
Note:--Years 1911 to 1916, inc. ending June 30th.. Years 1916 to 1922, inc. -ending Dec. 31st.
i
1078
Twelfth Safety Congress
"Total waste" Includes:--Cost of injuries to persons; clearing wrecks; damage to property; damage to live stock on right of way; loss and dam age to freight and baggage.
Chart 3 shows the ratio of total transportation waste as compared with total revenue for the years 1911 to 1922, Inclusive. It is gratifying to note that the year 1922 shows the lowest ratio for the period covered.
Chart 4 shows the annual personal injury expense 1916-1922, inclusive, as well as the ratio of personal injury expense to total "transportation waste" expense.
Chart 5 indicates the waste in life resulting from collisions year by
year, 1906 to 1922. inclusive; 6,325 persons were killed and 98,461 injured
during that period, with a total damage to railroad property of $86,563,474.
[Damage to merchandise in these collisions, also sums paid to employees
and passengers for or on account of bodily injury, or death, not included.]
Of the total 110,084 collisions there were recorded 17,550 rear-end and
9,512 head-on collisions. Curing the year .1922 there were 608 rear-end
and 257 head-on collisions, a total of 756. Of these, the records show that
737, or 96 per cent, are charged to negligence of employees. It would
be interesting to know how many of these employees had served on safety
committees.
Chart 4
"Trasspobtatios "Waste.'' Chart Showing Ratio of Annual. Femoxju. Injury Expense to Total Waste Expense, Class 1 Steam Rahjeoaho
(Xot including switching and "terminal companies)
Years 1916 to 1922 Inclusive
Yr.
Amount of waste
Ratio
Total........................ . . 65,607,043
.. 33,699,135
Total .................. .. 85,745,052
33 3fifT9
Total .................. .. 113,394,816
19 Per. inj.................... .. 37,254,954 Total ........................ .. 167,830,504
22.2
Total
. 56,338,169 ______ .. 216,057,347
31,935,423
Total ........................ .. 134,267,730
22 Per ini
Total ....................... ..
33 417 497 91,009,479
Steam Railroad Section
1079
It is most gratifying to see the remarkable reduction made in the num
ber of total casualties; and, while the property damage account still
stands charged with an average of more than $6,600,000 for each of the last three years, the amount charged to the personal injury expense ac
count must have shown a material reduction. It is unfortunate that the
1921 record could not have been maintained during 1922. ~' *
" Chart 5
Total Casualties Resulting from Coilisions, Steam Railroads, for
Years 1906 to 1922, Inclusive
Year
Total number of
casualties
-'
1906....................... s,5i8 tmmmmmmmmmmmmmmtmmmmmmm 1907 ....................... 10,317 1908 ....................... 7,126
1909....................... 5,737
1910....................... 8,198 mmmmmmmmmtlmmmmmmmmmmmm
1911....................... 7,430 wmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm 1912....................... 8,327
1913 ....................... 8,488
" .
. :
1914....................... 6,163 . wmammmmmmtmmmmmrnm 1915 ....................... 5,937
1916 ....................... 4.211 mmmmmmmmmmm 1917 ....................... 5,465
1918 ....................... 4,930 1919 ....................... 4,169 1920....................... 4,093 mmummmmmmmm 1921....................... i,969 ammmmm 1922 ....................... 2,708 HHHHHK Total...............104.786
1080
Twelfth* Safety Congress
Chart Showing F requency R ates of T rain and Service N on -Fatal Casualties to E mployees on Du ty, by Class of m -E
Note: Two Eastern and two Western roads.
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'g J
P. g o.
s3 V*
1C> *OS si t*
og
^3s30
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S3
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g
Steam Railroad Section
1081
An analysis of the records for 1920, 1921 and 1922, discloses the fact that
there is an even greater waste in railway property charged against de
railments than is charged to collisions, as shown In the following state
ment:
' Railroad
Railroad
property damage
property damage
Year
due to collisions
due to derailments
1920 .............................................
$9,078,110
$22,987,790
1921 ............................................. , 4,667,390
16,618,440
1922 .............................................
6,176,780
14,969,250
Total....................................... $19,912,280
$64,476,480
A comparison of the totals indicates that the amount of damage due
to derailments Is more than two and one-half times the damage to prop
erty- due to collision; and assuming that a .two-to-one ratio would hold
for the period 1906 to 1922--which shows a property damage due to col
lisions of $86,563,474--it is estimated that the property damage due to
derailments would amount to $173,126,948 with a combined property
damage of $259,690,422.
.
These money costs of railroad accidents have been analyzed and graphic ally shown with the one purpose of revealing causes of waste, and to
furnish the railroad safety man with additional ammunition with which
to help him fight the good fight.
It has long been recognized that a dollar saved is a dollar earned. Pre
vention of railroad accidents reduces waste of life, personal Injury expense
and property damage, and it is difficult to understand why progressive
management will ease up on safety work as an economy measure. Is
not this a penny-wise-and-pound-foolish policy? For, unfortunately, the pound sterling in this case also carries with it the. pound of flesh.
Chart 7
^
Chart Showing Non-Patal Casualties to Employees on Duty
Million Man-Houbs Including All Branches oe Employment
Comparing Districts With Leading Raxlbqad in Each
District, Class 1 Steam ' Railroads, Year 1922
District or
Railroad
.EO3j -- a
a a33 nj
TuaZ?
si
S=<m3v
ef
a<p a> ZS r
Is 0
0 &
dAo
Western Dis............. 1,634.4 40,934 25:046
U. P. System. 1
132.2 1,359 i0;279
Eastern Dis............... 1,861.5. 54,563 29.360
D. L. & W............r.
66.8
832 14.639
Southern Dis____ . -746.4 17.926 24.017
C. & O............................
58.3 - .879 15.076
Per
1082
Twelfth Safety Congress
Illustrating the condition above cited, we quote from the September bulletin of one of our leading railroads. Relative to the increase and
subsequent decline in casualties we read:
"This indicates that we are gradually recovering from- the set-back
received by cancellation of safety meetings and general let-up in safety
work by the safety committeemen for five months during the latter part
of 1922."
.
In support of the effectiveness of uninterrupted organized safety work decrease 'of approximately 20 per cent in the accident- frequency rate has been recorded by one of our large railroad systems for the year 1922
as compared with the 1921 figures; and this notwithstanding the fact that the average record of all Class I railroads throughout the United States
showed an increase of approximately 15 per cent during. that period.
For this present year, 1923, this, road has shown a further reduction;
a frequency rate of 7.91 for the first six months; this compared with the 1921 record of 12.70 indicates a reduction of 37.7 per cent.
NOK-FATAL ACCIDEXT FREQUENCY BATE
Chart 6 is a comparison of the non-fatal accident frequency rates of train and train-service accidents by occupations, between the average for all
Class I railroads and. two eastern and two western roads having low frequency rates. In every instance the "bogey" record is well under the
average rate, and, in some cases, 50 per cent to 75 per cent. Certainly, these figures furnish positive evidence that "It Can Be Done." In fact,
the only justifiable reason for the compilation of such accident statistics is for the purpose of stimulating the competitive spirit that already exists and is unquestionably very largely responsible for the marked redaction made in railroad accidents during the past 10 years through preventive
methods adopted.
In an endeavor to further stimulate the contest spirit we submit Chart 7 showing non-fatal casualties to employees on duty per million man hours in all branches of employment, being a comparison of the average frequency rates of the different districts with the frequency rates of the, roads having the best records in the respective districts for the year 1922.
Had all Class I railroads of these three districts attained the frequency
rate of the record road within their respective districts it is estimated
that there would have been a 58 per cent reduction in the Western Dis
trict; 50 per cent In the Eastern District, and 37 per cent in the Southern
District. These reductions would have resulted in a saving of more than
58,000 injuries in the three districts for the year 1922, and, on the basis
already used ($300 per injury) would have effected a saving of $17,
400,000. (For the first eight months of 1923 the Union Pacific System
shows ari accident frequency of 7.738, which is a 24.7 per cent reduction
as compared with the 10.279 average frequency of the system for 1922
as shown on Chart 7.)
Steam Railroad Section
Chart 8
.
1083
Injuries to Employees os Duty pee--Million Man-Hochs, in Train,
n Teatn-Serviceand Non-Tbain Accidents, Class I Steam Rail- `
hoads, Saving 50,000,000 os Mobe Man-Houbs, Teas 1922
'
ja Name of Road
eft tf
-.
i TJ. P. R. R..................
wCD
--* 432
oh5m-*t
*te0os
;c-
.
' ua2*tr .C2O
cs - 0^o*9
7 S h -2 *9
cJ Jjj 5 3 Sg :SS
70,505 6.13
2 17. P. Sys.................... 1,369 132,210 10.28
3 S. P. Co....................... 1,956 142,427 13.73
4 D., Li. & W.................. 5 Ches. & O..................
832 879
56j835 14.64 58,306 15.08
6 Erie ..................
1,098 52,998 20.72
7 Lehigh' V.-................. 1,128 52,538 21.47
8 S>
F.................. 1,399 ' 62,914 22.24
9 Southern Ry...... 2,940 131,509 22.36
10 C., M. & S. P.. .. . 2,827 124,960 22.62
11 Atlantic C. L.......... 1,286 56,388 ' 22.81
12 Boston & M....... 1,620 69,209 23.41
13 S. P. L. in T. & L. 1,315 55,158 23.84
14 Northern P: 1.... 1,808 74,752 24.19
15 Norf. & West.......... 1,5*2 63,625 24.24
16 Illinois Cent............ 3,546 143,497 24.71
17 N. Y., N. H. & H.. 2,292 89,026 25.74
18 C., Bur. & Qu.......... 3,289 19 At., T. & S. F.......... 4,684 20 N. Y. Central........... 5,866
120,219 170,606 213,233
27.36 27.45 27.51
21 Phila. & Read..... 1,785
22 Louis. & Nash... . 3,267
23 Gt. Northern........... 2,119
24 Chic- & N. W.
3,448
25 C., C., Ch. & St. L. 1,540
26 Ch. R. I. & Pac.. 2,9.55
27 Balt. & Ohio........... 5,361
28 Penn. System. v. .19,367
29 Missouri Pac..........- 3,190
64,556 117,449
75,012 117,596
50,635 91,210 154,292 528,169 84,169
27.65 27.82
28.25
29.32 30.41 32.40 34.75 36.67 | 37.90
1084
Twelfth, Safety Congress
. Chart 9
Chakt Showiug Nok-Tbaut Casualties (Now-Fatal)
IDuty, Class
Steam Railroads
to Employees os
(Roads having an excess of 50 million man-hours, including all branches
of employment) Year 1922
si -2
4
N on-train m ill
man-hours '
In ju re d Num ber injured per m illio n man hours
Railroad
U. P. R. R. Co____ ____ 56.6 O. W. R. R. & N.. .... 18.9 L. A. & S. L............. ____ 12.0 So. Pacific................ ____ 122.3
315 161 132 1,437
5.57 8.53 10.96 11.75
D. L. & W.................. ------C. & O.......................... ____
46.6 45.8
655 14.07 648 14.16
O. S. L.......................... ------- 20.3
342 16.87
Lehigh ......................
775 18.21
At. Coast L............. ____ St. L. & S. F.......... C. M. & S. P.____ ____ S. P. (T. & La)... ____
47.5
102.2 47.8
880 1,016 2,066 1,005
18.51
19.33 20.22 21.04
So. Railway....'. _____ C. B. & Q.................. ____ Boston & M............. ____ N. Y., N. H. & H. ____
84.7 98.6 58.1 74.1
1,793 2,124 1,293 1,655
21.18 21.55 22.24 22.33
Norfolk & West.. _____ 52.8 1,185
L. & N.......................... ____ 97.0 2,199
No. Pacific................. ____ 62.6 1,422
Phila. & R-.............. _____ 61.6 1,202
Gr. Northern.________ 62.3' 1,463
N. Y. Central---------____ 199.6 4,729
III. Central.............. ____ 103.0 2,511
C. & N. W.................. ... 95.9 2,451
Erie .............................. _____ 34.0'
960
C. R. I. & P............. ____ 74.6 2,298
B. & O............................____ 124.9 3,993
A. T. & S. F.............____ 124.5 3,986
Missouri Pac........... .. . 70.4 2,409
PfinnavlvuTiffl . . . . ___ 419.5 14,877 Total ..............................____2.502.9' 61.982
22.44 | 22.67 | 22.73 | 23.32 | 23.49 | 23.69 | 24.38 | 25.55 | 28.27 ( 30.79 | 31.98 | 32.02 | 34.23 | 35.46 | 24.76 1
Steam Railroad Section
1085
Chart 8. has been developed from Interstate'Commerce Commission data
covering train, train-service and non-train accident to employees on duty,
and is merely a rearrangement according to accident frequency of the
alphabetical records contained in I. C. C. Bulletin 87. This group (with
one Of smaller roads, not shown) - might properly be termed the "Major"
and "Minor" Leagues, and while it is not practicable for more than one road to head the batting list, it certainly is possible for all roads> to
improve their hatting average. The Union Pacific Railroad, which, ac
cording to the Interstate Commerce Commission records, holds first place,
has only attained' this position through the. persistent effort of a well-
organized safety department having the active support of the executive
officials who have truly given safety right-of-way in the, operation of
their railroad. The reduction of - approximately 80 per cent that has been made in this road's accident frequency has not just happened. It
has required an organization which has warranted and demanded the
cooperation of the employees themselves, on which naturally rests the success of any safety program. Another element in the work done by
this road is the fact that the field of analysis of accident causes has been
extended from the standard I. C. C. reportable accidents--three or more' days' lost time--to the one-day tost time eases (where the injured person loses more than the remainder of the day) and utilized the information
thus obtained in developing preventive methods.
As a further illustration of the money to be saved through organized
safety work, on the basis of a .127 frequency rate as recorded for the Union Pacific (Table 100, Page 79, -t. C. C. Bulletin 87) figured against the average frequency rate shown for all districts (Table 100, Page 76,
I. C. C. Bulletin 87) it can be estimated that, had all roads attained
this 6.127 frequency rate for 1922, there would have been effected a 77
per cent reduction in the number of casualties and a corresponding re duction in the personal injury expense, amounting to a saving of 88,585 casualties and $25,734,813 (personal injury expense 1922, $33,417,497--
see Chart 4), a saving that unquestionably can be effected through in
creased application of up-to-date organized safety methods.
These competitive charts have been developed on the basis of injuries ,, not only because this classification is considered a more conclusive meas
urement of relative risk factors, but for the further reason that the fatality percentages only include such deaths as occur within 24 hours of the time of injury, and the Interstate -Commerce Commission records show
that approximately 10 per cent of the total number of persons killed are
recorded under the heading of "subsequent fatalities"--a discrepancy that materially discounts the value of our railroad fatality statistics.
Chart 9 covers non-train injuries to employees on duty, and was de
veloped from information received from the Interstate Commerce Com
mission.
'
Notwithstanding the vast amount of money spent by the railroads for
the Installation of automatic block signals--one of the most effective life
saving devices ever invented--the "personal equation" still stands charged with a heavy loss of life and millions of dollars, wasted through property
1086
Twelfth} Safety Congress
damage: Indifferent flagging,, kicking knuckles, and violations of the
blue rules, are also phases of the "human factor" problem, as yet un solved. Educational methods have accomplished a -great deal, and are the hope of the -immediate future.
The disorganization resulting in the railroad industry, as well as other
industries, during and subsequent to the war is being gradually overcome.
This situation has been, aptly described as--"The iron horse, well curried
but poorly fed; over-regulated; nearly strangulated; almost dead." The
railway safety men in particular, and the public in general, view with
sincere appreciation the rehabilitation of our railroad systems through
the expenditure in 1923 of $1,540,000,000 to insure safe and dependable
service--a much-needed and very acceptable contribution to the cause of
national safety.
-
Those of us who have paused in front of the New York Public Library
have been Impressed with the inscription that' is carved on the Fifth
avenue facade above the figure of Truth--"But Above All Things Truth
Beareth Aicay the V-ietory." It is in a spirit of truth and fairness that
the facts embodied in this paper have been submitted, with the purpose
of indicating the more dangerous sectors of our battle front, as well as
to furnish some striking examples of what has been accomplished by
an organized and persistent offensive against preventable railway ac
cidents.
'
While much good work has already been done, the fact remains that
an even greater task confronts us, and, in the words of the Indomitable
Theodore Roosevelt--"Success can only come to the player who `hits the
line herd*."
- '*
Can there be a more fitting slogan for the men in the ranks of Railroad Safety than the message `of immortal fame--"Let Us Cherish Within Our Hearts the Memory of Our Fallen Comrades. Salute Them! Then For~ ica rd /"--McA. lexander.
SAFETY AS A BUILDER OF MORALE
F. W. Mitohul, Dikectob of Peesonnel, New York, New Haven and
Hartford Railroad, New Haven, Conn.
We sometimes stand in amazement before the picture of the progress of our railroads, during the past two decades, in developing their material
resources as represented by the mechanical appliances for controlling
train operation, and for increasing the capacity for the. movement of
units of high tonnage.
.
*
It is a condition that has been reached only by the conscription of
time, money and skill. It has required repeated effort in experiment
before the present results were attained. And yet, when these resources,-- involving as they do the expenditure of large capital investment,---are
finally put into operation they are dependent in a very large degree for
the results obtained upon the treatment they receive at the hands of
the human factor in the equation.
Steam Railroad- Section '
1087
At this point no even balance is struck, nor Is it possible to secure one. No mechanism that functions in the production of transportation is as complex in its makeup as are the human beings to whom are committed for maintenance and operation these, mechanical reservoirs of power and motion. And although the human element too is susceptible to great changes, by means of education and training, it can hardly be argued that the same effort has been given to railroad "humanics" that has gone into the development of the mechanical resources.
Indeed, it would be difficult to describe just how we should proceed, in order to attempt in this field, the accomplishment that is apparent in the mechanical. Some things, however, are evident, and among these we find that there should be greater care used in selecting our human material, investigating the references presented and the conditions which sur rounded the new employee before taking him into the organization. .
It is a fact that a department which Interests itself with the problem
of finding suitable men for employment and suitable jobs for the men
employed, together with measures for developing a better morale and a
more evident spirit of co-operation, is engaging the attention of many?
men today who are responsible for the safe and efficient operation of our
great railway systems.
1
For a number of years the railroads have been carrying on the safety work which is now generally understood. The benefits derived from this effort have been far in excess of the cost of the work.
It is not too much to say that the entrance into the larger field, and
.the expanding activities which are directed toward the development of
morale have resulted in a measure from the evident effects- of the safety
work in this direction.
-
There was unquestionably a time in the history of our American Rail
road life when the voice of the public was calling loudly for speed in
annihilating distance together with reliability in maintaining schedules.
The effect of this strong sentiment was to increase, in no small degree,
not only the number of "chance takers" In train operation, but also the
extent of the risks they were willing to take.
'
Operating officers noted their violations of rules and instructions when conspicuous consequences compelled recognition. Investigations of acci dents revealed such information only as It was impossible to conceal. A spirit of competition and rivalry tended to further aggravate the danger ous situation. Cautlonery measures were set aside by the employee if so he might thereby execute some stunt which. If successful, might mark his exceptional ability. There was a wide separation in the theory and practice of safe operation. Confidence was weakened. Morale reduced. That which should have been an army of organized workers for safety was slowly becoming a mob of "go as .you -please as long as you're lucky" buccaneers.
Even the grounds for promotion were becoming more and more based upon the element of "luck," and the "good guesser" could ride the top wave of popularity. Safety was becoming an artificial veneer.
1088
Twelfth Safety Congress
But there was a penalty to all this and frbm time to time it presented
stern demands. Zt became evident that something was going wrong and
that a change was required not only in methods- but in the appraisal
of values. Safety First was made the slogan for the railroad workers.
Committees were appointed. Meetings were held. Conditions were re
vealed which needed correction. The mirror was held up before dangerous
practices that showed them in their true aspect. Officers and men were'
brought into close personal contact which had as its foundation the pur
suit of safety. Together they searched for the remedies for situations
which their new-relationship was compelling them to face, and together
they began to realize that their interest was common in endeavoring to
find an answer that would satisfy the conscience of each that the require
ments of safety were being met.
'
When the enlightened conscience is satisfied with the. contacts with life as it is expressed in action as well as in word, that elusive and almost indefinable element which we call morale, appears; because an atmosphere which is conducive to its growth and development has been found. There is something in every real man that calls him to put his best effort into his work. He may vary somewhat in his Response, to this call, but the knowledge that he is working together with other individuals in the army of employees to carry out a program for protection, is a compelling force; because it is founded in sincere endeavor, and carried out in the spirit of service. Its outgrowth is quickened morale. 'Fathers and mothers may no longer remonstrate with sons who desire to enter the train and locomotive service because it is among the most hazardous that they can choose. It is no longer a badge of honor to carry the mutilations that formerly marked the Railroad employee almost without exception, if he had been fortuiiate enough to escape with his life from the dangers to which he was subjected. The whole trend of the safety work is toward the promotion of those forces, sentiments and actions which inspire re spect, loyalty, and efficient service. The work furnishes a point of contact between employer and employee that is mutually advantageous. From the experience there comes the knowledge that other, points of contact are available, and the means of securing them follow closely.
Evidence is at hand that-faster development is possible that there are other conditions that may add their influence and power; but it has been to Safety Work that credit is due for indicating how confidence can be renewed. These efforts should not be allowed to pass with their worth unnoticed and their power, as a builder of morale unappreciated..
REPORT OF NOMINATING COMMITTEE
Mr. Scott: For chairman- we have great pleasure in nominating Mr. Fred Metcalf of the Northern Pacific Railroad, for vice-chairman, Mr. Charles E. Hill of the New York Central Lines, and for secretary, Mr. Emerson R. Cott of the Hocking Valley Railroad.
(Motion made, seconded and carried approving report;)
Steam Railroad Section
1089
THE PULLMAN COMPANY'S CONTRIBUTION TO
RAILROAD SAFETY
-
E. F. Cabby, President, PuixatAKr CoatPAirr, Chicago, III.
'
Railroad travel is made safe by ' the prevention of accident and of illness. Anything- that does either of these -things is' a contribution to the safety of travel. The prevention of accidents belongs chiefly to the field of engineering, of illness to the field of hygiene and sanitation; any inquiry into the question before us must therefore extend to both these fields..
The crux, however, of mechanical and hygienic preventative methods
is the training of the human factor, the instilling of habits of caution and
vigilance into our. employees who are directly concerned with .the hand
ling of the 34,000,000 passengers we carry a year. Safety committees
are vital factors in our manufacturing and repairing shops. In each
district there is a conductors' and porters' safety committee, also a
joint safety committee in each of .the .300 cleaning yards we maintain.
These committees meet monthly to discuss ways and means of pre
venting accidents, and all these employees are urged to make recom
mendations for improving the safety of Pullman travel. Results have
been gratifying and many prizes aTe awarded each month for suggestions
that prove practical.
...
..
The Pioneer, the first Pullman, car constructed from the ground up (in 1865) by Mr. Pullman, was fittingly named. It marked with its monitor roof and general sturdiness a tremendous advance in the art of car building, and was truly* a pioneer in so far as strength, safety and solidity in passenger car construction was concerned.
The record of Pullman achievement in improvement and development of railroad equipment is one of constant progression. Probably the.Pullman vestibule would be accorded premier position by railroad men the world over as'the device which has done more than any other to render..railway
travel-safe. Communication between cars in a train at high speed would be perilous were it not for this vestibule. It not only renders passage from car to car secure and protects passengers from exposure, but it provides to a marked extent a bulwark- against serious damage to the body of the car and its occupants from the lighter shocks and wrecks. The enclosed vestibule of today is a development of the narrow vestibule brought out in 1887, and since its introduction in 1893 has become the universal standard for all important trains.
THE SIX-WHEEL TRUCK A COIYTHIBUTIOX TO SAFE TRAVEL
Another important Pullman development for the hsayfer passenger train' cars is the six-wheel truck, with its long wheel base, its excellent general % arrangement and fine riding qualities contributes greatly to comfortable travel. The excellency of this truck design has led to its general adoption for heavy passenger. equipment cars.. The original six-wheel track arrangement is in common use today with only such variations as are' necessitated by changes in the materials employed. Its contribution to
1090
Twelfth, Safety Congress
safety, particularly in high speed service in our heaviest train, lies in the fact that with six wheels a broken or burnt off Journal in service will not necessarily cause a wreck, while with a four wheel truck disaster practically would be unavoidable.
MECITANICAI. DEVELOPMENTS IN PULLMAN CAB SAFETY
Early recognizing the importance of providing a bulwark against collisions (in addition to the enclosed vestibules), special protective, features, generally designated as anti-telescoping devices, were first introduced in Pullman cars. These devices consisted of steel introduced at sills, in ends, and at the top of the vestibule. To the extent to which such devices are capable of absorbing energy by resistance to distortion
and rupture, they afford collision protection .to- the car, and the use of extra metal for this purpose has become general in the construction of passenger equipment.
Wrecks, of course, will happen. Yet deplorable as they are, they
serve one good purpose: they are an object lesson from which the Pullman Company often may learn lessons and from which the public does profit through the experience thus gained.
Among other noteworthy improvements developed or adopted for use
on Pullman equipment in recent years there may be listed: Locking bolts for connecting trucks to bodies as an'anti-telescoping
feature. The track secured to the body by an extremely heavy lock ing bolt affords in case of collision great resistance against one car body invading another.
New truck design which permits of greater ease of inspection and with its pivoted and boxed in equalizer arrangement is a safeguard against the possibility of wreck due to a broken equalizer.
Development and adoption of a practical application of the new A. R. A. standard "Type D" heavy freight coupler ' for passenger cars and correspondingly strong draft gear attachment to prevent the breaking
In two long trains and the breakage of coupler knuckles occasionally
experienced with ordinary couplers.
Improved generator suspension to insure against the possibility of
wrecks due to the loosening and dropping of generators.
Boarding the train we find the improved step box, with a larger surface
area and without the hand-hole on the top of the box in which, small
French heels are sometimes caught.
The anti-pinch, device on car doors to prevent fingers getting caught
between the door and door jamb.
-
Guard rails on hallway- windows to prevent you coming into contact with windows while train is in motion.
The floor lights in the aisle to guide your footsteps at night when
the major lighting system has been turned off. Berth locking device to prevent upper berth folding up unexpectedly. `
Safety step ladder to be used in ascending to and descending from
upper berth. Curtain guards for upper berths to prevent occupant rolling out.
.Steam Railroad Section
1091
Inside vestibule grab handle to steady your passage from car to car.
Vestibule roller curtains, to prevent people catching their fingers between diaphragm and face plates.
Improved hinged buffer plate, to prevent feet being caught between end sill and buffer. This plate also presents a smooth surface and eliminates tripping hazards.
Vestibule ceiling lamp over trap door. This not only provides illumina
tion during transit from car to car, but also guides your footsteps when
entering and leaving car.
'
Pullman equipment is constantly scrutinized and all suggestions af
fecting the safety or comfort of passengers receive careful consideration.
Inventive geniuses in car equipment all over the country regard Pullman
approval as a mark of merit and gladly afford the Pullman Company
a chance to investigate and try out new devices. Our own chemical
and physical laboratories are constantly engaged on the work of research,
investigation, examination, and check on materials, and an inspection
force is everlastingly on the Job. They examine materials, they keep an
eye on equipment and watch service.
HYGIENE 1ST TRAVEL
'
I will now discuss briefly the Pullman Company's contribution to the
safety of railroad travel in the field of hygiene:
Perhaps the greatest single contribution to the hygiene of railway
travel was the development of a practical sleeping car and the extension
of its use throughout the country. That invention and that service are
contributions of the Pullman Company and the foundation of its growth.
Few or none of us here will remember the days before there were
sleeping cars, but many of us have lived through times when they were
less - plentiful than now and know the discomforts of a night in a coach
without a bed. Any one who can recall the enervating fatigue of such
a journey will not doubt that the health of the traveler is protected
by having the sleeping car available to his use. -Sleeping cars not only
have been aids to comfort and health, but they have been active agents
in the development of our country. Without them California, Florida,
the great Northwest and other remote and desirable sections of these
United States could not have advanced as they have In population and
wealth. Without the sleeping car the missionary of business--the travel
ing man--^rould be only -50 per cent efficient and the cost of living
necessarily much higher.
,
Not quite so definitely an addition to the hygiene of travel, but still
distinctly of that order, are the Improved facilities for comfort and con
venience in making the toilet which came with the sleeping car and have
kept pace with its development and improvement. .
Of almost equal importance/however, with-.the original contribution was
the arrangement whereby it became possible to have meals served on
board trains, first as part of the sleeping car service itself and later as the
separate dining car, rather than for the traveler to have to subsist on what
he could carry or take uncertain - chances on what he might pick up
1092
Twelfth- Safety Congress
by the way. No one will deny that good food, properly served and at
regular intervals, contributes materially to health. No wonder, the
newspapers of 1865 and 1866 were enthusiastic In their praise, as witness
the following:
.
"Pullman is a benefactor to his kind. The dreaded journey to New York becomes a mere holiday excursion in his delightful coaches.
"But the crowning glory of Mr. Pullman's Invention is evinced in his success in supplying the car with a cuisine department where every
variety of meats, vegetables and pastry may be cooked on the car ac
cording to the best style of the culinary art."
It is interesting to note in passing that the closed vestibule, already referred to as such great. importance in connection with the prevention
of gross mechanical accidents, is almost the direct outgrowth of the
introduction of the separate dining car. It was early realized that it
would be necessary to protect against accident and exposure passengers
who must pass from other cars into them.
.
The Pullman. Company has-always held to a high standard of cleans
liness in its cars. Ordinary cleanliness is ordinary sanitation, and soap, water, and elbow grease are its consistent elements; but methods and pro
cesses of car cleaning have from time to time been inaugurated which were
real contributions to railway sanitation.
.*
The company was an early and extensive user of compressed air for
this purpose'. An air blast at 90 pounds pressure, to the square inch will succeed in dislodging much dust from carpets, upholstery and bed
ding which beating leaves in place. It has the disadvantage, however, of distributing it everywhere about, and when vacuum cleaning was first introduced we tried to substitute that. Our early experiments failed; but finally, in 1914, after long and painstaking work, with the cooperation
of manufacturers of vacuum devices, a practical system for railway work
was developed and is now a standard process. Within the last two years
apparatus has been developed by our engineers for creating a vacuum by
means of compressed air, and for applying both compressed -air and
vacuum cleaning in one and the same apparatus.
.
.
The brilliant Pintsch light, which for a number of years had had a wide use in Europe, was first introduced into America by the Pullman
Company in 1883. Eyes must have suffered from, the dim;- yellow and
flickering light of oil lamps used up to that time.
-
...
The part played by the Pullman Company in the development of electric lighting of cars is important. Without its initiative and its vast resources
for practical and costly' experiment It Is fair- to believe that electricity would not have been successfully utilized for this purpose for many yeax-s.
It was barely two years after the invention of the incandescent lamp by
Edison in 1879, that it was first applied on an English railway in an-
American Pullman car supplied with electricity by French accumulator cells. From that crude beginning there has been a steady progress to
the present adequate system of dome* lights, berth lights, aisle lights,
and vestibule lights, all lending-their aid to the conservation - of visto'n-
and the prevention of accidents.
'
...
.
. Steam Railroad Section
ft
; VENTILATION- STUDIES FOR PASSENGER HEALTH
1093
Among the important contributions of the Pullman Company to the
hygiene of railway travel are its studies in car ventilation, which began in
1905. Previous to that time almost nothing was known on the subject,
and only meager and inadequate attempts had been made to learn. Ven
tilation was believed to be bad, and In. general it probably was bad, but no one knew quite why" it was bad or in what way it could be corrected.
These studies ran through many years ;r indeed, in a less extensive way,
they are still being .conducted. They included a detailed investigation of the condition of the air of- cars, measurements of its curreirti^of fiow,
its distribution, etc.-, as well as experiments with many kinds of ven tilating devices, good, bad, and indifferent. During the course of those studies some five thousand'air analyses have been made, and many hun
dreds of measurements of air currents. Out of them has come a volume
and variety of knowledge which is adequate to maintain effective ventila tion ' under practically all conditions of railway service and which has been- utilized not only for making standard plans-'of .our own, but plans which are rapidly becoming standardized throughout all railway service.
When our study of this subject was begun the science of ventilation
was just emerging from the dark ages of misconception and error, and
rays from the light of exact knowledge were just beginning to tonch it.
The sun is fully-up now, and it enables us to see how important are heat
and heating facilities in connection with- air supplies. Indeed, It has
shown us that the proper control of heat is a more important hygienic
problem, and a rather more difficult one, than the maintenance of a
proper supply of air. This has led us to multiply our heat units and con
trols for a car from one to seven. That also makes for health.
-
The -blow fan is an' important adjunct to the maintenance of good air
conditions which was first introduced into railway service by the Pullman
Company. And the. small louvre mounted in the window sash, which
may he opened and' closed by the passenger according to his desire, is
a recent innovation which Is worthy.' of a place in this list.- '
=
. - ' I*USE WATER FACILITIES ON POLLMAN CARS
.
Of almost equal importance with air is the water supply of a car. It must be supplied for drinking, and its availability for the purposes of toilet arid cleaning adds to comfort and healthful conditions. The elabor ate and efficient water distributing system now maintained on Pullman cars is the result of gradual development by Pullman engineers. But the mechanics of distribution is only remotely a hygienic feature; the chief thing in. connection with water is its protection1 against contamination with disease-producing bacteria. In the - main, this must be done at the source;, a safe water supply must be "provided, and that is entirely a railroad matter. In' recent years, the United- States Public Health "Service, in cooperation with state and city boards of health, has taken over the
task of seeing to it that the waters supplied by common'carriers are of
1094
Twelfth Safety Congress
proper standard of purity; they must all be examined and certified at regular intervals. And it is fair to say that they are practically all and always safe now as delivered to the car.
But there are sources of possible contamination after the water is
safely aboard--the cooler; ice that goes into it; and worst of all, its final
container, the cup. In 1912 we began dividing water coolers into two
compartments so that ice and water would be kept separate. But this
left the cooler open for the possible entry of foreign materials, so in
1920 we developed a method of doing away with the open cooler entirely,
substituting for it a cooling chamber which is part of the pressure system
about which the ice is packed--undoubtedly the best and safest plan that
has ever been put into use.
.
The common drinking cup was universally abolished and the individual paper cup substituted about ten years ago.
Best we be too generous with ourselves in the appropriation of laurels, let It be admitted at once that dividing the water cooler and abolishing the common cup were not original -conceptions. They-were first demanded by the state health officer of Kansas. But once the demand was made, the idea was accepted by the Pullman Company and costly improvements were made universal that were only locally necessary. And the common towel was unknown in Pullman cars long before it became the object of the official taboo in any of the states.
There are many minor sanitary features of Pullman equipment and service that would be worthy of being classed as contributions to the safety of travel in a more extended discourse--plumbing and toilet ar rangements, the care and handling of linen, fumigation and disinfection,
the encasing of beds and bedding, first aid packets on cars, and others-- but they may be only mentioned here. Particular claims may be made, however, for the dental lavatory, adopted in 1909, and the open-front toilet seat, adopted five years ago.
. PHYSICAL EXAMIWATIOSS OF EMJPEOYEES
It is essential to the safety of travel that healthy men compose the train crews, particularly that they be free from communicable infectious diseases. It has always been our policy to hold men who are so affected out of service. Only healthy men are employed; and w^ are now engaged
in a complete physical survey of porters; which will be repeated from time
to time, in an attempt to contribute greater safeguards to those whom they
must serve.
'
THE STAKDABD RAILWAY SA5ITAEY CODE
In 1905 the Pullman Company established, and has since maintained, the first department of sanitation conducted by any common carrier in this country. Through this department it has kept in close touch with sanitary progress in general and with railway sanitation In particular. One of the things we have had to contend with is a great diversity of" sanitary laws and regulations in the states, which have sometimes been contradictory, often inharmonious, and occasionally entirely impractical or absurd
Steam Railroad Section
1095
Partly through the efforts of our department of sanitation there has been developed in the last few years a Standard Railway Sanitary Code, cover ing all the important features of safeguarding the health of railway travelers, as a proposed substitute for the diverse state and national laws and regulations which went before it. This has now been adopted by thirty-one of the states, and the interstate regulations have been so re vised as to be entirly harmonious with it, so that uniformity of public requirements is fast replacing the former chaos. In so far as we have contributed to the formation and the introduction of this code--and that is materially--we have contributed not only to the safeguards of health in railway travel, but to the peace of the railways as well.
Chairman Bentley: I have been urged to make the appointment of the film committee this morning so that there may be no question but
what every member of the film committee will have received the benefit of the discussion on the subject yesterday afternoon and be in close touch with the situation so it may be handled vigorously and at an early date.
I appoint as chairman of that committee, Mr. H. A. Adams, and as his associates, Mr. Hill' of the New York Central, Mr. Rohweder of the L. & N., Mr. Lew Palmer of the National Safety Council, and, if you will pardon just a little personal expression, my interest is so keen in this subject of producing a railroad film that will be of the highest grade of service, and I have been assured by the members that I have appointed that my assistance will be valuable to them, that I am going to appoint myself as S member of that committee.
The next item on the program is a round table discussion, by MrBraden, who, I understand, is really the originator of "Shall the Steam
Railroad Section produce a bulletin for school use with blank space for
printing or stamping name of individual railroads?*' Will you handle
this discussion, Mr. Braden?
'
ROUND TABLE DISCUSSION
Mr. Braden: We have handed out a little circular which we entitled "An appeal to young America."' In it we placed the picture of the first steam locomotive in the United States. The-children seemed to like that picture. Then we gave them the picture, of two locomotives, old-timers, and lastly a picture of a scene at Harper's Ferry, which is on the Balti more & Ohio. Then we have a little appeal to the children on different phases of safety, not only railroad safety but public safety. We put that in because we were requested to do so by some men In Baltimore who were interested in safety. We find the children just grab at that. We have never yet found one of those copies on the streets outside of the school-house, which shows that the children take them home. '
We have Issued this pamphlet, but we feel that with your help it could be made a much better pamphlet and at the' same time could be dis tributed to every school In the United States. As Dr. Payne remarked, there are several million children in the school-houses these days besides 1,000,000 teachers in all schools. That Is what we ask you to consider,
1096
Twelfth Safety Congress
if you think it advisable to issue such a pamphlet with a place on the
front for a railroad to stamp or print the name of its own railroad as
distributor.
'
Mr. Scott: The matter of reaching the school children is certainly an interesting question, and-1 think we should give a great deal of attention
to it. I have approached a number of school superintendents and school teachers, and I find that they are very eager to get something to put before the children. They haven't given this question of safety the same
thought that we have, they don't look at it as we do, they are in ignorance
as to the methods to be pursued in a matter of child education in safety.
Mr. Martin: Just to make it interesting to the children, I want to
suggest in that pamphlet if you could work out some kind of a puzzle^--
children all like puzzles--you might have one where they would have to
make up a highway crossing or you might split a child up into pieces and ask them to And the missing leg.
MAKING THE SAFETY COMMITTEEMEN GREATER FACTORS FOR SAFETY
(Mr. Scott took the chair at the request, of Chairman Bentley.)
Chairman Scott: We have a real live organization with about four or-
five hundred committeemen and every one of those men is doing some
thing every day in the interest of accident prevention work. We place
in the hands of those men certain data pertaining to accidents that are
most direct, and we advise them as to the best way to prevent accidents.
We send them bulletins that we think are particularly appropriate for
their particular line of work. We request these committeemen to make
use of those bulletins in addition to the regular bulletin service. I refer
to the regular bulletin service as the bulletins that go on the boards
themselves.
.
Mr. W. L. Richards: ' .1 believe that the success of the Safety Movement
on the Union- Pacific has been the close sympathy that has been estab
lished between the management and the men engaged in that work. We
are made to feel in every part that we are in a responsible position.
For instance, a few months ago the general superintendent, riding over
the railroad, noticed a brakeman riding the pilot of an engine, which,
of course, is against our rules. He immediately dropped me a note and
asked me if 1 had noticed that condition on the railroad and asked me
what I had done to prevent it. That placed just a little responsibility
on my shoulders which -made me feel that I was really a part of the
railroad.
.
.
.
If you want to: keep committeemen interested, you have got to pay them attention-,- you have, got to make them feel .-that they have a certain responsibility, -and in order to keep their interest alive, you must pay strict" .attention ' ter every suggestion they make, - listen to them -with respect;."if they make a suggestion that happens to be turned down, you must use all courtesy in explaining to them every reason.
Steam, Railroad Section
1097
Mr. Hill: We have 46 operating divisions and each of them has a wellestablished committee. Most of them consist of officials from the various departments . as well as men from the rank. These committees at the
present time are functioning every 60 days, with the exception of two of our lines which meet every 30 days. It has been my pleasure to attend all of these 46 division committees excepting two. It has also been my pleasure to observe the intense interest manifested by each, member of those committees. I have been particularly interested in observing''the sincerity of the men from the ranks. I have seen switchmen, carmen, enginemen and others come into those meetings with items and take an interest, which led me to believe that they were seriously interested in the preservation of the lives and limbs of their fellow-men.
ADJOURNMENT.
Taxicab and Delivery Section
October 3 and 4,1923
T. W. WEBBIEY, Chairman. Treasurer, Pittsburgh Taximeter Company, Pittsburgh, Pa.
F. P. WAXKEB, Vice-Chairman Secretary, General Necessities Corporation, Detroit, Mich.
- CLINTON EISKE, Secretary. Commissioner of Streets and Sewers, St. Louis, Mo.
WEDNESDAY MORNING SESSION
hairman WEIBLBY: A year ago the Safety Congress in Detroit
C held a nucleus of the Taxicab and Delivery Section. The National
Safety Council felt that- the Congress should have in it a section for this
very important and growing industry. We had a few scattered members
throughout the United States but were not organized into any section.
We organized and. I agreed to act as chairman for this first year until
we could find out whether the taxicab industry was sufficiently interested
to join together and form a real section in the Congress.
Some committees were appointed; Mr. John Greif of South Bend,
Indiana, has done a wonderful work in enlisting a great number of taxicab
companies as members of the National Council.
.
.
Mr. Goldsborough (General Secretary of the Merchants' and Manu
facturers' Association of Baltimore, Vice-Chairman of the Baltimore
Safety Council) : I am very glad to notice the alliance that has been
formed here this morning. I know that there is a very definite touching
point between the taxicab operations and the delivery operations. There
are deliveries that move slowly. We have quite a large per cent of
deliveries down our way that move with lightning swiftness and it re
quires the agility of a gymnast to keep out of the way when you see them
coming.
'
''
SAFE DRIVERS SCHOOLS AND COMMUNITY SAFETY WORK
Wiluam W. Clootj, Pbesident, Yellow Cab Company, Baltimore, Mb.;
Tbeasuheb, National Association of Taxicab Owners
We are a.11 keenly aware of the increased activity of our daily lives de manded by the rapid growth of business and resulting changes in con ditions during the past few years. The advent of the motor vehicle and
1099
1100
Twelfth Safety Congress
the remarkable growth of motor transportation during the past few
years has done more than anything else to speed up the 'dally routine and we sometimes wonder how we ever got along without this means of
transportation. There are many other factors which'facilitate our daily
work and enable us to accomplish a given task with greater speed and
less effort than formerly.
.
Along with the increased scope and activity of bur daily lives, there has been a rapid advance in the individualistic attitude of man. The
effect of the World War in developing self reliance and pride in handling one's own affairs has hindered the growth of a community spirit by Which the individual's actions are controlled by what is best for the greatest number of people. The natural result of these factors has been an ever increasing accidental death record which amounted to 82,000 lives in 1922.
The tremendous increase in accidental fataities on. the streets and in the homes calls for strenuous efforts to .combat this menace. . The success achieved through accident prevention measures, in industry has en couraged experts in this line to give serious consideration to public safety
measures.
The logical basis for most concerted movements which affect human endeavors is education and the public safety problem is being attacked
in this manner. By the introduction of safety instruction in the schools, children are being taught that they can no longer play in the' same carefree manner that you and I did when we were considerably younger and that greater care is now needed for the preservation of human- life. This particular activity should do more than anything else to develop a permanent attitude of safety in the mind of the individual. - -
Public safety bulletin boards' displaying messages of warning and appeals for carefulness are being used in many cities and the exigencies of the accident situation demand that striking methods he used.
The sincere interest and cooperation of the parents are urgently needed in this movement and the developmnt of a Women's Division of the Public Safety Section of the National Safety Council .to'carry'the safety message to the home is another development in this big program. When we consider that in the city of Baltimore two-thirds' of the .child fatalities this year resulted from automobile accidents and burns, 'the necessity of safety instruction in the home is at once apparent.
Undoubtedly, we are interested most of all in automobile accidents,
not only because the increasing number of deaths from .this cause makes
it a real humanitarian issue, but also because we are interesed from the
standpoint of dollars and cents in connection with the. operation of our
own business.
. : ; ....... -
The education of the motor driver 'is one of'-the most'Tmportant phases
of the public safety program. . The-establishing of SaferDrivers'-Schools
in the leading cities is a development which has brought excellent results
in decreasing accidents and in this particular activity of the Baltimore
Safety Council, I have been intimately concerned.
.
Taxicab and Delivery Section
1101
The first sessions of the schools were held during May and June, 1923,
and the response received have greatly encouraged the Council In its
efforts. It has already been shown that the Safe Drivers' School, with"
the assistance of other activities can reduce automobile accidents. . As a
matter of fact, a '42 per cent reduction in automobile fatalities in Balti
more has been accomplished through the safety program.
,,
Two schools were established, one for white and one for colored
drivers, six lessons being given in each school. The lessons consisted of
lectures on the mechanism of the car and inspirational safety addresses,
combined with sufficient entertainment to make the classes attractive.
The interest and attention of the students attending these classes was
remarkable. The weather was uncomfortably warm and the classes
lasted two hours, an endurance test for men and women already tired
from their day's work. Despite these conditions, 550 students received
diplomas from the school for regular attendance and more than 1,000
were reached with safety talks at the various sessions.
The expense of conducting these classes was limited to the cost - of
the literature used and a small entertainment cost. The speakers con
tributed their services gratis, the hall was obtained rent free and much
of the entertainment was. secured without cost.
'
OEGANIZATION
The .organization of our first school consisted of the president of the Baltimore Safety 'Council as chairman ex-officio, an active chairman in charge of the program and presiding officer at school sessions, director of Council, school secretary, enrollment clerks and door men. A. school faculty of nine members, selected from officials and members of the Council's Board of Control cooperated actively with those directly charged with the conduct of the school and did splendid service in stimulatingenrollments and in contributing to tbe program. The faculty was representative of Baltimore's leading industrial and commercial interests,
From' our experience we can recommend, unreservedly. Safe Drivers'Schools of reasonable sessions and educational inspiring programs as result getting factors in promoting community safety and a proved medi um for spreading the good gospel of safeguarding human life.
The second part of the subject, "Community Safety 'Work,'' is broad and covers too many branches of-activity to be enumerated in this paper.
However, effective organization may be referred to as the keystone of.
such work.
',
.
Any community movement which is to accomplish worth while results
must have the endorsement and active backing of a leading commercial
organization which is representative of the civic and business interests,
of the community and which is non-sectarian and non-political in char
acter. This - applies- particularly to community safety work and is
evidenced in those cities- which are making real progress in this great,
humane movement. The endorsement by a recognized, organization is a
certificate-of character and.assures.the. citizens of the community that,
their contributions for^the cause will be in reliable hands.
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Tivelfth Safety Congress
Moreover, those iu charge of active operations will receive prompt recog nition in their approaches, with eonsiderat le saving in time and effort.
As previously indicated, it is conceded by those experienced in the work
that the main factor in education, not spasmodic but continuous, starting
with the child at home, in the school and at play; also with the man and
woman--in the home, at work or as they ride-to and fro on duty or pleas
ure bent.
"
Community safety work, properly organized along educational lines and permanently established, will reduce accidents and safeguard human
life. This, after all, is the appealing fact and requires no argument for its support. Has any community the right to stand aside and keep out of this great movement? Those of us who have experienced the tragedy of accidents unanimously answer "No."
SELLING TAXICAB SAFETY TO THE PUBLIC
William G. Beabd, Safety Dibeotob, Yellow Cab Company, Chicago
Selling taxicab safety to the public, X think, is probably one of the biggest Jots that was ever wished on any individual. In the city of Chicago we have a condition which is totally different from conditions in any other place in the world. We have a city divided into five separate
and distinct police departments. We have - five separate and distinct police forces. They are the City, South Park, Lincoln Park, Rogers Park and West Park. Each one has its own laws varying from 15 to 18 and 20 miles an hour in speed, and each one of them will permit any automobile driver in Chicago to drive up to 30 miles an hour. That, of course is our greatest problem.
Safety on the streets depends entirely on the speed with which motor
vehicles are driven. You can talk about safety all ypu want to but there
is only one thing that ever causes an automobile accident and that is
that the driver of an automobile is driving so fast he can't stop. That is
all.
.
We started in about three years ago, and were the pioneers of the
Safety Movement in the taxicab business. We have tried all the proven
methods--nine out of ten of them failed. They failed primarily because
the automotive business Is -so new, its development has teen so rapid;
it is so widely at variance with any other business in the world that it
never had been thoroughly analyzed.
.
It ran In a parallel with our own taxicab business which grew so fast that we never had time to study it until about three years ago. We arrived at a point finally where, not from a standpoint of humanity, tut from a standpoint of dollars and cents coming out of our own pockets, we had to do something. So we started safety work. We. got after safety from the angle that most people do get after safety, that is by a lot of rules and regulations. In fact, we made up a little book which a good many of you have seen, entitled "Efficiency" and had many, many variations of the well-known, justly celebrated decalogue.
Taxicab and Delivery Section
1103
The taxicab drivers are in business to make money. They are in business exactly as any merchant is in busines to make money both by salesmanship and by saving:. They have got to do both.
Three years ago we arrived at a point where we had about 800 taxi cabs. We also had arrived at another point which created a terrible situation. We had the business but we also had acquired the hatred of the. public. We had acquired that because our men were careless and reckless. We acquired it because, in their pursuit of business, they shoved the noses of their cabs under everybody's face, elbowing them off ' of the streets, and the first condition we had to confront, the first con dition we had to cure was our own drivers.
DBims ABB "sold" on safety
We have only been moderately successful. Today we have a little over ` 5,300 drivers in our company. I think that 95 per cent of these men are sold on the theory of safety from the standpoint of "what do I get out of it? How much money am I going to make if I drive more carefully?"
You know {hat is wrong. You and I and Bill Smith and Tom Jones and the bricklayer and hodcarrier have one impelling motive in this life, one impelling thought behind everything we do and it all comes out to the selfish problem of "What do I get? How much money am I going to make?"
We were able to show our men in the first place that they weren't making as much money as they ought to out of the taxicab business because they weren't making the friends they ought to. We were able to show them that speed in itself is a very small factor In rapidity of city transportation. I am going to give you one example of what 1 mean.
Nine or ten months ago I took two taxicabs, both driven by old men-- put speedometers on them. We made 500 test trips over what in Chicago Is the average distance , of a taxicab ride--a little over 3.3 miles. One of these men never exceeded 20 miles an hour, the other man drove as fast as he could wherever he could. When we tabulated the figures at the end of the five hundred trips, the average was a trifle under 39 seconds different.
Prom the beginning we started in then to sell our drivers on the theory of courtesy to everybody else. Courtesy covers the entire field of safety in automotive operation. It covers everything. But, the automobile Is 5so new--It is such a- bulwark against personal attack, and humanity t eing what humanity is, has failed yet to learn the fundamental of safety on the street, and that is common courtesy.
We have developed' our safety angle not oh a set of rules, tut on a system' of publicity to our own men in which we have tried to teach them one thing. There is one rule that is necessary--that is needed---to drive a taxicab with safety and successfully and that is the Golden Rule. In other words, drive your own cab the way you think everybody else ought to drive theirs. That has been fine so far as we have gone.
1104
Twelfth Safety Congress.
We have increased the friendship of . Chicago with the Yellow Cab Company tremendously, so much so, in the last, .three years that we haye
expanded about 14 per cent, due to friendship, but we.still haye not ob
tained safety. We still have been unable to sell the safety angle of the taxicab business to the public of Chicago because of a number of factors..
In the first place, as I said, Chicago automobile, owners can drive 30
miles an hour any place in the city and get away with it. . We have
400,000 automobiles in the city of Chicago, of which we own and control
2,300 or 2,400. We can't make our men slow down when everybody else
is driving 30 miles an hour.
-
.
.
We tried at first a series of advertisements in which we outlined the self evident facts. That got us no place. It involved the expenditure of ten or fifteen thousand dollars hut got us no place at all until we are
now in the analogous position of a taxicab business making a living by
carrying the people to and fro, going to the state, city, police and park
boards and saying "Cut the speed limit down to 20 miles an hour. We
can't stop our own men unless you stop everybody else. It is an
impossibility."
.'
Don't you know, the minute we did that we were under suspicion of
selling Chicago a gold brick. The public and the newspapers couldn't
understand why a corporation would go to the- police department and go
to the pains of asking that the police enforce a law against - its own
drivers. They couldn't understand that: I don't think they do yet But,
we have succeeded in doing one thing which is very, important to-the'
city of Chicago. , We have every newspaper in. town, every day, printing
a column of the horrors of street traffic.
'.
Now, up to the time I left yesterday, 523'lives had been lost in Chicago since January 1 on our streets. That is going to'be at the rate of about 700 a year, which Is an increase of 100 over last year.
SLOWER SPEED LIMIT IS SOUGHT ,
We, and the newspapers, are in the process right now of laying down on the police department for a slower maximum mileage. We want them to drive slower. We want our men to drive 20 miles an hour, or 22 miles an hour at the most, because we know that , if they do drive 20 miles they will keep continuously moving. Strange as it may seem, our experiments all prove that the slower the traffic, the greater the speed of delivery. You may have found, that yourselves, but our men who go out tnd drive 20 to 22 miles an hour consistently- go out and. book the most money consistently.. They take in. more money,, they cover more miles. More of them are "live" paid miles, less of them are "dead." That is the one thing that we are trying to sell in the way of safety..
We are not trying to sell the public on. the idea that we are safe---not trying to sell the public on the idea that we are the originators of this.. proposition, because we. are not. It. is .only common, sensei-common,
courtesy. .
. . ...
... - - . . ,, . ...... - .,
Taxicab and Delivery Sectio7i
1105
We have got the newspapers with us. We have got the police with us
and it is. only a question of a few months now until we slow traffic down in. Chicago to the point.where it.is slowed down in New. York City--around
25 mfles. an hour, .or less. . .
.
...
.
We, at least, have got them to the point now, .particularly the speed
judges, where they send them to jail; where they assess a big fine. Every
time a man is fined, his name gets in the paper. Every time one of our
drivers is fined his name not only goes on the bulletin board, but he
gets fired.
.'
Being arrested for speeding, in the Yellow Cab Company in'Chicago, ' is just the same as getting a yellow ticket and that is a condition we
have gone a long way to make. It isn't easy for a .corporation to fire a man, because -filing men is expensive. We take a raw recruit--teach him to drive, teach him as well as possible in two or three weeks, to bea taxicab driver. Before he ever takes a nickel in for us we have $150 to $200 invested in him. If he goes out, steps on it and gets fired, we lose $200. We -don't want to fire him--we want" to keep him. We have just gone this far in selling our own safety to the public. The man who drives our cab and gets arrested has to have $100 of his own money. Otherwise he goes to a police station and stays there. We won't help him. From
his standpoint we do something wors.e. We have a traffic lawyer who
goes to court and prosecutes him. We are really trying, by setting an example,, to sell our own theory ofr safety to the public. As I said before,
it is a long, slow process.. We don't know how' far We are going to get with it. We are going to stay on the job until we do get somewhere.
Many of your companies are in exactly the same fix as we are; with,
the rest, of the traffic moving at a terriffic rate of speed, you can't Slow
your own men down.
.
-
I don't think it - would- hurt the business standing of any of your cor
porations, to come into court as we have done, not exactly with clean
hands, but only slightly soiled, and ask the police and the courts to
help, because after all,, the only thing that makes 99 out of 100 people
decent Is distance.
-
THE TAXICAB BUSINESS AND THE NATIONAL SAFETY COUNCIL
Feed M. Rosseland, National Safety Cotxncii, Chicago
I think at the earlier Congresses there were about six sections. We
run now about 21 and .the end has not come yet. The only requirement
for a section is that there be enough members in the line of business
for which the section is desired to warrant providing space for them to
meet in, to warrant providing the services of the headquarters staff, to ,
warrant the special service which is offered to all sections. No fees
are involved, no formalities---no preliminaries of any kind.
,
What, does this mean to the taxicab .business? -It means something-' rather .different- from- the meaning to' the other sections, especially the industrial sections for your people aren't working in a factory, not In '
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Twelfth Safety Congress
small groups as in public utilities. It means, because they are working with the public constantly, that the biggest thing you can do at the start in your own community for safety for your own men is to do what has been done bo well In a number of cities already, initiate or get back of a community safety organization. If you want a community safety organiza tion in your community, the National Council will help you.
You have another problem. You want to educate the public and your own drivers. The Council does this--it provides educational material for your drivers and furthermore, through the medium of this section, developing its organization, still further, you have the opportunity of getting, without any original cost, special educational material prepared by your own people in the taxicab business for taxicab men.
Some taxicab companies take an interest in community sa'fety generally.
They want to know about the details of traffic safety, something they
can put up to the police department or' to the city department handling
the streets and highways. We have the information. All that is needed
is to drop a line to headquarters and request it. If you propose to carry
on your educational work with the public or among your own employees,
It doesn't make any difference which, we have motion picture films and
other educational material available for your. use.
-
ROUND TABLE DISCUSSION
Mr. G. E. Clarkson (Manager, Western Pennsylvania Division, National Safety Council): Some three or four years ago the taxicab companies in Pittsburgh were doing safety work in an individual way in our city, but, I believe, the effect was not so good as when they got into the local safety council and began their work in a community organization. They carried a number of fine bulletins on their taxicab windows stating specifically ``we are cooperating with the National Safety Council in making the streets of the city of Pittsburgh safe."
Mr. H. E. Brosius (Manager, Toledo Safety Council, Toledo, Ohio) : I want to tell you what the Yellow TaxiCab Company is doing in Toledo, with the idea in mind that it might be of little help In your work. They have organized--I think they have 80 drivers, it is small but rather large for the city--they have organized a council among themselves. They conduct this work just as thoroughly as I conduct the work of the local council and as the National Council does its work. They have taken unto themselves the task of putting across the propaganda of safety among themselves and to the public from their standpoint. It has worked wonders among those 80 drivers.
They independently joined the Toledo Council, each becoming a memter
at a dollar apiece. They hold their meetings every two weeks and the
prominent outstanding features are trought to the attention of the men
and they conduct a court, you might call it, and sentence men who have
not driven properly or have violated the laws laid down by their own
council, so that it has had a lasting effect and is working wonders among
heir own. men.
*
Taxicab and Delivery Section
1107
Mr. W. L. Patterson (of St. Louis Safety Council, St. Louis, Mol): We have considerable differences in St. Louis from Chicago and other cities; we have a large taxicab company which is practically handling all of the business. We have five companies there.
Up until about two years ago we had the safety organization working very well with the then existing taxicab companies. We had safety organizations in, at that time, the two representative companies, tut two years ago this coming January, one of the largest companies (which operated the Tellow and Columbia) drivers went on a strike. For 22 months I tried to hold safety meetings with those taxicab drivers.
We have held our safe drivers' school for four years, toth for the com mercial car drivers and for lady drivers with a great deal of success. In our last year's schools, we didn't dare bring the taxicab drivers out because there weren't enough police in St. Louis to keep order.
Mr. Beard: We go into the record, into the life history of the man for about X0 years before we hire him, primarily for our own protection..
In the first place, we Want to know where he has worked and where he
has gone to school. We want to know if he is honest and we don't want
any letters of recommendation. We send an investigator out who goes
to his home and friends. We examine a man physically and mentally
and for his eyes..
-'
I don't think anything requires more physical stamina than taxi driving.
I don't think a w'oman would ever be capable of driving one.
Mr. Cloud: The National Association of Taxicab s adopted a code of ethics. You know I am somewhat of an idealist but am practical, and
have been working under this code of ethics for three years and realize
it has a very practical side. The last line of that code of ethics said,
"We will see to it above all things that be (the driver) drives his own
vehicle safely." That is subscribed to fcy 116 owners In the National
Association of Taxicab Owners. It is a beautiful piece of work, the whole
code of ethics, but it contains a great deal and is being investigated by
some of the biggest corporations in the United States today. I have
letters from officials. I got a beautiful one from one of the,.high officials
of the Pennsylvania Railroad about that code of ethics.
Mr. Walker: I want to say a word in support of what Mr. Beard told
you about cutting down speed. About three months ago in Detroit the
police department served notice on the public, through the press, that
they were going to reduce the speed limit from 25 to 20 miles an hour.
It has resulted in a big redaction in accidents and also of fatalities, and
it has developed that there has been no congestion as a result. It has
helped congestion as a result and has not decreaed the ability to get
some place in a given space of time. Traffic is moving better at a
reduced rate of speed than before.
.'
APPOINTMENT OP NOMINATING COMMITTEE
Chairman Weibly: I want to announce a committee to nominate officers for this section, the report of this committee to be returned at
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Twelfth Safety Congress
this meeting tomorrow.. This committee will be composed of Mr. John G. Williams, Mr. William Beard and Mr. W. B. Patterson. Mr. Patterson is the chairman.
THURSDAY MORNING SESSION
Chairman. Weibley: The first thing on our program this morning is the report of the nominating committee for officers of this section to serve for the coming year.
Mr. Patters on: We offer, as the officers of this section, Mr. Walker, secretary of the General Necessities Corporation, as chairman; W L. Patterson, as vice-chairman; C. R. Smith of the Patterson Transfer Company of Memphis, as secretary.
(The report of the nominating committee was accepted and, on motion
duly made and seconded, the secretary cast the ballot.)
'
THE STORY TOLD BY THE ACCIDENT STATISTICS OF THE TAXICAB BUSINESS
J. G. Williams, Secketakt, National Association of Taxicab Ownebs,
Chicago
.
We have, in the taxicab business, collected some figures for. three
periods or four periods of six months each. We had in mind when we
first started out that we would present these figures to the insurance
people with the idea of reducing our insurance premium; then we grew
to be so interested in accidents, so interested in safety, that we went on
and on and accumulated figures with respect to the number of accidents, etc., until we gathered last year our first complete set of accident'
statistics for a whole year.
.
.
We had X00 companies last year. We were able to get complete statistics for forty companies.
We asked our companies to give us the number of accidents causingdeath and the number of accidents causing serious injuries, such as broken bones, or accidents likely to result in death; and another classic ficatlon was minor accidents--scratches, cut fingers and such. Thenafter those accidents relating to death and personal injury; we had property damage--the cost for the company's own property and the cost for the property of other persons. Then, we also asked-for the costof each one of these kinds of death and damage accidents, and then we asked for the person who was injured or killed--whether he happened to be a driver, pedestrian,, driver of another car, drivers of both cars, or another person, and then we asked whose fault the accident happened to be, whether the driver, the driver of another car, passenger, pedestrian, and so on down, in each case giving the amount of money actually paid and estimated to be paid on account of these particular accidents.
When we approach the insurance companies with these figures they tell us we haven't anything like so. much experience as they have, and having a- bare quantity of - miles run, accidents connected with those
Taxicab and Delivery Section
1109
miles and costs of settling the whole thing, they base their rate of
premium, so they say, on their own experience, and as a result we
have well organized, carefullly run, carefully managed and discriminating
taxicab companies charged,the same rate of premium as careless, neg
ligent, thriftless and ignorant people combined. They have all this great
mass of taxicab .drivers under one and they average that up and then
charge us'a rate based upon that kind of service.
The average cost we have found per car (and I will say in passing that
none of these figures have any reference' to the Yellow Cab Company of
Chicago) per year for personal injury runs between $85 and $110, and
. in a great many places the premium is $300, $350 and $600 and in New
York it is $900 a car, and our. experience shows us that all the companies
that we can find connected with these cars in which we can get actual1
and reliable data will run around $100.
'
Suppose you gentlemen In the delivery section would give us figures to go with pur taxicabs, and with the transfer wagons and tracks that our companies ran (probably we have 25 or 30 companies also in the
transfer business) we can put all that data together and from time to time we can gather information that will be Instructive to us and helpful in our business. .
- Many of- our taxicab companies do not buy their insurance, they: carry it themselves. To give you an example--the Terminal Taxicab Company in Washington found that they paid the insurance companies about $110
to r$125 a car a year to handle their insurance. They then charged $110 a car a year to their expenses and. set it on the credit side as a reserve and now in a period of something like 10 years, I believe, they have
accumulated an insurance reserve to pay their own claims, of $75,000. They doh't-'have any worry at all about the accidents that happen. They have the money and they have beat the insurance companies to it simply by keeping the premiums themselves, having the nerve to take those chances and set up the reserve, and they built up a very excellent reserve.
Mr. Weibley's company in Pittsburgh did the game thing only It didn't extend over so many years. Mr. Murray ip.. Detroit did the same thing'
and was able to pay his accidents out of his own charges and have money-
left.
i
``
'
' Mr. Reel's insurance for four or five years has ran something like
$83 a- ear, if I remember correctly, or one-third of a cent a. mile.
I think that is the way I remember it. Now, In Des Moines he probably
would have to pay $300 a car to insure the. car, maybe not so much If
he gets .the insurance company down to look at his experience. Your
records' will! prove valuable here. .
: .'
Here is- one thing that- our statistics do show. We have talked, and we heard Mr.. Beard-talk yesterday about the driver, and every time any mention is made of safety business- we talk about it, but the statistics that we gathered last year show us that not one half 6 all of the accidents we had in the taxicab business were due to the' driver's fault.
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Twelfth Safety Congress
Here Is another curious thing that those statistics show, that 20 per cent
of the deaths are to drivers themselves. . One man in every five of all
of those people who lose their dives during the year by taxicabs are
drivers.
.
I believe a driver can be so instructed that his every thought, or in
other words, every reaction in that man's mind is so organized that
safety will work. That will be the first impulse, sensation, thought, and
he will produce that reaction of safe driving. That is what I believe
and I believe, if we keep along this educational line, that we will have
everybody falling in line. "With our driver's school, we can get them
to drive safely.
I was walking-home with Judge Stafford; he is a very learned judge.*
He lives across the street from me. I was walking home with him and
we were talking about'taxicabs, driving cars, and that sort of thing. The
Judge said;
"When I walk along the street and meet a gentleman or lady and if
I am about to run into them, I step aside, and if I bump against someone
I instinctively say `I beg your pardon' and step aside, and really X believe
I live among my feliowmen ` with a reasonable degree of courtesy and
decency, but, the minute I get into an automobile I am transformed and
want to say to every human being I see in my way 'damn you, get out
of my way'."
.
That is exactly what the spirit of safety isn't.
I
PAYING A BONUS FOR GOOD NO-ACCIDENT RECORDS
John W. Weibubt, Treasurer, Pittsburgh: Taximeter Compaity. Pittsburgh-. ' Pa.
Justly deserving of much praise, Pittsburgh can be proud of many things
which might be summed up at great length. But here are some things she
cannot boast of. She cannot claim broad, level, straight streets. Her
streets are narrow, hilly, crooked and with few exceptions paved with
cobbles,--all of which does not make for easy, safe and economical opera
tion of motor vehicles. .
-
Of course you know that for fourteen years I have been engaged in the
operation of taxicabs in Pittsburgh. To stick in the cab business and
keep ahead of the sheriff has-meant that we had to do some safety work.
Yes, we have bought or borrowed every safety idea that anyone could
offer, and many were very good. And our "boiled down" experience
amounts to this--that paying a reward for good records gave us the best
results of all the things tried.
'
Now, let us go into the psychology of the matter. Since the beginning
of time, in every walk of life, in government, in business. In family life,
when all other methods fail, we have had recourse to the "reward" or
prize--nowadays called the bonus. We all of ns work for a reward of some
sort or other. "Why not a cab driver? He's a very much abused fallow--
the cab driver. One man cusses him because he drives too fast. The next
fellow cusses him because he drives too slow. Most people doubt his
Taxicab and Delivery Section
1111
honesty. He seldom gets a kind word because he is expected to know the shortest distance between every two points in the world. He has a pretty tough life. He sees life as no other class of men see it. Rich people, poor people, good people, bad people,--good people when they are bad, or when they are mad or intoxicated. What other set of men sees life as he does? He has problems that do not confront the street car opera tors, railroad men, bus or truck drivers. His work is absolutely different from any other work that I know. His work is not a work to make a sweet tempered individual, and he, more than any man I know will re
spond to a reward for a good accident record. I have good reason to be
lieve this, because I have had a practical demonstration of the results obtained by the Pittsburgh Taxicab Company during the past year.
BONDS MOKE INEETTENTIAI, THAW AM. OTHER MEANS COMBINED
The no-accident bonus did more to reduce accidents than anything
we ever tried,--or rather, let me put It another way--It did more than
all other things put together.
'
Our rules at first were very simple. We appropriated five dollars per cab per month to be divided among the men who had a clean record. It
is very interesting to follow the changes in the rules as we went along.
Soon we found that in order to put all the men on an equal basis, it would not be fair to pay the men the reward who had not worked a
full month. So the rule was changed to require that a man must work
26 days in a 31 day month to qualify.
Next we found that men who worked hard,--who were always alert
for business, traveled twice as many miles as the men who were careful
but lazy. So a new rule was added requiring a certain - amount of
business before they could qualify.
.
Then we found a certain group of men who worked for the bonus, but
looked on it as easy money to be squandered. So tlfe rules were changed again and a rule added that seemed foreign to the*cause. When this rule went into effect, the bonus was deposited as the beginning of a saving account in a well-known bank. Then the next month, in order to qualify, a man must deposit an amount, equal to fifty per cent of the previous month's bonus In this account. Then the real results =hegan to show. The men became very proud of these bank accounts and the bank book was a badge of honor among them. When the account grew, the man became a different fellow. You know the first hundred dollars is harder to get than the first thousand.
These men are now using these accounts to become stockholders in
the company.
If you are not paying a no-accident bonus, start at once! Because first, it will pay for Itself, second, it will give you so much more -time to
develop your business. You know, and I know that accidents are the most
discouraging thing in the cab business.
'
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Twelfth Safety Congress
Start out first by laying aside five dollars per cab per month. Make the rules very simple and change them as you go along. It is not a bad thing to have a new rule added each month, especially if you increase the bonus, which you will soon find that you can afford to do. A slight change each month stimulates the interest of the men.
Try to put a rule into effect that will cause the men to save this money. Because just as soon as a man has over a hundred dollars to his credit in a hank he has a different outlook on life. It takes the Bolshevik! out of him. Elbert Hubbard used to say the way to cure an anarchist was to give him a house and lot.
Make your own rules, hut make a start and you will never regret tt-
DISCUSSION
Mr. Patterson: I would like to ask a question, on that bonus. Does that mean any-kind of a property damage accident, whether it is the driver's fault or not?
Chairman Weibley: There may be a few isolated cases where a man
is not to blame, but it opens up the way for discussion. He has the
accident, that is all there is to it. Of course, he feels absolutely it was
the other fellow's fault, but we have got to phow him that it is his mis
fortune.
%.
Mr. Patterson: The reason I asked that question was that I have had that put up to me a good many times. In the study of the causes of accidents. I have found this to be a fact, that in . 60 per cent of the accidents, if either one had used the proper degree of caution, the acci dent wouldn't have happened, and in 90 per cent if both of them had used a reasonable degree of caution, the accident wouldn't have occurred.
There is just one other thing I might bring out here. Careful driving is nothing but habit.
Mr. Russel Reel (Yellow Cab Company, Des Moines, Iowa)': We
have tried in perhaps three or four years, a dozen different bonus sys
tems and for the last year we have used a system which we thing is the
best.
'
-
We have a big bulletin hoard, and every week we credit 10 per cent of every man's salary on the bulletin. If you make $27.50 you are credited with $2.75. We carry both property and liability insurance. We have reduced our accidents from an average of $83 a year to an average of $69 a year, which is a saving to the Insurance companies to say nothing of us.
A man doesn't get his 10 'per cent until it amounts to $25, and it has
worked out very satisfactory to us. '
..
Mr. G. E. Bush (Safety Committee, Chamber of Commerce,- Duluth):
Do you find that your drivers report accidents?
.. .
Mr. Reel: The drivers report them as promptly as ever. They always do report them. This is one thing they do under the bonus system-- a driver will say, "Have you a release that I can get," and I say, "Yes."
' Taxicab and Delivery Section
1113
He will say, "I Just hit a man's fender- I want him to sign it; he might make a claim." If that man were allowed to stand, he would make a claim against us.
Chairman Weibley: In our own experience we had a few isolated cases of men not reporting accidents. They don't get very far with it.
Mr. Malloy: Does the bonus system extend to the repair men? Chairman Weibley: Yes, in our company it does. We set aside onefifth of the net earnings of the company to be divided between all the employees. The repair department1 does not get in on the no-accident bonus. They get in on the other bonus. In the cab business the bonus is used extensively for this reason. It is better than increasing wages. The incompetent fellow who only sticks a little while is eliminated, and if he is any good, he sticks long enough to earn his bonus. We have found in the cab business that this is a very excellent way of paying the men who deserve it and not paying those who don't.
ADJOURNMENT.
Textile Section
October 3,1923
STtAITK E. MORRIS, Chairman Safety Engineer, Mutual Insurance Company, Boston, Mass.
H. M. BURKE, Vice-Chairman Plant Engineer, Mount Hope Finishing Company, North Dighton, Mass.
SIDNEY B. INGHAM, Secretary
Ludlow Manufacturing Associates, Ludlow, Mass.
HAIRMAN MORRIS: One of the first jobs of a chairman in a meet
C ing of this hind is to appoint a nominating committee to select officers
for the following year and I am going to appoint Mr. B. M. Self of the Travelers Insurance Company;. Mr. W. A. Dearborn, chief engineer. Federal Mutual Liability Insurance Company, and Mr. Raymond B. Sher man of. the United States Finishing Company.
DOES SAFETY WORK IN THE TEXTILE PLANT PAY?
Harvey Satie, The United States Finishing Company, Providence, r. I.
Before going into the subject we might better come to some under
standing as to our meaning of profitable safety work. If we should ask
some of our social service friends what dividends we might ljave a
right to expect from safety work we would probably be told that our
return would be in the prevention of.suffering and possibly the saving
of life. Truly the saving of a 'life, or lives, is a good reward for our
efforts. On the other hand would such a return on a financial expend
iture interest the average business man if along with it there was no
financial return?
I can well recall the hundreds of good women wearing their little
white ribbons and telling us that the use of intoxicating liquor caused
suffering and misery but it is not true that our now famous 18th amend
ment was given very little serious thought until large employers dis
covered that intoxicating liquor hindered production, and, because it
is an economic waste,-I do not expect to see any change in this consti
tutional amendment. '
-
We are likewise learning that accidents are an economic waste, retard
ing production ana lowering quality and, therefore, must be eliminated.
It may not appear so uplifting' to place safety on a dollars and' cents
1115
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Twelfth Safety Congress
basis, but is not business organized for the purpose of its financial returns? This too, might be questioned by some. Just recently Mr. Arthur Young, past president of our National Safety Council frankly stated that "the dollar side of safety has been an important factor" in his safety work. He further states that he does not blush for reducing safety work to a basis of dollars and cents.
And then we hear a great deal these days about the commercial value of manufacturing enterprises being operated on the Golden Rule b$sis, so it seems perfectly proper that we should consider the financial value of safety.
Safety work in any industry pays if it reduces accidents. In making this statement I am well aware of the fact that it would not be considered profitable to spend say, $10,000 on safety work and reduce accidents that might show only a cost of $500, but up to this time I have not heard of anyone who squanders money on safety work. Perhaps, then, we might better say that intelligently directed safety work pays.
It is fair to assume that an employer makes, or should make, some
profit on each employee, otherwise the unprofitable employee would not
be retained. Therefore is it not reasonable to assume that the absence
of an employee from work because of injury represents a financial loss
to the employer? In collecting facts for this discussion, I learned that
one textile plant estimates the worth of a man's time to them at"$7.50
a day and that his absence from work represents a like amount. We do know that absence from work means lost production. As a concrete
example, less than one month ago I asked the foreman at one of our
plants how a certain accident requiring the loss of three or four days
time affected his production and was told that it meant a loss. of
5.000 yards of cloth each day during the injured man's absence.' A few
months ago one of our stitchers in the sheet making department fell
and injured herself and we lost the production of 40 dozens of sheets
a day during her absence. These are net extreme eases.
... 'i.
LOST TIKE WCETKKMKXT* liwcnox LOSS
I am told that the severity rate in cur company is 50 per cent, lower than the average rate for the industry as a whole, so I do not hesitate to say that over 3.000 days were lost by our company through accidents last -year. This year our record to date shows a 15 per cent decrease over last year or 450 days saved over last year. To reduce this to a yardage or dozen sheets basis this saving would represent an additional production of 500 yards a day for 450 days or 325,000 yards of cloth, or at 40 dozens of sheets a day ft would represent 18,000 more dozens of sheets. Or to use the figure Just quoted as used by one textile .plant of $7.50 a day, these 450 days saved represents an additional income- to the company of $3375. And just for a moment let us . consider, that 450 days of wages more will go into homes than went last year because of the reduction of accidents.
Textile Section
1117
I find that one textile giant has reduced their severity rate over 80 per
cent, in two years, which if.applied in..our own record of last year would
have meant a saving of more than 2500 days. I'rather suspect that .2500
additional days production would have made some difference in our
production.'
-
' '"
Another textile plant makes the statement that over $3,000 a year is being saved in' cash compensation insurance premiums through their accident reduction, to say nothing of the days saved. I also know what it .means to have a set of two to twelve looms stopped because of an injured weaver or spinning frame stopped due to an injured spinner.
Regardless of the occupation, an absent worker represents a task not done, which reacts directly or indirectly on the total output. Profits accrue, from goods shipped but there are certain fixed charges that must be paid before profits are realized, neither of which can be expected from idle machinery and equipment or unused floor space.
Incidenttal reference has been made to our own safety interest in The United States Finishing Company but since there is nothing unusual or spectacular about it, I shall not take any,time to talk about it except to say that among our six plants we find that 76 per cent of our accidents are dne to non-mechanical causes and 24 per cent to so-called mechanical causes indicating that three-quarters of our accidents can only be elim inated by careful workmen and our efforts are expended in education.
Oiie point I should like to make about our work: It might appear that we are making progress, .and. we are, but safety work has not been "put. over" in our organization by any. means. It Is just moving ahead and is
now at the stage where it could go backward more easily than forward.
In other words,.safety has not yet become a habit with us. We believe,
however,, that safety work pays and we back up our belief by the exertion of effort and the expenditure of considerable money.
... DISCUSSION
.
Mr.- D. Dunkerley (Imperial Cotton Company, Hamilton, Ontario,
Canada):- We1 have been carrying on safety work for'fcbe last four or
five ears. In the first place, there is the committee management and officers and myself as an independent representative. I represent either
officers or employees. I have been in charge of the .safety committees.
The safety committees are called together bi-weekly. Of course we have
seven, eight or nine sections. We take one representative from each
section. The -recommendations and suggestions are. made and monthly,
this same committee, the sections of the different branches taken from
the various:'floors, inspect the mill.
-"
!
Their suggestions are passed on to the overseers and management to
consider and to a large degree,' wherever possible, are adopted.. I want
to:,say-the management is 100..per. cent behind the movement.
. Mr.,. Sidney Ash (General Electrical Company): How do you get your educational work to the people--through personal contact?
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Twelfth Safety Congress
Mr. D. Dunkerley (Hamilton, Ontario, Canada): Yes, we get them
through the people. The safety men wear buttons .and we change the
committees every three months.
'
Mr. Howard L. Cates (Lawrence, Mass.): Mr. Saul tells us of the
method he employed. I wish he would tell us how he has reduced the
percentage so low.
,
Mr. Harvey Saul: To reduce accidents you cannot follow any specific policy. We tried to but we found at one plant it would be one Cause and at another plant it would be something else. We use bulletins--we make our own bulletins. At one plant we just completed a new hospital and we arranged to have every employee in the plant see it during working hours. It takes about 10 minutes to do it. If it is a large department we split the groups up and place them in charge of sub-foremen. They go down and examine the hospital. It is more than a first aid section.
The purpose of the hospital was explained to them. We told them we thought this was a good place to come to when Injured but we hoped they would not have to make use of it.
I feel that if we have made any progress, and apparently we have from
comparison with other companies, it has been due to individual effort
striking at the cause of the matter.^
-
air. Harry C. Sabonjian (Bellman Brook Bleachery Company, Fairvlew, N. J.) : We have ah out 400 employees and we have a safety organization.
In 1922 we ran a safety week and we went one month without an accident and previous to that we had four accidents a week. It can be done if you will try it. The organization has donated $1.00 for every 24 hours that goes along without an accident. That money goes to the welfare department and of course that goes to the employees.
Infection is the big cause. If they have a crash, infection sets in.
Blood poison follows and that means time lost. We send a general notice to all head foremen of all scratches, etc. wherever found and no matter how small. The foreman tells the employees they should go to the first aid section at once and in that way we prevent Infection.
Mr. Everett F. King (H. A. Hale, Jr. & Co., Boston): I was glad to hear Mr. Saul say that the employees visit the hospital in a group and I would like to know how that is arranged. How is it arranged among
the new employees? Do you have 40 or 50 come into the plant once a week? Do you take them all down together?
SHOWKC THE PLANT DISPENSABT TO TEE 3TEW EMPLOYEE
'
Mr. Harvey Saul: That is a matter we have not taken care of but we plan to take care of it. What we expect to do is to have one day a week designated as visiting day for new employees. We are planning for that.
The foremen will be supplied with a list of the new employees who have been hired and they will be taken to the new hospital and receive instructions as to its use.
Mr. John Rennie (Joseph Bancroft & Sons Co., Philadelphia): Do all new employees go to your hospital for examination during the first 24 hours? -
Textile Section
1119
Mr. Harvey Saul: They should report for examination during the first 24 hours.
Our next speaker is going to tell us about organizing the human element for safety in the textile industry. Now when the. program bommittee determined upon this subject we looked over the field of available speakers and we were unanimous in our choice of Mr. I. MacNulty of the Department of Labor, American Woolen Company, Lawrence, Mass., to present this paper to you.
ORGANIZING THE HUMAN ELEMENT FOR SAFETY IN THE TEXTILE INDUSTRY
I. MCNULTY, DEPARTMENT OF LABOR, AMERICAN WOOLEN COMPANY, LAWRENCE, MASS.
In establishing a permanent safety program in a textile factory it is
first of all essential to "sell" the idea to the employees. There is an opinion among average employees that anything brought into a mill from
"on high" is an attempt to "put something over on them." For this reason
it is very necessary, in bringing in a program of this kind, that It be done
ostensibly through the employees, thus removing one of the obstacles
confronting the management of the mills in undertaking such an idea.
In our mills the first step was to invite groups, representing different
departments and crafts, to come together. When this was brought about
it was explained to them that the program about to be introduced In the mills must be endorsed by themselves, as it is the employee who. suffers
the most from accident and, as it had a very keen significance to him
socially and domestically, his duty was to devise ways and means whereby
accidents might be reduced in his department. The first effort was thus
made to build up a safety organization.
.
First of all, with the permission of the -local management, representa
tives of each mill and department were assembled during working hours.
The safety engineer explained to them the purposes of the meeting, sug-
gstion cards being placed in the hands of every man and woman present
on which they were to write their ideas of the risks and hazards en
countered in the course of their employment in the mills. When the
employees found out that they were vested with this advisory right and
suggestive power, it was not very difficult to get them interested in the
idea of safety, and in requesting that a program be installed. Groups of the employees were formed into committees from the mechanical and
non-mechanical departments in the mills and suggestions began to come in
from them and were discussed at the appointed meetings of the com
mittee. All suggestions that met with the approval of these committees
as being worthy of further consideration were later taken up and dis
cussed by committees of foremen from the mechanical and1 non-mechanical
departments, who were in a position to judge whether the recommenda tions were worthy of being carried out. There are instances sometimes where manufacturing problems, unknown to the ordinary operative, make
it impossible to adopt some suggestions, but ^ when suggestions are re-
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Twelfth Safety Congress
ceived by a foremen's committee that tend towards the safety and welfare
of a department, the suggestions are approved and sent to the manage*
ment of the mill, composed of the agent and his superintendents, who
determine whether or not the suggestions, are to be carried out. Needless
to say that when the first groups of the employees. saw the mechanical departments of their respective mills, working within a few days on
suggestions they had made, it encouraged them to bring in additional
safety suggestions from time to time, thus reasonably solving the prob
lem, so much so, that in the Lawrence mills of the American Woolen
Company, in one year's trial, the number of compensatable accident cases
were reduced to the extent of 22 per cent.
'
JIAKE-UI' OF THE COMMITTEES
General Committee: This committee consists of the plant agent, assist
ant agent, superintendents, master mechanic. The duties of this com
mittee are to consider and pass on all suggestions and recommendations
forwarded by the overseers' and employees' committees, especially where
the feature recommended would cost considerable money. Any intelligent
and practical suggestion is never refused. When, this policy is carried
out, employees will realize that the management is sincere and will there
fore take greater interest In the organization.' Ail accidents of long stand
ing are reviewed by this committee; also all reports that the safety engi
neer has to make to the progress of the work.
Otrcrvccrx' Committee: This is composed of the overseers from every
department mad meetings are held once a month the same as those of the;
general committee. Their duties are to pass on any minor recommenda tions forwarded by the employees, and to discuss accidents with the pur-
}mwc of
a means of prevention. In this way they have the oppor
tunity of knowing what sort of suggestions and accidents are being re
ported from other departments, and can perhaps forestall similar ones in
their own rooms.
UVfccr*' Committee: Members for this committee are appointed from
atnnnt the second hards or other employees generally, men or women, for
m term of three months. Bach department is represented, and for large
sections there are larger representations. One-third of each committee is
retired every month after completing three months* service. This com
mittee makes recommendations relating to safety, and also transmits to
the employees suggestions relative to the promulgation of safety work in
all sections of the plant. The safety engineer and a member from the
labor department are present at all meetings of all committees, the safety engineer acting as chairman of the employees' committee and secretary
to all other committees.
.
-
Every committee member, from all three branches, receives a button to wear, indicating to the other workers in his or her room that he or she is a safety member and as such can be approached on any matter pertaining, to safety. Bulletins are printed illustrating dangerous practices in each, department and their, .consequences;*..also the safe way pf doing..things.. They are .posted In each department- -in a prominent place. Inspections
Textile Section
1121
are made twice a week by the plant inspector and hazards reported.
Pictures of accidents are taken, staged as they actually happened as nearly
as possible. These are later made into bulletins and stereopticon slides.
The slides are shown noon hours to all employees who care to attend and
also at all safety meetings. Usually a good moving picture comedy is
shown at noon to draw a large crowd. Moving pictures are taken of
accidents staged as realistically as possible. These moving pictures are also shown during the noon hours and cause a great deal of interest and
talk throughout the mills. Suggestion boxes are placed in various parts of the mills and any employee may drop cards furnished for that purpose
in these boxes. Clocks designed to show the number of accidents each
month are placed at the mill entrance, and each time an accident occurs
the hand of the clock moves forward.
.
` ACCIDENTS SOOIf REACH
All of these tilings, of course, produce a psychological effect on the minds of the workers. Xn the course of six months a considerable de crease in the number of accidents and days lost has been noticed. In a year's time accident rates have been brought down one-half of their former number, until eventually they have been reduced to a minimum.
After guarding every possible hazard we could detect on the machinery we found that certain individuals were still being hurt. Thereupon we made an intensive study of these individuals both at their work and at home, and found that the causes of accidents to these people usually arose from nervous impatience, eagerness to excel, over-hurrying in piece work for extra financial gain, youthful recklessness, inattentiveness and other inherent characteristics of the individual. Also, temporary conditions, such as fatig\ie from insufficient rest and nourishment, illness or extra work outside the plant, and worry about matters not pertaining to work . in the plant was found to obtain in these cases. In order to overcome these causes, special bulletins, lantern slides and moving pictures covering the subject are shown, and the overseer in a diplomatic way tries to show the Individual his faults and the consequences. It ha.s been found that the overseer is the best man fitted for this, as he has the confidence of his employees and' a first-hand knowledge of their faults and troubles that no one else could get.
Another method used to bring safety to the minds of the workers is through the medium of the company magazine which is issued once a month. Pictures of actual accidents staged, with attending explanations, and articles on safety that even the simplest mind can grasp, all help to keep up interest. First-aid rooms are established in each mill with registered nurses and up-to-date equipment of all kinds. Treatment given at these hospitals has been found to save thousands of days of lost time and cases of blood poioning have become a rare thing.
At all field days held by the company, safety pageants are staged, which cause a great many laughs and keep tongues wagging in the mills for a good many days. At the summer camp for children of employees, safety committees are formed and interesting lectures are-given to the children
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Twelfth Safety Congress
th.rough.out the summer. Hundreds of children pass through this camp every summer. A good many of them are future employees of the com pany, so an advantage is gained by having hundreds of new employees pouring into the mills fully trained in the principles of safety. Not only that, but after leaving the camp they go home and talk safety to their parents, which tends to make the latter safer workers in the mills.
DISCUSSION
Mr. Sidney Ash (General Electric Company): You spoke of tuber culosis in your factories. I was wondering in a factory of 6,000 how many active cases you had and whether you had any objection to having these cases work? The reason I raise that point is we felt at Pittsfield we shouldn't allow an active case of tuberculosis to work. Yet, in an other factory they had quite a number and they seemed to feel that there wasn't danger there.
Mr. I. MacNulty (Lawrence, Mass.): I went over several hundred cases here. I am sorry we didn't bring sick statistics with us, but speak ing from memory, after going over several hundred cases in which we
pay them for being sick, the sole authority for their being sick being
determined by their doctor, we found very.few cases. Our company is generous by allowing their doctor to be the authority. We have no fac
tory doctor. Despite that fact we couldn't come across but very, very few cases where the doctor prescribed it as a lung case. I believe there
were but two cases. It was not put down as tuberculosis. Personally,
I came across but one case. It was the case of a young man in the mill,
who has since died. He came from a construction company and worked in the mill six months, long enough to get sick disability. I took care of him myself. That is the only case from tuberculosis and he was not
working long enough to get tuberculosis in our plant.
.
REPORT OF THE TEXTILE SAFETY CODE COMMITTEE
. W. 3D. Deakbobn
It is quite reasonable to suppose that some progress has been made but because of the vacation period and the generally unsettled conditions prevailing in the textile industry during the past summer, the coopera tion expected has not been'as complete as it was hoped.
It therefore remains the duty of the sub-chairmen to secure sufficient additional members to fill out their committees and to proceed without
delay with the first rough draft of each individual part of the code.
The sub-committee chairmen are S. E. Whiting, Liberty Mutual Life
Insurance Company, for the cotton division; MacNulty, American Woolen Company, for the woolen division, and Everett King, Henry A. Hale, Jr.
& Company, for the worsted division. The finishing'and dyeing division
has no sub-chairman at present but it was thought by using the Pennsyl
vania code on that subject as a start, a suitable committee could be
secured at the time the first rough drafts come up for review.
.
Textile Section
1123
DISCUSSION
Chairman Morris: It is understood this code committee is a perma
nent organization. It has a big job. The members are not going to try to get it out in two or three months. They are going to work. They are
going to get all of the members of the Textile Section who have regis tered at this congress and solicit their assistance.
All branches are going to be represented and when you get a request for help dig into your flies and get the information that they need because we have all got to pull together to put this across and do a good finished job.
Mr. Sidney Ash: Mr. Dunkerley, do you have any trouble in keeping your committees working? Do you have your committee meetings on company time and do you have some trouble in having them attend the meetings ?'
Mr. D. Dunkerley (Hamilton, Ontario, Canada): Ye3, we have dif ficulty. Some attend and others gradually drop out.
Mr. Everett P. King: I think it isn't the fault of the operator not wanting to go to the meeting. They forget about the different dates of the meetings. I think, if you are going to have safety organization meetings, you should print a schedule and in addition notify the over seers to notify the workers. I find most workers are always glad to come to the meetings.
Mr. Regula (Liberty Mutual Insurance Co., New York City): I ask if that is a workman's or a foreman's meeting?
Mr. Dunkerley: It is a workman's meeting;
May
Mr. Regular It has been my experience that the laxity on the work man's committee is not a lack of desire but often due to the- fact that the foreman of the plant has not been sold on the safety committee idea
and does not encourage the employees on the workmen's committee. If you have got your foreman sold on the committee idea" you find in variably they will see to it that the workmen have their department represented on that committee, not alone attending but reporting to them later as to what transpired at the meeting.
Mr. W. A. Dearborn: condition.
I think slippery floors is a -pretty serious
Mr. John Rennie: How do you handle that? We put it up to the fore men. If any accident happens due to slippery floors we ask the fore man why the floors are in such condition. He reports on all conditions. We do have slippery floors in some places.
Mr. I. MacNulty: That problem used to bother us and was considered serious. We met that this way in one mill. We analyzed every room that had accidents on floors. We found 29 per cent of them were due to slippery floors.
Mr. Everett F. King: Where we had large aisles we asked the assis tants to scrub one-half of the aisle at a time, keeping the other half
t
1124
Twelfth Safety Congress
dry. We tried a' scrubbing- compound instead of soap. We used a com pound that left a gritty surface on the floor. It worked out fine. The scrubbers were issued instructions to use a cup full of compound to a pail of water and in that way it left the floor without this slippery film.
REPORT OF NOMINATING COMMITTEE
Mr. B. H- Self (Travelers Insurance Company):
??.????
We have picked out a slate which I will submit for your approval con sisting of the following:
Chairman, Harvey Saul. U. S. Finishing Co.. Providence. R. I.
Secretary. Grant Cook. Supervising Inspector. Travelers' Insur ance Co.
Vice-Chairman, Harvey Donald. American Mutual Liability Ins. Co.. Boston.
(The report was adopted unanimously and the secretary cast the ballot.)
' ADJOritXMENT.
Woodworking* Section
October 2, 3, 4, 1923
WALTER S. PAINE, Chairman
^;
Research Engineer, Aetna Lite Insurance Company, Hartford, Conn.
Q. E. SANFORD, Vice-Chairman
^
Safety Engineer, General Electric Company, West Lynn., Mass.
E. BOSS FARItA, Secretary
American Car and Foundry Company, Wilmington, Del.
TUESDAY AFTERNOON SESSION
HAIRMAN PAINE: During the year we have responded to a num
Cber of requests for safeguards in the woodworking industry and these
requests consist chiefly of guards for the point of operation. The saw,
jointer and shaper seem to be the three outstanding problems in the
accident prevention work of the woodworking industry as a whole.
A review of $9,000,000 of losses under Workmen's Compensation insur
ance covering the majority of industries indicates that the point of opera
tion in the woodworking Industry is one of the most prolific causes of
losses. Another fact brought out by this data is that in this industry
more than 40 per cent of the losses were directly traceable to the point
of operation on woodworking machines.
'
An accident cause code, requested by this section, has been drawn up
and submitted to the secretary, E. Ross Farra. This work was done in
conjunction with the National Council on Workmen's Compensation
Insurance. Your chairman would suggest that a committee be con
tinued next year to further review this subject if, in the minds of the
sub-committee, the code presented does not suffice.
If it is possible to run more articles in the. National Safety Neios during
the coming year on the problems of the woodworking plant I know of
no better method of Investing our time to further the work of this section.
This, however, can only be accomplished by the cooperation of the mem
bers in the Woodworking Section
;
REPORT OP SECRETARY
E. Ross Fabba
..
The records show that we secured 53 members during the last year and lost 53. We still have 345 members. If there is any one here who is not a member of the Woodworking Section, I wish you would give me your name before you go, as I would like to have you on the roll.
1125
1126
Twelfth- Safety Congress
Chairman Paine: lished its report.
The Committee on Statistical Data has already pub
As a nominating- committee for the choosing of officers for the ensuing year, I name the following: Mr. Albert Regula, chairman; Mr. J. M. Sandel, Mr. H. G. Wiberg, and Mr. Milne.
CIRCULAR SAWS AND SHAPERS
Discussion Led by C B. Auel, Employees Service Department, Wests inghouse Electric and Manufacturing Company, East Pittsburgh, Pa.
I know of no class of machinery that is so difficult to guard nor no
class of machinery in which the hazards are so deadly as that of the woodworking establishment. ' I feel today that we are about ' where we
were eight or ten years ago on punch press guarding. I recall being invited by the commissioner of labor of Pennsylvania to aid in the formu lation of a punch press code, and, after several days' deliberation, we .didn't have enough to fill two sheets of paper. It was in the past year,
largely due to the efforts of Mr. S. J. Williams, chief engineer. National Safety Council, that a well-worth-while code has been outlined, one which
a few years ago I would not have thought possible. .
-
As far as I can see we are not very far along in the safeguarding of
woodworking tools generally. I hope the same thing will happen in the
course of the next few years that has already happened in the guarding of punch press tools. I suppose the hazards are so deadly because we are dealing with extremely high speed tools, and because many of the
tools are for general purpose work. I think when youi say a tool is for general purpose work it at once brings to the mind suck a great variety
of uses it is almost impossible to devise a guard that will serve all
purposes.
\
In the development of our circular saw guard, our company has spent more than $3,000. We could have gone on the market and bought a commercial guard for not more than $50. Now we have a factory inspec tor who comes to our establishment, looks at our guards and says that they are very pretty but there are more tools that need guarding. We get no more credit, if you please, for the development of this really ingenious guard than if we had bought a $50 guard on the market. We are told that' we are to be given 35 or 60 days more to get a guard on the balance of these tools or they will have to shut ns down.
It seems to me, and the same remark applies to insurance companies, that real ingenuity in the development of guards should be recognized by a material reduction in the premiums. That may . require some ingenuity in working it out in a practical way, but I feel mistakes are being made in not encouraging the development by the various users of these tools that ingenuity which lays dormant and waits, if you please, an incentive to be brought to the surface. I don't know why the idea has not occurred to me before, but I have recently thought we would put an advertisement right on the walls of our woodworking department
Woodworking Section
1127
and call' attention to the workers that we are willing to make substan
tial awards for any suggestions that will enable us to improve our wood
working guards or offer some solution in regard to tools that we are
not able to guard at all.
(Demonstrates Circular Saw Guard.)
Mr. Milne: How would you prevent a kick-back on the long piece?
' Mr. Auel: X have never heard of anybody getting hurt from a backkick in our work.
Mr. Mason (The Packard Company): With the guard over the top of the saw you rarely get a back-kick. A back-kick occurs mostly from the object dropping on the top of the saw.
Mr. Freudenrich (James Elgar Insurance Co.): If you mounted that on separate pedestals it would affect the tipping table, Would it not?
Mr. Auel: table tilted.
You see it would not work if this were upright and the
Secretary Farra: too heavy ?
Do you ever have the complaint that the guard is
Mr. Auel: We originally did have the complaint that the guard was too heavy, so instead of making the centerpiece outside of wood we made it out of what we call macada. It is really a series of sheets of paper that are held together by a form of shellac, packed under heavy, pressure, which makes the nose very light. The blades we have made of aluminum.
kick-back
Mr. Goodspeed: I would like to bring out one principle you have not emphasized in connection with the kick-back. If you have the splitter, you have practically eliminated the possibility of kick-hack.
. Mr. Auel: The point was brought up that it might occur due to meet ing a knot before the hoard reached the splitter. The splitter does tend to prevent the pinching of the board on the saw.
Mr. J. F. Middleton (General Electric Company, Pittsfield Works): Have you ever tried that on cross-cut work?
Mr. Auel: It is merely a "rip saw. We have another saw guard for our cross-cut saws, that is our traveling cross-cut saws. I have one more safeguard. I am not so positive as to the merits of this as I am of our circular saw guard, because it is quite new. It is a shaper guard.
(Demonstrates shaper guard.) Secretary Farra: How would you operate that where you didn't .use a'guide? Mr. Auel: You can't devise a guard that will answer every require ment. That makes the woodworking hazards really more deadly than any other class of hazards that exist.
WEDNESDAY MORNING SESSION
Chairman Paine: It gives me great'pleasure to introduce Mr. John D.
Thompson, Chief Engineer of the Travelers' Insurance'Company.
'
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Twelfth, Safety Congress
.
HOW TO ORGANIZE FOR SAFETY IN A WOOD WORKING PLANT
John
.. Thompson, Superintendent, Engineering and Inspection Division. Travelers Insurance Go., Hartford, Conn.
A safety organization in a woodworking plant so far as I have been able
to observe is not unlike a safety organization in any other kind of manu
facturing plant. Every organization has its individualities, but it has
been my observation that these variations are not in any way due to dif
ferent products and processes. As a rule any individuality is the result
of ideas of the members of the safety organization and follows their con
ception of how the best results can be obtained in their plant.
,
Nearly every industry of any size has a woodworking department- Here
in a small way we find the same machines, the same class of work and the
same general equipment that we find in the plant engaged exclusively in
woodworking operations. The members of this small woodworking de
partment in the average industry are usually found to be active members
of the organization for safety of the entire plant. This is proof in itself,
if indeed any proof is necessary, that woodworking establishments are
susceptible to organization for safety. I feel, then, that. this paper
should cover the subject of organized safety In a broader sense and I
will attempt to deal with fundamental principles that can be applied
in any kind of plant.
THE FUNDAMENTALS OF SAFETY ORGANIZATION
First, safety must be on an organized basis. The head of the concern must believe this and be willing to back his belief with personal effort. He must recognize this fact by creating a department in his organization for safety work.
Second, the whole-hearted cooperation of every executive, foreman and supervisor in the plant should be obtained at a special meeting for foremen only, at which time the principles of the organization work and its purposes should be explained in detail by the management.
Third, enlist the whole-hearted cooperation of all employees. Fourth, a safety inspector must be appointed who has mechanical ability and the faculty of getting along with other men. Fifth, the work must he followed up continuously and insistently. Let us take up these fiv'e points in detail.
First, safety work must be organized. When I use the word "organ ized" I mean all that the word Implies. It is not enough to have a safety committee, and inspecter, and other outward requisites of a Safety Organization. It is not sufficient that the head of a concern give his permission to the starting of a safety organization and it does not suffice that his instructions are carried out in the establishment of the various committees unless this organization has the full support of the management. Each one of the various units and activities which constitute a real live safety organization must be coordinate before effective results are obtained. The safety department, because a depart ment it should be, should interest the manager just as much as any
Woodworking Section
1129
other department in his plant organization and. as such it would be
required that proper reports be laid before some executive at regular
intervals showing what progress has been made in the way of plant improvements, in the way of educating employees and finally in the way of accident reduction. A safety organization not established along this line may do some good. Personally, I feel that any kind of organization does some good, but to accomplish the maximum results it Is necessary to give the organized safety work full recognition as an integral part of the manufacturing organization.
StTPPOBT OF IMT-AJNrAGEMENT ESSENTIAL
The question may be asked--what more can the head of a plant do than to give his approval and see that a suitable safety inspector is appointed and that committees are formed as required by the presentday organization plans? He can do this: He can by word of mouth at a meeting of the foremen impress upon them the importance of saving the life and limb of every employee of the plant. No other work that this executive could do would be more important, not only to the em ployees of that establishment but to the concern itself, whether you look at it from a monetary or a humanitarian point of view. He should emphasize in his discussion of the subject with the foremen that he is going to hold every one of them responsible not only for pro duction In his particular department but also for the accidents that are caused by this production. If, in his discussion he also indicates that he intends to keep in touch with the safety movement through the various channels open to him and as time goes on indicates that he has kept in touch, with the things that are going on in the plant, he will do much towards keeping alive the interest that the first meeting estab lishes. Every foreman will then have a message to deliver to the em ployees Under his supervision. A typewritten announcement of the intention of the concern and soliciting the cooperation of every em ployee in the plant might advantageously be; used by being posted con spicuously on bulletin boards in the plant. Such. a letter should be signed by no less a person than the president of the concern or by some one recognized at the head of the local plant organization.
I can cite one particular incident affecting a very large concern. Tl* buildings and machinery of this particular concern were practically 100% perfect as regards physical condition. All machines that were susceptible to guarding were guarded and the guards maintained, but still the accident experience was disastrous. A safety organization had been provided, but as far as effective work was concerned, it was of indifferent character.
It could be seen that the failure of the organization was the lack of personal Interest In its work by the head of the concern. I interviewed him in an effort to sell to him his personal interest in the safety department. He said to me, "I have appointed' committees and they are functioning. I have appointed a safety engineer. I have done all that I can, what more do you want?" I told him that I wanted his real
1130
Twelfth Safety Congress
personal interest and -his Immediate reply was that he felt that he had given his personal Interest when he had appointed the committees and spent the company's money on safety inspections. I then asked him as to whether or not he had ever called the committees together, together with all the foremen and superintendents in the plant, and adressed them personally on the subject of safety, informing them in no uncertain terms that he was deeply interested in safety work, that he was going to . get behind it personally and financially, that he wanted the cooperation of every one of his assistants, that he was going to make it his personal business to see that accidents were stopped. He admitted that he had never taken sufficient interest in the matter to do this and my next question was a direct one--"Will you do it?" "If you take a real per sonal interest in the safety- work in your plant, the organization will
be an unqualified success. If you don't, it will never be a success." He agreed to do this. A meeting was immediately arranged and you may well believe that the attitude of the entire safety organization was changed in that plant from then on.
TIIE PERSONAE TOUCH TIIKOUGH THE FOREMAN
Second, in the old days It was possible tax the owner to know every
workman by his first name. He knew something about the home affairs
of John and Dick and Bill, and through his contact and his personal
touch with the men, he often controlled conditions which today must
of necessity be delegated to others.' The man nearest approaching
the old time employer who knew his employees so well is the foreman. The foreman, as a rule, is a man with recognized experience in con ducting the work of his department. In the average plant, it is also nec
essary for the foreman to have another ability; namely, to understand men and get along with them. The influence of the average foreman
over the employees under his supervision is seldom over-estimated. What
better course could therefore be followed in starting a safety organ
ization than to get the foremen together?
_
As a first step in this direction at this foremen's meeting, the subject might well we approached, not as a decided issue for them to follow c^ut hut rather as a matter that Is up for discussion. Far better results are obtained where men are asked for an opinion as to the advisability of doing a certain thing rather than being told to. do It. There is no question in my mind as to the decision of any representative body of foremen if the question is put up to them as to whether or not a safety organization should be established in a given plant. Through our organization, we have seen many instances where the subject has actually been put to vote, the results invariably being unanimous in favor of such activities. Assume, then, that the matter has been so presented to tbe foremen of any plant. Assume again, if you please, that their action has been favorable such as our experience would in dicate. You can readily understand that the responsibility for the success of the organization has practically been transferred from the management to the foremen at this meeting. When I say transferred.
Woodworking Section
1131
I do not mean that the management, should shift the burden from their shoulders to the shoulders of the foremen, but there is a certain psycho logical effect in having the foremen in leaving the meeting feel that the safety organization has been established according to his wishes and that he Is therefore In duty bound to support that organization and see that its objective Is reached.
The next step would be the appointment of a committee of foremen to perform one of the duties as required by the Safety Organization plan generally recognized. This can be done either by the management, the superintendent, or, in my opinion, a still better plan is to let the foremen themselves elect their first representatives on the committee. It should be made dear to the foremen, however, that by process of rotation they will all eventually serve on this committee and some of them will perhaps be called to serve a second and perhaps a third time.
LEADEItSHIP AJJD TEAM WORK
Third, cooperation of employees. During the world war, Kipling said that the war could not be won without "The team work of every bloomin' soul." 'The men must be taught to consider personal safety. You immediately say *"Yes, but how can .we teach them?"- And, the first and most important answer Is "personal experience," in other words, "practice what you preach." Most of us can remember that we have done things which we should not have done, yet, we all know by oral or by press reports or by plain sense that the very: thing we did has caused accidents to others. The feeling that accidents happen to other people but not to me is a considerable factor in the cause of accidents. When the management make an effort to educate the men along safety lines and each man thinks that this applies to his neighbor
and not to himself, he listens with little sympathy to a safety talk, but
says to himself "Some of the boys have been having accidents lately and they had better be careful," but he refuses to accept the advice for himself. Few of us believe, unless it Is instilled in us by some higher authority, that it is any of our business to look out for our neighbor as well as ourselves and help him to escape an accident. Perhaps the most effective way to reach the men is for them to realize that the head of the concern and all his immediate subordinates, including, of course, all the safety committees, are keeping their eyes and ears open and their wits sharpened, to be ready to help and to prevent accidents.
It seems almost inconceivable that an organization could exist in a plant and yet certain employees not know of It. Where such organ izations exist, and I can assure you that they are many, one very im portant step In the organization plan has been overlooked. The main purpose of organizations for safety is to protect employees against the hazards of the industry. It is just as important to protect a man against his own carelessness as it is against the carelessness of others. In fact, it is even more important. If a safety movement in the plant will help to do this, what is more important than to acquaint the employee with the work which the management and foremen have decided to undertake?
1132
Twelfth Safety Congress
How can. the desired results be obtained without the employee--the patient as you might call him--or at least the subject of all these activities, knowing what is going on and lending hla cooperation to the movement?
The failure of many organizations in my estimation is due to the fact that there is too much secrecy about what is going on inside so far as safety organization is concerned. It is not a secret society. It is intended for the workman, so take him into your confidence, tell him as much as possible about safety. Keep the subject before him con stantly so that his ideas as to safe practice may be incorporated in the plan of the organization, as sooner or later you will need the practical man's viewpoint of every exposure. I do not mean to infer by this that the foreman is impractical, but I wish to leave the impression that the safety inspector who has been appointed may be very competent mechanically, but it is the man who lives with the job, who works with it day in and day out who actually knows the fine points that go forward toward making up the accident record. To get this suggestion from the workman, it is necessary that he knows what is going on, that he knows what the management is desirous of accomplishing through the safety, organization of the plant, so b.e sure to tell him about it and keep telling him.
Qt-AI.IKJCATIOXS OK A SAFKTV IXSPECTOK
Fourth, it does not always follow because the man selected for the important position of safety inspector is a very competent mechanic that he is the proper man to take charge of the weekly inspection work of a plant. It requires more than mere mechanical ability. In the first place, the man must have one outstanding ability. He must be able to get along with his fellow employees, not necessarily by means ~ of joking or being a good story teller--he must be more than this. He must have the respect of every man in the plant. He must be sympathetic, for if he is to receive suggestions of any value, he must listen to many ideas that are new to him and which a the moment appear to be absurd. It can readily be seen that if he ridiculed these suggestions making it apparent to the individual bringing them to his attention, he would not only lose the respect of that individual but would forever eliminate the possibility of' receiving any further sug gestions from him and possibly from any of his friends. His outstanding virtue should therefore be patience.
He must be analytical, as a good safety inspector will discover a hazard before it causes an accident. Any one can point to a hazard after there has been an accident. He must have inventive ability in order to overcome problems in guarding physical exposures. He must have foresight in order to avoid .accidents that can be foreseen. All these qualifications and many are necessary in a good inspector, and you men who have come in contact with them know that I am not exaggerating actual qualifications of men whom you know personally. Yet many men who have very little in common with a man such as 1
Woodxvorhing Section
1133
have just described are selected as safety inspectors. Is it any wonder, then, that the safety inspector does not succeed or does not in any event obtain, the maximum benefits?
Another qualification which I have not mentioned at all is illustrated by the following incident which is taken from our personal experience. The inspector asked that a rail be placed at a point which he thought was particularly dangerous on a construction job. The superintendent on the job agreed to place a rail at that point "when he could get to it" but was unwilling to do it immediately. The superintendent was of the rough and ready type common in heavy building construction in larger cities and the inspector apparently lacked the nerve to be' in sistent that the rail be placed at once. Ten days later a man was killed at that point. There is no question but had the rail been In stalled the life of this man would have been saved.
* KEEPING AT IT WINS
Fifth, following up continuously. The mortality of infant safety organizations is very high. While any new organized effort must be followed up, whether it refers to safety or anything else. It is par ticularly important in safety work to keep the enthusiasm that is created at the start constantly alive. One phase of safety organization work that Is different from most other organization work is that once
this enthusiasm has died, it is practically necessary to start the whole
thing over again In order to make the organization a success. The man agement, therefore, has a very important duty in carrying out this fifth fundamental. It is important that some official make it a rule that the plant be inspected every week and that the weekly report be on his desk at a certain hour on a certain day. It is important that this executive sees that the safety committees meet on a given day and hour each month and that suitable records of these activities be brought to his attention at, a predetermined time. A proper organization will charge the inspector with the posting of bulletins throughout the plant and see that these are changed regularly. It will charge this individual and sometimes the committee with the prompt investigation of every accident so that a record thereof may be incorporated in the minutes of the meeting' and in the report that goes before the executive. The
safety inspector and the community will share jointly the responsibility of arranging for periodical talks to employees, following up the main tenance department on compliance with approved recommendations. All of these are a part of the follow-up system which in order to get results must be on an organized basis so that each member of the com mittee, as well as the plant inspector, will know what is required, of him.
MECHANICAL GCAKDING SHOWS SINCERITY'
While it is not necessary for a plant in order to start safety organization work to have every mechanical exposure guarded, it is evidence of the earnestness and seriousness with which the management has under taken this work. It should be remembered, however, that organized
1134
Twelfth) Safety Congress
safety goes hand in hand with, physical guarding of the plant. A. real organization should develop recommendations for protection of mechan ical exposures and in addition offer many valuable suggestions, of which experience can prove the necessity. In short, every employer should see that guarding of physical exposures is made an important part of the safety work! of the organization during its first year as during that time most of the physical exposure should be taken care of.
One state recently gave consideration to the passing of a law which would require the establishing of a safety organization in every plant in the. state. The growing tendency of state and federal authorities to pass laws regulating men in their action and their very living shows how important organized safety is considered by certain in dividuals. They have not, in my opinion, over-estimated the importance of organized safety work. How much better then is it to realize the importance of such activities and to make legislation along this line unnecessary by establishing a real active safety organization in every plant represented at this gathering?
EDUCATION THROUGH ORGANIZATION
`
We have found that safety organization work is the best means of approaching accident prevention in any plant'. In fact. In some plants and for some type of accidents it is the only means of approach. I have reference particularly to plants where the mechanical equipment is light and where practically all accidents produced by miscellaneous hazards such as falling objects, slipping, tripping and cutting, resulting in scratches, bruises, etc. An analysis of'many thousands of accidents has shown that the ratio of accidents of this kind is high. In some in dustries it runs as high as 90 per cent. Accidents of this kind cannot be prevented by the application of mechanical safeguards and the. only way to control them at all, is through organized safety. It can readily be seen then that while mechanical guards will control or eliminate accidents on the individual exposure, the safety organization affects accidents of every description and cause, as even though a mechanical safeguard is applied it takes the safety organization to keep the guard in position and see that it is faithfully used by the employee. A safety organization's greatest field Is in the large percentage of accident causes in every plant due to the miscellaneous hazards.
An interesting case showing the beneficial effect of safety organization
work was called to our attention recently. A certain large woodworking
plant employed a doctor to take care of their accidents, a very large
number of which occurred every month. A safety organization was
started a short time afterwards and unintentionally no mention was
made of it to the doctor. The reduced number of accidents materially
affected the work of the doctor who was engaged and he finally called
on the head of the concern to find out whether or not some other
surgeon had been employed. He then learned that an honest-to-good-
goodness safety organization had been started, - and that was why-the
accidents had been practically eliminated.
....
. . Woodworking Section
1135
A MOEAL OBLIGATION
"
Finally, tlie establishment of 'a safety organization gives the heads of concerns an opportunity to carry out certain moral obligations to the men. It gives them a tool whereby they can see to it that care Is exercised in the preventing of accidents. A manufacturer who favors production above safety and who says that accidents are inherent to his business and must be assumed by the man who works on the Job is no longer an up-to-date employer. A man is a responsible animal; he is the only responsible animal! The boy, as a youngster realizes the responsibility of protecting his sister. When the boy realizes his responsibility of kingship he then begins to realize his responsibility toward the man he works with. When you get down to the bottom, we are all one family. We are responsible for one another. But the tendency is for every man to do his own little bit of work, attend to his own business, ran his own machine or his own automobile, abso lutely indifferent to the welfare and safety of others. It behooves every manufacturer, then to see that the men in his employ are given every opportunity to avoid the hazards of their work which not only includes the application of recognized safeguards "for the mechanical exposures but the real live active organization, the purpose of which is to reduce industrial accidents to a minimum.
SAFE LAYOUT AND EQUIPMENT FOR THE * WOODWORKING PLANT
-A. S. Kdeejiajs, Oliver Machinery Company, Grand Rapids, Mich.
The subject may be divided into two general headings: first, plant lay out or building arrangement, and second, equipment or machinery for the manufacture and conveyance of the product in the plant, taking Into consideration the layout of the building, the arrangement, the shape and the kind of plant conveyors according to the amount'of production, the methods of growth and the geographical location of the plant.
.
PLANT LAYOUT
First, the main entrance should be level, without steps and with ample
open, space on either side of the entrance. You don't want your men to take any chances when entering or leaving the plant.
Second, wide aisles or passageways should lead to the different depart
ments and these aisles should be marked on each side with, white lines, to- guide.the men to walk automatically within those lines and to induce employees to keep their material out of that aisle.
Third, on inclines, stairs and slippery places,- non-skid treads should be
provided.
Fourth, passageways should be well lighted. This important factor in safety is often overlooked. I have seen many passageways in manufac
turing plants where a person just entering could hardly see his way until
his eyes became accustomed to the dim light.
1136
Twelfth. Safety Congress
Fifth, straight line progress or manufacture should be followed. Work
out a schbme whereby your raw material enters the factory at one end
passing through each department in succession and emerges as the fin
ished product at the other end. This plan is practicable if you have a
one-floor factory. If the building has more than one floor devoted to
the manufacturing process, the material in process should then pass to
the second floor, working back to the original end and so on, through
as many floors as are devoted to the production of the article. On any
floors the material should move one way, forward. Many will regard
this plan as an impossible ideal, but it can be accomplished by well-
directed study and effort. Safer and more efficient production will be
the result.
Si&th, the layout of all equipment and machinery should be such that
there is no possibility of any machine being in the way of the operator
of another machine. For example, if you have a hand planer and jointer
in one location, see to it that no other machine is placed directly back
of it or in front. In case of any accident in connection with this machine
the man ahead or behind it will not get hurt.
'
-
Seventh, a sufficient number of lavatories and drinking fountains should
be installed in the plant to prevent employees walking about more than
is necessary. If men are kept in their own departments at work, or close
to their departments, it will prevent many accidents due to walking back
and forth.
Eighth, elevator shafts and chutes for the transportation of material
from floor to floor should have automatic closing gates or doors. Stair
ways might be included here. Many a stairway is located so that the
passer-by might accidently fall through.
Ninth, in large plants several gates with time clocks should be pro
vided to minimize the rush at the gates. There should be about one gate
for every hundred employees.
Tenth, ample room should be allowed around each machine,' not only
for safe operation, but for the transportation of raw material and the
disposal of the finished product from the machine. When you put in a
machine, consider not only the floor space for the machine itself, but
space for a fat employee who might operate it some day. Moreover there
will be trucks going back and forth past the machine.
Eleventh, for each floor or department a wide central aisle with the
machinery on either side is generally preferable to placing the machin
ery in the center with a narrower aisle on each side.
Twelfth, first aid stations should be provided for each department with
approved first aid equipment and supplies. Often it is a difficult job
to find the box and then to find the man who has the key. In laying out
the plant, provision should be made for first aid stations near each of
the main departments.
.
X'LAKT EQUIPMENT
Transportation in most woodworking plants is done by trucks. Be sure no truck in your plant is overloaded and no truck has projecting handles or sides which drop down and cause a man to trip over them.
Woodworking Section
1137
If possible, use trucks that will not be self-starting with a load if they
happen to be placed on a floor "with a slight incline. A new truck, known
as the elevator truck, is being introduced In many of the larger plants. With it the load of lumber can be taken to the machine, a double surface
planer for example. The operator takes the boards from the truck and
feeds them to the machine. As it comes out of the machine, it Is picked
up by the helper and placed on another truck. The elevator on the first truck raises as the lumber is taken from it and the one at the other end
lowers as the planed boards are loaded, keeping both trucks at the level
of the machine. With this equipment there is no danger of a pile of
lumber dropping on some one.
The term "working- equipment" is applied to everything used in the
transformation of the raw lumber to the finished product--cutting, plan
ing, shaping, moulding, routing, mortising, tenoning, boring, clamping,
gluing, sanding, finishing, etc.--all machines which operate on any part of
the raw material .through to its finished product state.
There are three varieties of guards for the "working equipment" of any woodworking plant; first, the safe shape of the operating or cutting unit;
second, guards which serve as a warning to the operator and, third,
guards for the appurtenances of the machine. An example of the first type is the circular safety cylinder head, which -
was introduced in 1908. The introduction of this type of cutting head
has done much for the prevention of accidents and even now it is re
garded as the best guard imaginable. The old square heads should be
discarded, no matter how much' old employees may praise them.
The next type of guard is that of a warning to the operator. These
are recommended by insurance companies and safety commissions, but
are objected to by managers who say, "What is the use of my buying it?
The man won't use it." That objection is not tenable. If the manager is a big enough man for bis job, tbe workmen will use the guard. Present
day guards, however, do not interfere with production and many a worker
does not realize that they are on the machine; hence you should insist on
having all of your machines equipped with "warning guards."
,
"Guards for the appurtenances" consist of guards for the belt and
pulley, the countershaft and other equipment for power transmission. This problem is of minor importance because the up-to-date woodwork
ing plant is going to be a beltless plant. There is scarcely a manufac
turer of woodwprking machinery who is not actively interested in build
ing safety into his equipment, and this means the elimination of the
ordinary power plant. From the safety consideration, we have the gen
erator to take the place of the old Corliss engine. Electric wires take
the place of belts. Push button control is succeeding the belt shifter. Climbing a ladder to oil or lubricate shafting is becoming a thing of the
past.
THURSDAY MORNING SESSION
Chairman Paine: The first speaker on the program will be Sherwood Brockwell, of the State Insurance Department, Raleigh, North Carolina.
1138
Twelfth- Safety Congress
FIRE PROTECTION IN LUMBER YARDS AND WOODWORKING PLANTS
Shebwood Bkockweix, State Insurance Detabtment, Raleigh, N. C.
During the month of August the total loss by fire of the sta/'^'-'f North
Carolina was $81,000 and that was the lowest fire loss for a~montb we had had in 22 years. All our papers spoke of fire prevention being a success in North Carolina because the fire loss for that month was only $81,000. There was .one lumber loss amounting to $29,000 and three other lumber fires bringing the total up to $36,000 out of the $81,000.
You can't have a woodworking plant except you have a very high fire risk. You have got to have your shavings. You have got to have your dust. You have got to have your material, and a great majority of the factories throughout the country are now using veneer, which burns like tissue paper. It is no use to depend on the city fire department. Plants are often located in a small town which has a limited amount of fire protection. By the time you have turned in your fire alarm and the fire department has mobilized and reached your plant and started to work the fire among this highly flammable material has reached a point where your fire department can not effectively fight it.
I have been for 21 years a fireman myself. My advice to you, and I am not connected with any sprinkler concern in the world, is; don't depend on your fire department, don't depend on your plant department, but have that furniture plant or woodworking plant equipped with sprinklers, because it is a very good investment, and it insures every man's Job In there. You can't use the ordinary fire protection around a woodworking plant in the South, because the average worker there is not the kind of man who has the interest of the plant at hearts He listens for the. whistle to blow.
REDUCING THE COST OF "POINT OF OPERATION" ACCIDENTS
H. G. Wibebg, Chief Engineer akb Underwriter, Dumber Mutual Casualty Insurance Company, of New York, New York City
This means that insurance engineers, in recommending the installation of safeguards can inform the employer or his representative that the amount of rate reduction he will obtain for a certain hazard so guarded reflects the proportion of the total losses in his industry that the pai'ticuiar hazard in question has actually been found to cause. Employers have often questioned the property of values assigned to items in previous schedules and in the absence of statistical data to back up those values, the explanation was not .always satisfactory. In addition, the new schedule, because of its statistical foundation, will be of great value through the stimulus and accurate guidance given to accident prevention work.
While I am not here to discuss in any detail this new system, which is called the Industrial Compensation Rating Schedule--1923, it is necessary for the purpose of my talk to indicate briefly and in general the method used to measure the accident hazards of the individual plant.
Woodworking Section,
1139
The schedule is prepared by comparing the guarded conditions o the individual plant with the average guarded conditions of all plants in the industry. We have determined the average guarded conditions from the indications of approximately 30,000 inspection reports covering a large part of the country. The data, therefore, covers a broad exposure and does not simply reflect conditions peculiar to one locality or one state. Then from the loss and cause data, we. have determined the proportion of the total losses (and that corresponds to the proportion of the rates), which each item of the schedule, such as elevators, transmission, machine driving devices, other machine parts and point of operation has caused.
Thus, we know two things--(1) the average amount of guarding for any hazard in each industry, and (2) the amount of rate represented by that hazard. These rpight appropriately be termed "The Standards of Comparison."
Next, by actual inspection, the guarded condition of the particular
plant being rated is determined. If that plant is found to be guarded to
the same extent as the average 62>all plants, then the amount of rate
for such a plant is the same as the standard amount of rate assigned to
each item, as determined from the loss cost data: In other words, being
the same as the average plant, the average rate applies: If, however,
the plant is better guarded than the average, then the amount of rate
assigned is less than the standard amount for each item in accordance
with the proportion that it is guarded better than the average. Con versely, If it is not guarded as well as the ayerage, then the rate cost
assigned for each item is proportionately increased above the standard
amount for each item of hazard.
.
These standard amounts of rate cost for the different hazards covered
by the schedule vary greatly and naturally the greatest one indicates the
best point of attack to prevent .accidents, reduce losses and- in that way,
reduce the rates. Using the indication in that way, guess work is
eliminated and the greatest rate effect obtained in the quickest way and with least expenditure. The spot light is thrown directly on the very
heart of the problem.
.-
Poiht of Ofebatiott Has Highest Rate Pebcentage
The highest rate cost percentages are assigned' to the point of opera tion hazard. By point of operation, we mean that place or part on the machine where the stock is put through. Depending on the machine and industry, it may be a sawing operation, moulding operation, metal stamp ing operation, metal drawing. operation, calendering operation, and a host of others. And while the highest values are found in the case of the point of operation item for all industries, they are particularly and notably high in the case of the woodworking Industry. In that industry, on a total loss cost of almost $1,000,000.00, the point of operation acci dents alone account for 44.8 per cent of the total.
Out of the same total cost of almost $1,000,000 for all accidents in the industry, those due to all transmission conditions; such as belts, chains.
1140
Tivelfth, Safety Congress
ropes, gears, friction drives, and so on, amount to only 3.1 per cent. I mention this fact to show by comparison, the importance and significance to us of the point of operation hazard.
Those two items account for approximately 50 per cent of the total loss cost. Of the remainder, over 40 per cent represents, in the main, the kind of accidents which cannot be prevented by mechanical safeguards, accidents which are governed and controlled almost entirely by the em ployees and actions of the worker himself. Such accidents can only oe prevented by education. In addition, this remainder or residue, as It is termed, also includes' some accidents due to mechanical causes. The losses caused are, however, so infinitesimal in amount that they do not merit individual consideration, amounts for instance, such as 1/10 of one per cent and less of the total losses.
That leaves approximately 10 per cent which is allocated to several items, such as elevators, driving mechanisms of machines, moving parts of machines excluding point of operation, eye protection and so on.
Now the figure of 44.8 per cent is the average for all woodworking industries. What are the figures for the principal types of woodworking plants? In connection with the figures which I will give, it is interest ing to note the proportion of the cost of all accidents on machines which the point of operation alone represents. .
First, we will take sash, door, blind and interior trim mills. The point of operation alone caused 60 per cent of the total loss cost in the indus try--more than half, and of the losses occurring on all parts of machines, the point of operation amounted to 86 per cent of the total.
in the case of planing and moulding mills, the figures are 44 per cent of the total losses in the industry for point of operation and 96 per cent of all the machine accidents.
The furniture manufacturing figures are 53 per cent and 97 per cent respectively."
Coming to another broad spread industry, box manufacturing, we find 5T per cent and S7 per cent for the two figures.
Piano manufacturing, a refined woodworking operation, developed fig ures of 45 per cent and 9S per cent respectively.
I should perhaps point - out at this point that none of the losses for these Industries include sawmill operations. They are always separated. For saw mills alone the figures are 42 per cent and 88 per cent.
These figures. I think you will agree, convincingly set up and establish the point of operation hazard as the greatest single accident producing factor in woodworking plants. Naturally, in building a system for meas uring the accident hazards in those plants, the insurance companies had to allocate a large proportion of the rate to this factor. They reasoned that If the serious losses are caused by this item, their elimination or the reduction of these hazards in the individual plant must eliminate accidents and a large part of the loss cost. Following that reasoning to its natural conclusion, the plant that does guard that dangerous point
Woodworking Section
1141
is distinctly better than the average and, therefore, entitled to a much better rate than, the average plant. The schedule Is accordingly arranged
to give large rate reductions for plants with the point of operation well guarded.
The provision of point of operation guards has another far reaching effect on rates. The rating system now in existence in almost every compensation state, includes a method of rate modification, which is termed, "Experience Rating." That may be briefly described as a com
parison of the accident loss cost of the individual plant with the average for the industry. Where the loss cost is lower than the average, that plant obtains a reduction of the rate which has been established by the measurement of the physical plant hazard. Where that loss cost is higher, the plant rate is increased. Of course, the more favorable the divergence from the average, the greater the reduction.
Therefore, the employer who guards his point of operation, in accord ance with the standards of the schedule, will receive a substantial' reduc tion in his plant rate for doing that. That safeguarding is going to bring his loss cost below the average, securing him another substantial credit from his plant rate credit. On the other hand, lack of such safety work increases the plant rate above the average and the lack = of guarding causes the loss cost to run above the average, so that the increased rate for plant conditions is again increased.
In other words, safeguarding the point of operation safeguards the rates, or what is the same thing, of course the premiums, by the two greatest factors which can affect it. It is obvious, therefore, that it is
distinctly worth while for woodworking plants to concentrate and spe
cialize on the point of operation.
RATIJiG Of PLANTS
'
Let. us get right down to the practical side of the proposition by con sidering a specific case or two. I have in mind one which came to my
attention recently and which represents the rating of a plant in operation
in New Jersey, manufacturing furniture.
This plant has 43 machines. Now the schedule differentiates between the different types of machines in the order of their hazard, assigning
a certain weight to each one to represent the hazard when totally unguarded. The order of hazard was determined from the analysis of loss cost data previously mentioned which showed the first three in order of danger to be circular saws. Jointers and band saws. It then assigns
a weight to each machine to represent the amount of hazard removed by
aguarding it. The difference between these two weights represents cer
tain amount of hazard, which I think you will agree, is present even after
being guarded due to various causes, such as failure to use the guard at
times, accidents while setting up when, of' course, guard can not be used and inability to use the guard at times because of special nature or size of stock. Some machines are considered to have two points of operation, where, for instance, two operators can work at the same time. Such a
1142
Twelfth* Safety Congress
machine Is a shaper. In this plant there are a couple of such nadtoa.
so that the number of points of operation is 45, although there are forty-
three machines.
These respective weights were assigned in this plant and it was tomstA
that the total weight of the machines unguarded was 140 point#. T%e
weighted value of the hazard removed by guards actually installed was
zero, because there were no. guards. The difference between these two
values, namely, 140, divided by the number of points of operation, 45, and:
this Quotient multiplied by the value assigned to the point of operation
in this industry--namely, 25.2 per cent, results in a figure of 78.4. That
is the percentage of the rate for this plant represented by the point of
operation hazard as the plant stands.
'
Now suppose that all of the machines were guarded. Then the weighed
value removed by guarding would be 69- and the point of operation part
of the rate would be represented by the figure 39.8. This is obtained by
subtracting 69, the weight removed by guarding, from 140, the .total
Jtnguarded weight, dividing by the number of points of operation, 45, and
multiplying by the value assigned to this item; namely, 25.2.
That is,
if all the points of operation were guarded, the rate value for that sec
tion would be 39.8 per cent instead of 78.4 per cent. Guarding the point
of operation, therefore, would reduce the rate for this plant 38.6 per. cent,
and as the average or manual rate for furniture manufacturing in New
Jersey is practically $1.50, this plant will pay 38 per cent of $1.50 or
57c more than if they guarded the point of operation. On a payroll of
$30,000.00 per year, that means ait additional premium of $150.00 a year.
And the experience backed up the plant conditions, as there is a charge
of 17 per cent for that rating. The record shows two serious accidents
which are without much question dismemberments occurring at the point
of operation. I cannot state that positively, because the accidents oc
curred during the coverage of another insurance company.
The combined effect of plant rating and experience rating increases the
average rate 76 cents or almost exactly 50 per cent.
Just the reverse of this situation is presented by a large box manufac
turing plant in the State of New York. The majority of their machines
have the points of operation guarded and they have been for some time. The experience of the plant or their previous accident record, has re flected the prevention of accidents, due to their guarding. The combined result is a rate and a premium, which is exactly 40 per cent of the aver age or manual rate. That plant has a payroll of about $200,000 a year. The manual rate is 4.5 per cent, so that they are saving annually the sum of $5,400.00, obtained as follows: The premium at the average rate of 4.5 per cent per $100.00 of payroll would be 2,000 times $4.50 or $9,000.00. Their rate is 60 per cent below, so that they save 60 per cent of $9,000.00 or $5,400.00. That ought to buy a number of guards, pay for the time of someone to follow up the safety work and leave a worth while sum over.
Now what about these figures? What do they mean? To me they represent a challenge to the woodworking industry. Employers are com-
Woodworking Section
1143
plaining of the cost of insurance and in many cases of compensation, and
employer's liability insurance in particular. Do not these figures-point
to a clear and definite method' of reducing materially that item of over
head? Statistics indicate that the premium in New York State alone for.
woodworking plants amounts to over $1,000,000 a year. If all of the wood
workers were to get together, they could reduce the overhead by 30 per
cent, as a conservative figure that would be a saving, of $300,000 per
year for them.
:
These figures should stimulate the safety engineer, the manufacturer
of safety devices and the concerns placing those devices on the market.
The important savings that can be made will secure for the safety
engineer the interest and attention of the employer. The same consid
eration will add great force to the selling argument of the guard manu
facturers and dealers.
And finally the employee. He will, as a result of the new and enlarged
importance of the point of operation hazard, be called on more and more'
ofto use guards for that point
the machine hazard. To save himself
immeasurable pain and humiliation--the result of accidents--he should
cooperate and use every practical and effective guard provided. Em
ployees' organizations may well advise their members to cooperate in
that way, as one of their avowed purposes is to provide and secure safe
working places for the workman.
.
The methods of actually securing the installation of these points of
operation guards and thus obtaining the much desired reduction in insur
ance cost and the prevention of accidents, do not come within the scope
of this discussion, but I do want to say that it is possible to guard prac
tically the entire point of operation hazard in our woodworking plants.
ofIt has been done in more than one. The attainment
that situation
generally, appears to me to depend on the active interest and coopera
tion of the employer, the ingenuity and persistence of the safety engineer,
the education, interest and application of the present day workmen, and
offinally, the training and direction
the coming generation of workers
anso that the use of safeguards will be
ingrained habit, and second
nature with them every moment of their working time.
DISCUSSION
Mr. G. H. Pearce (William Heinrich's Sons Co., Buffalo, N. Y.): How can you guard the point of operation on the saw doing cross-cutting when the saw travels and the table travels? Will It give you credit if you put a splitter back of the saw, or must you guard the saw too?
Mr, Wiberg: That brings up a Question which has often been brought up, that is, the proposition of a partial credit. That would be almost entirely a matter of judgment, and one in which there would be great conflict between the engineer who considers the question and the people who would be invited to participate in that consideration. It would com plicate immensely the work of inspection of plants and also the rating of plants. We may get to that some time when we can get statistics for indicating the accidents that occur on saws which have a partial guard.
1144
Twelfth* Safety Congress
such, as those suggested by Mr. Pearce, the accidents which occur on
saws that have a complete guard, and the accidents which occur on saws
that have not any guard whatever. Until we get a fund of information
of that character, it will be almost impossible to assign any partial
credits with any reasonable degree of accuracy.
'
Mr. Jones (Surety Guard Co.): I run against this in my every-day work, more especially in the small plants. It is in connection with a guard which we class semi-automatic, which has to be raised and set to accommodate the various thicknesses of the material. If a man is run ning a' certain thickness he sets it at one inch or an inch and .one-eighth. That automatically raises and lowers and he gets as good a rating as a full rating guard. I find that in a lot of cases where the semi-automatic guard is raised up for some particular job, probably six inches above the saw or above the table, it remains in that position. The man goes away and leaves that saw. Another man comes along with probably a one-inch board to cut off. He does not take the time to lower that guard, and a serious accident* happens, or is liable to happen. In other words, he can pass his hand right through underneath that guard and cut a whole hand off. Will that class of guard get as good a rate of insurance as one that automatically rides on the material, raises and lowers auto matically?
Mr. Wiberg: That presents another aspect. According to my recol lection, the standard requires that the guard shall be in contact with work at all times. I should say that if the guard is adjusted so that itr is kept in contact with the work at all times that would meet the require ments.
Chairman Paine: As it is necessary for me to leave to go to another session, I will ask Mr. Sanford to take the chair.
(Mr. Sanford took the chair.)
.
TRAINING MACHINE OPERATORS IN SAFE METHODS
M. C. Goodsfeed, Gekeeai, Electkic CoM3?ASrr, Enas, Pa.
Where do you begin in this matter of training the operator? You must begin at the top. The operator must be influenced by his superintendent and by his foreman. You must begin by training the superintendent and the foreman.
Having trained the leaders and secured the trained leadership, the next question is the personnel. So' far as possible you should select men who are capable of being trained for the work they are to do. That causes you to analyze the job on which the man is to be placed. You should not place a slow man in a job which requires quick thinking. You can place the slow man on the job which does not require this quick action.
It seems to me that one of the largest problems which should be con sidered is the danger surrounding each individual operator, calling his attention to those points which affect his particular job. The operator on a saw does not need to know the danger of operating a punching
Woodworking Section
1145
press, and Tice versa. In connection with the training of the man you should impress upon him the need for safety as well as the need for
getting the finished product out. There are hundreds of possible causes of accidents, but every individual
operator in this plant is probably subject during his day's work to only
two-.or three or half a dozen of these probable causes. Therefore, it
seems to me that one of the largest problems which should be considered
is the danger surrounding each individual operator and calling his atten
tion to those points. In connection with the' training of the man, the
danger surrounding his own particular job should be pointed out. and impressed upon him. At the same time, do not forget that in addition
to his job there are always the accidents in regard to the stairways, exits, etc., in regard to which the plant as a whole must be trained. I
am assuming that you have a new man to be educated in the ways of your plant.
You must be everlastingly following up your work. Because you have
told a man what he should do today does not mean that you must not go back to him continuously and point out the statement which you have
previously made. He either forgets it, or through indifference or neglect
does not- carry out these directions oftentimes. In either case, 'the get ting of a safety habit across with those older fellows is often a matter
of constant repetition.
Another thing I believe you should consider and that is to know the
home conditions of your employee. The employee is influenced by his
home conditions. He is influenced by the thought, the attitude, of his children and his wife. Therefore, in spending time and money in seeing
that safety is put across from the standpoint of the home, you are edu
cating your employee to think and act safely. More than that, the chil dren of today are the employees of tomorrow, and if they have" this impressed upon them as children they will retain it as employees.
REPORT OF NOMINATING COMMITTEE
Mr. Wiberg: The nominating committee desires to present the follow- .
ing names:
-
Mr. G. E. Sanford, chairman;
. Mr. E. Boss Parra, vice-chairman;
H. G. Wiberg, secretary.
(Motion made, seconded and carried to accept the report.)
A DJOURNMENT.
INDEX
A. B. C. Session: Minutes, 1X9-146.
'
Accident reports, see Report forms.
Accidents--Costs:. "Accidents In the ice and refrigera
tion industry . and their cost"
(Hero), 484-489. Buick Motor Co. record. In "Value
of accident ' statistics on the
standard basis" (Thalner), 188 189 In "industrial safety" (Redpath),
59.
In "Bunch press hazards" (Haems),
181.
-,
Accidents, Investigations of, see In vestigation of accidents.
Accidents--Statistics: "Accidents In the ice and refrig
' eration- Industry and their cost"
(Hero), 484-489.
*
American Radiator Co. reduction
. statistics. In "Industrial safety"
(Redpath), 60-61.
Automobile accident record of Amer-
. ican cities, 803-808.
Buick Motor Co. record. In "Value
of accident statistics on the stan
dard basis" (Thalner), 188-189. Chicago Ice Producers Mutual Lia
bility- Co. Record of members
(Hitt), 489-490. Coal dust explosions. In "Powdered
coal hazards" (Jacobsen). 284.
"Compiling and using accident rec ords" (Adair). 124-131.
Cook County, 111. In "How a de
livery organization can reduce ac
cidents to the public" (Hanrahan),
490, 493-494.
Cost of accident to electric railways.
In "Obligations and opportunities
of public service companies in com munity safety" (Bowen) 943.
Cost of traffic accidents. In "Method
of study of traffic movement In
relation to traffic accident preven
tion" (Kelcey), 841.
Detroit saves 143 lives in year, 865.
Discussion on Cement company rec ords, 273-274.
Discussion on Standard method of computing accident statistics, 192
193.
Hast St. Louts Railway Co. In
"Safety principles as applied to
the individual utility" (Parsons), 360.
"Eye injuries" (Francis), 193-199.
Grade crossings. In "Careful cross
ing campaign" (Rowe), 61-63.
In "Does Safety work in the textile plant pay?" (Saul), 1116.
In "How safety activities for the children reduce accidents" (Pal
mer), 816-817; 819-820; 822.
In "How safety first penalizes the
contractor" (Schults). 310.
.
In "Human element, the important
' factor In safety" (Purkhiser), 278.
In "International aspects of the
safety movement" (Meeker), 52.
In "Marine fire hazard" (TItsworth),
' 505.
In "Mental causes .of personal in-'
juries" (Hale), 1040; 1046. .
In "Need and functions of ship safety
committees" (Marr), 540-541.
In "Public aspect of the work of
the Bureau of Explosives"
(Dunn), 1033-1034.
In "Report of accident causes and
remedies committee" (Rutland), '* 869*882
In "Safe operation of motor trucks"
(Patten), 665-667.
In "Ship stevedoring hazards"
(Welch), 517.
.
In "The warning of public accident
statistics" 798-809. Increase in industrial accidents in
New York State.
In, Address
(Shientag), 25. "National cost of railroad acci
dents" (Palmer). 1073-1086.
New York City. In "Public safety
, work by the police department in
the greatest city in the world"
(Dow). 794. New York State. In "Some proved
methods of presenting safety and
health through (Wilkins), 760.
plant
papers"
Percentage of accidents due to de railment In "Hazard of coal
mine haulage derailment" (Hos-
kin). 618.
-
Point of operation accidents. In
"Engineering Section and the
Council" (Van Schaack), 429-432. Report of statistical committee
(Almstead), 302-305. Simmons Co. record. In "Punch
press hazards" (Haems), 181.
"Story told by the accident statistics''
of the taxicab business" (Wil
liams), 1108-1110.
"Value of accident statistics on the
standard basis" (Thalner), 187
191.
.
Accidents--Time of day : Discussion, 460-462.
-
Acetylene welding, see Welding. "
Acids:
"Safe transportation of acids in car boys and drums" (Crass), 239-242.
Adair, R. G-: "Compiling and using accident records," 124-131. .
Adams, H. A.: "Selling safety to the ' management of a large railroad," 1062-1065.
"Adventure" : In "Inner meaning of the safety
movement and its application to
the problem of education" (Whit ney), 29.
1147
1148
Advertising Safety, see Publicity.
Aeronautics, see Aviation.
Agitator, See Pressure vessels.
Alcoholism:
Discussion on days accidents occur
(Oliver), 462. In "Does Safety work In the textile
plant pay?" (Saul), 11X5-1117.
Almstead, C. H.: Report of statistical committee, 302-306.
Altman, R. 2VT. Chairman: Discussion of paper and pulp code, 698-703.
"Am I my brother's keeper?" (Hol comb), 1067-1070.
American Association of Industrial
Physicians and Surgeons:
Election of officers. 462.
Joint session, 41-67; 69-100; 433
482. Ammonia Concentrator:
Rules for ammonia concentrator,
light oil and by-product operation,
893-894.
Anderson, George B.: "Award system
as a means of preventing acci
dents." 334-342.
'
Annual meeting of members, see Busi
ness Section.
.
Anthrax:
In Round table discussion, 684.
Antitoxin:
In "Annual address of the President
of the American Association of In
dustrial Physicians and Surgeons" '
(Ford). 75-76.
Antitoxin, see also Vaccination.
Armour, Jack: "Human touch," 167
170.
"Ask Daddy" (Loyer), 66-67.
Associations:
"Valuable sources of information on accident prevention not generally
utilized" (Canada), 937-938.
-Vuel, C. B., Chairman: A.. B. C. Ses
sion. 119-146.
"Circular Saws and Shapers," 1126
1127. Discussion on punch presses, 182
183.
Report of vice-president in charge of Industrial safety. 19.
Augustus, Ernest, Chairman: Plant
Publications Section. 747-784.
Autoclave vessel, see Pressure vessels.
Automobile driving:
.
"Attitude of the motorist toward
traffic regulations" (Tuthill), 810-
"Automobiie hazard' (Barnes), 923-
926.
Discussion on Mr. Barr.es' Paper,
326-931.
Discussion on Mr. Hunralian's paper,
494-496.
.
Discussion on Mr. Patten's paper.
670-671.
Discussion on speed governors. 824
823.
Discussion on taxicab safety, 1106
1107.
"How a delivery organization can
reduce accidents to the public"
(Hanmhan). 490-494.
insurance costs per taxicab. Til
"Story told by the accident sta
tistics of the taxicab business"
t WWIiams). 1108-1110.
Public safety work by the police
department in the greatest city in
the world" (Dow), 790-794.
"Regulating motor vehicles and pre
venting accidents" (Stoeckel). 794
798.
"Safe drivers* schools and commun
ity safety- work" (Cloud). 1099
1102. "Safe operation of motor trucks"
(Patten). 665-670.
"Selling taxicab safety to the public"
(Beard), 1102-1105.
Slower speed limit sought In "Sell
ing taxicab safety to the public"
(Beard), 1104-1105.
Speed reduction in Detroit. 1107.
Speedometers tested on taxicabs. In
"Selling taxicab safety to the pub
lic" (Beard), 1103.
"Story told by the accident statis
tics of the taxicab business." 1108
1110.
*
"Taxicab business and the National
Safety Council" (Rosseland), 1105
1106.
Automobile Industry: Record of Buick Motor Co. In
"Value of accident statistics on the
standard basis" (Thalner), 188 189.
Automotive Section :
Appointment of Nominating Com
mittee, 187.
'
Minutes, 171-201-
.Report of Nominating Committee, 200
Aviation:
Aeronautic safety code (Peterson). 419. ,
"Award system as a means of pre venting accidents" (Anderson ), 334-342.
Back Sprain:
-
Discussion on Dr. Bassin's paper.
99-100.
In `Treatment of industrial Injuries"
'(Lewy). 116-117.
"Prevention, rehabilitation and med
icolegal aspects of sprained back" . < Bassin-) , 446-45S.
Back sprain, see also Spine.
Baker, Hugh P.: "Safety In the paper
industry." 692-698.
Banash, J. I.: Report of Membership
Committee, 404.
Banquet, 161-170.
Barnes, James P.: "Automobile haz
ard," 923-926.
Bassin, Dr. John N.: "Prevention, re
habilitation and medicolegal as
pects of sprained back." 446-452.
Beard, William G.: "Selling taxicab safety to the public." 1102-1105.
Beard. Harriet: "Teaching the child to
be careful," 858-861.
Beck, E. W., Chairman. Rubber Sec
tion, 203-238 ; 945-1021.
Benefit associations, see Employees*
benefit associations.
Bentley, D. G.: "Properly balanced and
. well-edited publication a necessitv
in selling safety," 753-757.
Steam Railroad Section. 1023-1097.
Benzol:
Discussion on spraying: or painting
it on, 232.
1NPHX
1149
tksnzol poisoning: Bibliography, 213-219.
Discussion on gas masks for workers cleaning tanks. 223-224.
Discussion on methods of painting
small interiors, 222. Discussion on relative' toxicity of
benzol, totuol and xylol (Hamil ton). 224-225. . In "Safe handling of solvents"
(Smith). 230.
Benzol poisoning committee, Progress report. 203-220.
Benzol Storage:
.
In "Safe ' handling of solvents"
(Smith). 227.
Beyer, David S.: "Ask Daddy,'* 66-67. Report of Motion Picture Committee,
843-844.
Billiard, F. C.: "Work of the IT. S.
Coast Guard in rescuing lives in
peril at sea,'*. 557-561.
',
Blank, E. F-. Chairman: Automotive
Section, 171-201.
'
-
Block System, see Traffic.
Boiler plants:
Rules,_895.
Boland. John P.: "Traffic games in
the primary grades,** 327-329. Bonsib, Roy S., Chairman: Petroleum
Section, 713-746.
Bonus Systems: "Award system as a means of pre venting accidents" (Anderson),
334-342.
Committee- appointed to study award
systems, 346.
Discussion, 708 ; 927. Discussion on "Cooperation of elec
tric railways in community safety
activities," 353-354.
Discussion on Mr. Anderson's paper,
342-344.
Discussion on Mr. Patten's paper,
671. Discussion on Mr. Weibley's paper,
1112-1113.
In "Maintaining safety interest among shift bosses and. foremen"
(Cowperthwaite), 652-653.
In. "Safe operation of motor trucks" (Patten), 670.
"Paying a bonus for good no-acci-
- dent records** (Weibiey), 1110
1112.
Bonus Systems, see also Contests.
Booth, W. A.: "Administration meth
ods and costs." 372-376. Botsford, S. 33., Chairman, Joint ses-
slon of the American Association
of Industrial - Physicians and Sur
geons and the National Safety
Council. 41-67. Bowen, S. Russell: "Obligations and
opportunities of public service
companies in community safety"
940-944. Brakes:
In "Public safety work by the police department in the greatest city in
the world" (Dow), 792.
Brennan. T. P.: Report of Committee
on prevention of Highway Cross
ing Accidents, 1026-1029.
Bridges. M. W.: Report of Secretary
of Electric Railway Section. 331
332. .
Brookweil. Sherwood: "Eire protection
In lumber yards and woodworking
plants," 1138.
Brosky, Alphonse F. : "Safety in under
ground transportation at coal
mines--tracks." 606-615. Brown, J. Wesley: "Street safety ed
ucation for school children," 863 866.
Brownell, John R. : Lightning pro
tection code, 412. ,.
Brundage. Dr. Dean Jv.: "Can sick-
benefit associations profitably en
gage in disease prevention work?"
438-446.
Discussion on U. S. Public Health
Service, 386-388.
Bulletin hoards:
"Bulletin board--an indispensable
safety advertiser". (Solenstein),
134-140. Bulletins :
"Bulletin hoard-----an indispensable-
safety advertiser" (Solenstein).
134-140.
Discussion, 708-709.
Discussion on car posters. 361-362.
Discussion on grewsome bulletins.
501.
' Report of Bulletin Committee of
Public Utilities Section. 868.
Bureau of Explosives, see Explosives.
Burlingame, L. D.: Industrial sanita
tion code. 412-413.
.Burns:
Discussion on chemical bums. 257
262.
Burton, H. J.: "Hazards of improper
radio installation." 899-904.
Bush. Seth L.: "Value of physical
examinations in pulp and paper mills," 687-690.
Business Session :
.
Minutes, 5-39.
By-product plants:
"Elimination of hazards in- by
product plants*' (O'Malley), 887 897.
Calenders, see Rubber industry. Cameron, W. JHT-: Annual report. 12
16.
'
Campaigns: "Human element.
the
. important
factor in Safety" (Purkhiser), 279.
In "Safety from the executive's
standpoint" (Voung), 272-273.
"Putting pep into a safety cam
paign" (Kroes ), 140-143.
Camps:
In "Organizing the human element
for safety In the textile industry"
(McNulty), 1121-1122.
Canada, W. F.: "Valuable sources oC
information on accident prevention not generally utilized." 931-937.
Carbon-bisulphide:
Storage---In "Safe handling of sol
vents" (Smith). 227; 229-230.
Carbon-dioxide:
"Carbon-dioxide in marine fires"
(Jones), -542-54S.
"Functions and practical use of
liquefied carbon-dioxide in fighting
mine fires" (Jones), 632-642.
Carbon-monoxide:
Demonstration of effect of carbon-
monoxide on animals (Ryan). 631
633.
1150
INDEX
Carbon-tetrachloride:
Discussion, as a good solvent, 232.
Discussion, substitute for benzol.
222-223.
In "Safe handling- of solvents"
<Smith), 231.
Carboys:
"Safe transportation of acids in car
boys and drums" (Crass), 239
242.
'
Carothers. Dr. Robert: "Keep well people well," 45-50.
Carry. JE- F.: "Pullman Company's
contribution to railroad safety,"
1089-1095.
Cars. Mine, see Handling materials.
Cartoons:
Discussion. 757-758. In "Getting the most out of illus
trations" ("Redmond), 777-778.
In "Some proved methods of pre-
, seating safety and health through
the plant paper" (Wilkins), 762.
Caskey. Samuel S.: Pressure vessels,
420-426.
Cement industry:
Dust (Oliver), 270.
"Human element, the important fac
tor in safety" (Purkhiser), 276
281.
"Powdered coal hazards" (Jacob
sen). 286-288.
"Safety from the executives' stand
point" (Xoung), 271-273.
Cement Section:
Appointment of Nominating Com
mittee, 269.
Minutes, 269-291.
Report of Nominating Committee,
2S1
Chaney, Dr. L, W.: Woodworking
code, 419-420.
Chapman. Florence G.: "Stop ! Look !
Listen! 1062.
`
"Charting a course" (Fuller). 770-774.
Chauffer's Tests:
Discussion of Mr. Hanrahan's paper,
494-496.
Chemical industry:
"Elimination of occupational diseases
in the chemical and rubber indus
tries (Roach), 233-238.
Instrument for acid burns of eye,
262-263.
Chemical laboratories, see Labora
tories.
Chemical Section:
Appointment of Nominating Com
mittee. 239.
Joint meeting of Chemical and Rub
ber Section, Minutes, 203-238 ;
239-267.
Progress report of Committee on
benzol poisoning, 203-220.
Report of Nominating Committee,
266-267.
Children, Safety Work with: *
Discussion on bulletin for schools by
Steam Railroad Section, 1095-1096.
Discussion on school children and
car accidents (Payne), 355-356.
"How safety activities for children
reduce accidents,'' (Palmer), 816
824.
"Street safety education for school
children." (Brown), 863-866.
"Teaching the child to be careful"
(Beard), 858-861.
Ching, Cyrus: "Function of the safety man in industry," 946-949.
Christopherson. Martin H.: "How in
surance companies can assist state departments to stimulate accident ' prevention," 107-111.
Chrome sores, see Burns.
Classification of Causes of Accidents:
"Accident hazards of the ice indus
try" (Wilkinson), 497-500.
"Accidents in the ice and refriger
ation industry and their cost"
(Hero). 484-489.
In "Maintaining interest in -mine safety" (Hewitt), 650.
In "Need and Function of ship
safety committees" (Mars), 541.
In "Reducing accidents and minim izing injuries" (Drummond)-, 677.
In "Ship personnel ' hazards"
(Evans), 556.
"Prevention of personal injuries during the construction of gas,
electric and other plants" (Cris-
field), 907-920.
.
Report of accident causes and rem
edies committee (Rutland), 869 882.
Clocks-: Discussion on accident clock, 708.
Clothing:
Chemical workers. 264. In "Safe practice of acetylene weld
ing and burning In an oil -plant" Timm). 720-721.
Cloud, William W.: "Safe drivers' schools and community safety work," 1099-1102.
Coal department:
Rules, 892-893.
Coal-dust:
~
Discussion. 288-291.
"Powdered coal hazards" (Jacob
sen). 282-288.
Coal dust, see also Dust explosions. Coal mining, see . Mine3 and ' Mining-
Coal.
Cobb. Elmer J. : "How Buffalo teaches
safety in its public schools," 325-
Codes, Safety:
.
Reports on (Fonda), 411-412. Cofer, Dr. Leland E.: "New York State
Department of Labor's proposed
intensive study of industrial dis
eases and accidents," 101-107.
Coffin, H. A.: "Supervision and safety," 172--177.
Coke handling department: Rules, 893.
Coke ovens:
.
Rules for coke ovens. 891-892.
Colburn, C. L. : "Mine safety and the
National Safety Council." 658-660. Report of safety service engineer.
587-591.
Colors:
In "Public safety development"
(Van Schaack),.787-788.
.
Painting pipe lines. In "Safe hand
ling of solvents" (Smith), 227.
Committees, Safety:
.........
. Discussion, 1123.
.
Discussion .on Mr. Eaton's paper.
675-676.
T ..
Discussion on- Mr. Faunoe'a paper,
567.
-
DTDH3C
1151
Discussion on making the safety
committee-men greater factors for
safety, 109(1-1097.
In "Essentials of safety" (Faunce),
565-567.
In "Getting safety to belong" (Mur
. They), 731-732.
In "Organizing- the human element
for safety iii the textile industry"
(McNulty), 1120-1122.
"Need and- functions of ship safety
' committees" (Marr), 533-542.
"Safety committees" (Young), 132
134.
-
Community 'Safety, See Public Safety.
Company magazines. See Magazines, Employees.
Compensation laws. See Workmen's Compensation.
Competition: In . "Some proved methods of pre senting safety and health through
plant papers" (Wilkins), 761. "Maintaining safety interest, among - shift bosses and foremen" (Cow-
perthwaite), 653.
"Compiling and using accident records" < Adair). 124-131.
Connors, Dr. T. W.: "How Buffalo teaches safety in its public
. Schools," 326-327.
Conservation:
.
"Engineer- and conservation"
(Little), 395-401.
Construction :
"Contractors' associations* activities
in the reduction of accidents"
(MacMulIan). 305-308.
Discussion on code, 295-302 ; 312-317.
Discussion on compensation laws,
294-295. .
.
"How safety first penalizes the con
tractor" (Sehults), 310-311.
"Practical accident prevention work,
as carried on by Post and- Mc
Cord" (Delaney), 808-310.
Report of Statistical Committee
(Almstead), 302-305.
Construction of gas, electric and other
plants:
-
Prevention of personal injuries
(Crisfleld), 907-920.
Construction Section:
Minutes, 293-318.
Report of Membership Committee,
311-312.
Report of Nominating Committee,
3X2
Report of Secretary, 293-294.
Report of Statistical Committee, 302
305.
'
Contests:
Discussion, 178-179 : 927.
Discussion on Mr. Anderson's paper,
342-345.
In "Some proved methods of pre-
. sen ting safety and health through
plant papers" (Wilkins). 762.
"Cooperation of foremen for safety"
(Eaton). 671-675.
Cost of accidents, see Accldents-Costs.
Cott, E. R.: Report of Bulletin Com
mittee. of Steam Railroad Section,
. - 1025-1026.
Cowperthwaite, Thomas: "Maintaining
- safety interest among shift bosses
and foremen," 651-654. .
Cramps: "Heat hazards in industry"
(Kinstry). 77-78.
(Mc-
Crass, Maurice P.: "Safe transporta tion of acids In carboys and
drums," 239-242,
Crisfleld, J. A. F.: "Prevention of per sonal injuries during the construc tion of gas, electric and other plants" 907-920.
Cullen, Richard X: Chairman, General session with the N. Y. State De partment of Labor. 101-118.
Currie, V. R_: Report of secretary, 714. Curtis, Thomas: Discussion on Dr.
Meyer's paper, 91-92.
Cylinders--Storing :
Discussion on Mr. Timm's paper, 724.
Cylinder--Transportation: In "Safe practice of acetylene weld
ing and burning In an oil plant" (Timm), 720.
Dambmann, H. N.: "Proposed actu
arial record for experience statis tics of industrial mutual benefit associations." 378-386.
Date, William E.: "Personal accident
prevention In the rubber Industry," 950-962.
Davidson, F. A: Construction Section.
293-318.
.
Report of Nominating Committee of
Engineering Section, 402. Dearborn, W. E.: Report of the Textile
Safety Code Committee, 1122.
DeBlois, Lewis A- : Address of accept
ance, 162-164.
-.
Year's experience with Local Coun cils, 33-39.
"Debt you owe" (Wells), 164.
Delaney, B. W.; "Practical accident
prevention work as carried on by
Post, and McCord," 308-310. Delivery- Section, see Taxicab and De
livery Section. Dental Work:
.
In "Endicott-Johnson Medical Serv ice" (O'Neil). 472.
Dershimer, Dr. Frederick W.: "Fur
ther studies in mental hygiene,"
476-482.
Dickinson,. John A.: Discussion on
Dr. Schram's paper, 96-97. Discipline:
In "Getting safety to belong" (Mur-
phey), 733-734.
Discs:
.
.
Discussion on the practicability of
bronze for safety discs, 427-428.
Diseases--Occupational:
"Elimination of occupational dis
eases in the chemical and rubber industries" (Roach). 233- 238.
"New York State Department of
Labor's proposed intensive study
of industrial diseases and acci dents," (Cofer), 101-107.
"Safety and . health in industry"
(Oliver), 165-167.
.
Doak, William N.: "Selling .safety to
the man on the firing line," 1054
1062.
"Dopes" 2
..
Discussion on blood test for tetra-
chlormethane poisoning. (Hamil
ton), 221.
.
1152
INDKX
Dow, Maruns A. : Address. 7-12,' Address at Steam Railroad Section. 1032-1033. Annual meeting of members, 5-39. "Public safety work by the police department in the greatest city in the world," 790-794.
Drama. Safety movement in: In "Inner meaning of the safety movement and its application to the problem of education" t Whit ney), 27-29.
Drop forge hazards:
Discussion. 201.
.
Drummond. A. B.: "Reducing accidents and minimizing injuries." 676-679.
Drums:
Discussion on handling drums, 242 245.
Discussion on repairing drums. 24 4.
"Safe transportation of acids in car
boys and drums" (Crass), 239 242.
Dublin. Eouis I.: "Effect of physical
examination on the health and welfare of employees," 365-369.
Dunn. Col. E. W.: "Public aspect of the work of the Bureau of Explo sives," 1033-1039.
Dust Explosions: Dust Explosions Hazards Committee of the N. F. P. A. (Nichols), 415.
Dust explosions, sec also Coal-Dust.
Dusts: Address at Cement Section (Oliver), 270.
Eaton. J. 31.: Chairman. Packers' and Tanners' Section. 663-685.
"Securing of cooperation of foremen for safety." 671-675. -
"Economic viewpoint upon syphilis In
industry" (Hartman), 453-460.
"Economics for employees" (Rector),
768-770. Education :
"Inner meaning of- the safety move
ment and its application to the problem of education." (Whitney),
26-33. "Railroadman's approach to safety
through the schools" (Payne).
1029-1032. Education of Workmen :
1 Discussion. 147-151.
In "Getting safety to belong" (Mur-
phey). 732-733.
-_
Education. Safety:
"How Buffalo teaches safety in its
public schools" (Cobb). 325-326. "How Buffalo leaches safety in its
public schools" (Connors), 326
327. "Requisites of safety instruction in
.--'ementary schools" (Masslich),
321-325.
"Traffic games in the primary
grades" (Boland). 327-329. Education Section :
Appointment oC Nominating Com
mittee. 321. Minutes. 319-329.
Report of Nominating Committee.
329.
Report of Secretary (Whitney), 319
321.
Electric Railway Section :
Appointment of Committee to Study
award Systems. 346.
Appointment of Nominating Com
mittee. 344.
Minutes. 331-363: 923-944.
Report of Bulletin Committee (Van
Brunt), 332-333.
Report of Membership Committee
(Radley). 332.
Report of Nominating Committee.
346.
Report of Program Committee
(Keyser), 334.
Report of Secretary ( Bridges >. 331 -
332.
.
Electric Railways:
"Award system as a means of pre venting accidents" (Anderson*. 334-342.
Discussion on car posters. 361-362. Discussion on "Cooperation of elec
tric railways in community safety activities," 346-3o6.
Discussion on "Experience of Massa chusetts Safety Council" (MaeBrayne), 350-3&2.
Discussion on Mr. Anderson's paper. 342-345.
Discussion on Mr. Barnes' paper. 926-931.
Discussion on organized safety in
electric railways. 362-363. Discussion on school children and
car accidents ( Payne>. 355-356. "Obligations and opportunities of
public service companies in com munity safety" (Bowen). 940-944. "Safety principles as applied to the
individual utility" (Parsons). 356 363.
Electricity: Discussion on Mr. Naylor's and Mr. Ramsey's paper. 741-742. In "Safe handling of solvents" (Smith). 227-229. "Personal, accident prevention in tin? ' rubber industry" (Date). 950-962. "Prevention of personal injuries dur ing the construction of gas. elec tric and other plants" ( Crisfield i. 907-920. Report of Electrical Committee of
Engineering Section (Whiting*. 402-404. Rules for electric department. S96897. Static electricity. In "Fire hazards in churn and spreader room" (Milne). 1016-1017. "Static hazards in gasoline hand ling" (Naylor and Ramsey*. 734
741.
Electricity, see also Switches.
Elevators: In "Essentials of safe ourdini:*' (Risteen). 122. Report of Elevator Hazards Com
mittee (Shaw). 788-789.
Elliott. Dr. Ralph. Chairman. Health Service Section. 69-100 : 4Zz482.
Employees* Benefit Associations: "Administration methods and costs"
(Booth). 372-376. Appointment of Nominating Com
mittee. 377.
INDEX
1153
"Can sick-benefit associations profit
ably engage in disease prevention
work?" (Thompson and Brun-
dage), 438-446.
Discussion on "Are medical exam
inations for admission advisable?"
389-390.
Discussion on "Division of costs be
tween employer^ and employee,"
39?-393
Discussion on Mr. Booth's paper,
376-377.
Discussion on Mr. Dambmann's pa
per. 386-388.
Discussion on Mr. Dublin's paper,
369-372.
Discussion on "Should benefits vary
according to age of. members?"
391--392.
Discussion on "Should the govern
ment tax association funds?" 388
389.
In "Effect of physical .examination
on the health and welfare of em
ployees" (Dublin), 369. ,
"Proposed actuarial record for ex
perience statistics of industrial
mutual
' benefit
associations"
(Dambmann), 378-386.
Vienna plan. In "Can sick-benefit
associations profitably engage in
disease prevention work?"
(Thompson and Brundage), 444
445.
.
Employees' Benefit Associations Sec
tion : Minutes, 36S-394.
-
Report of Nominating Committee,
388.
"Endicott-Johnson Medical Service"
(O'Neil), 469-475.
"Engineer and conservation" (Little). 396-401.
Engineering Section :
'
Address of Chairman-elect. (Paine),
420. Aeronautic safety code (Peterson),
419.
,,
Discussion on certificate of member
ship, 428-429.
Dust Explosion Hazards Committee
of the N. F. P. A. (Nichols). 415.
"Engineering Section and the Coun cil*' (Van Scbaack), 429-432.
Identification of piping systems.
(Weaver and Kershaw), 416-418. Industrial sanitation code (Burlin
game), 412-413.
Lightning protection code (Brow
nell), 412.
Minutes, 395-432. Pressure vessels (Caskey), 420-426.
Report Of Chairman (Fonda), 401
402. Report of Committee on Fly Wheels,
(Tolsted), 411.
'
Report of Committee on Guillotine
Paper Cutters (Paine), 405-411. ' Report of Electrical Committee of
Engineering Section (Whiting),
402-404. Report of Membership Committee
(Banash), 404.
Report of Nominating Committee,
(Davidson), 402.
Reports on safety codes (Fonda),
411-412.
School lighting code (Stiekney),
413-415.
Woodworking code (Chaney), 419
420.
.
Engineers, Safety:
'
In "Supervision and safety"
fin), 176.
(Cof
Engines:
Reciprocating steam engines.
In
"Essentials of safeguarding" (RIs-
teen), 122-123.
"Essentials of safety" (Faunce), 563 567.
European safety, see Foreign Countries
--Safety.
'
Evans, Capt Irving L. : "Ship person
nel hazards," 549-557.
Executive committee of N. S. C., 161 162.
Explosions:
'
Dust explosions Hazards Committee
of the N., F. P. A. (Nichols), 415. "Powdered coal hazards" (Jacobsen)
282-288.
' Explosions, see also Coal-dust.
Explosives:
,,
"Public aspect of the work of the
Bureau of Explosives" .(Dunn),
1033--1039
*
Explosives-Iahoratories, see Labora
tories.
Express Companies:
Discusion on Mr. Hanrahan's paper.
494-496.
.
"How a delivery organization can re
duce accidents to the public (Han
, rahan). 490-494.
Eye-protection:
Discussion. 199-200.
"Eye injuries" (Francis), 193-199.
In "Safe practice of acetylene weld
ing and burning in an oil plant" (Timm), 730.
Falls (People) :
"Slipping and falling hazards in packing plants" (McClellan). 680 683.
Farr, E. Ross, Secrertary, Report- for Woodworking Section. 1125-1126.
Faunce, Benjamin F.: "Essentials of safety," 563-56^7.
Filling Station: "Static hazards in gasoline han dling" (Naylor and Ramsey), 738.
Films: -
"Ask Daddy" (Beyer), 66-67.
Finance Committee report, see Treas urer's report.
Fire extinguishers:
Discussion on Mr. Woltz's paper, 578-579.
In "Fire hazards in churn and
spreader rooms" (Milne), 1017 1018.
In "Fire protection In steel mills and foundries" (Woltz), 573-578.
In "Marine fire hazards" (Titsworth), 511-513.
Fire prevention:
Bitner fire. In "Functions and prac- tical use of liquefied carbon diox
ide In fighting mine fires" (Jones), 632-642.
"Carbon dioxide in marine fires" (Jones), 542-548.
Discussion on Argonaut fire, 646 647.
Discussion on fire fighting, 744.
1154
INDEX
Discussion on Mr. Jones' paper, 548 ;
' 643-647. "Fire hazards in chum and spreader
room" (Miine). 1012-1018. "Fire protection in lumber yards and
woodworking plants" (Brockwell),
1138. "Fire protection in steel mills and
foundries" (Woltz). 573-578. "Functions and practical use of
liquefied carbon dioxide in fighting mine fires" (Jones), 632-642. "Marine fire hazards" (Titsworth), 504-513.
First Aid:
.
In "Maintaining safety interest at
the Old Dominion Company" (Tal-
lon), 655..
Floors: Discussion, 1123-1124.
.
Discussion on Mr. McClellan's paper,
683.
-
Discussion on paper and pulp mill
hazard. 704-705.
"Slipping and falling hazards in
packing plants" (McClellan), 680 681.
Flue Gas: In "Functions and practical use of
liquefied carbon dioxide in fighting
fires" (Jones), 642.
Flywheels:
Report of committee (Tolsted), 411.
Fonda. George T. : Chairman Engi
neering Section. 395-432.
Report of Chairman of Engineering
Section. 401-402. .
Report of Vice-President in Charge
of Sectional Activities. 19-20.
Chairman Reports on safety codes.
411-412.
Ford. Dr. C. E. : American Association
of Industrial Physicians and Sur geons. Minutes, 433-482.
Annual address of the President of
the American Association of In
dustrial Physicians and Surgeons.
69-77. American Association of Industrial
Physicians and Surgeons, 69-100.
Joint session, of the American Asso
ciation of Industrial Physicians
and Surgeons and the National
Safety Council. 41-67. ' In "Engineer and Conservation"
(Little). 398. Foreign workmen :
Discussion. 147-151. In "Function of the safety man in
industry" (Ching), 947-949.
Foremen:
_
Discussion. 897. Discussion on how to sell safety. 290
291. Dicussion on Mr. Drummond's paper.
679-680. Discussion on Mr. Eaton's paper,
675-676. In "Getting safety to belong (Mur-
phey). 729-730. In "How to organize for safety in a
woodworking plant" (Thompson),
1130-1131.
In "Report of accident causes and remedies committee" (Rutland),
S77-S79.
,,
Rules for foremen;; 890-891.
"Securing of co-operation of foremen
for safety" (Eaton), 6 <1-675.
Forster. II- Walter: "JkccMfcmt preven tion in the Ixjeor." 363 4(1
General Round T>Mr. 3
Foundries: "Fire protection in <- 4 nilto and foundries" < VVoitti. STS-ST. "Scene in a foundry.-- Ul-til
Francis. Dr. L. 3L: "E>>. hjefiet,'' 193-199.
Fuller. J. Jay: "Chirtiac a eMme." 770-774.
"Function of the safety man tn indus try" (Ching). 946-949.
Games:
"Traffic games in the primary grades" (Boland). 327-329.
Garment Workers: "Physical examination of fifty thou
sand garment workers" (Price). . 463-468.
Gas:
Rules for blue gas. 895.
Gas industry: "Prevention of personal injuries dur
ing the construction of gas. elec tric and other plants" (Crisfleld). 907-920. Gas masks, see respirators. Gas pumping:
Rules for power house and gas pumping, 895.
Gases:
Common gases on board ships. In "Uses of the all-purpose canister
gas masks aboard ships" (Mc Bride), 522-533. Gasoline:
Discussion on use of gasoline over spreading machine. 232.
In "Safe handling of solvents" (Smith), 230-231.
"Static hazards in gasoline handling" (Naylor and Ramsey), 734-741.
General Round Table: Minutes, 147-160.
General session :
Minutes, 41-67 ; 69-118.
"Getting safety to belong" (Mur-
phey). 728-734.
Giddings. Harold G.: "Relation of In
dustrial surgeon to family physi
cian," 78-84.
Gillette. G. M.: "Safety in under
ground transportation in coal
mines--mine cars." 623-626.
Gloves:
Discussion on rubber gloves. 921-922.
Goggles:
Discussion on goggle problem. 179.
Discussion on goggle problem (Sterne), 177-178.
Discussion on goggle for chemical in dustry, 263.
Goldsborough. A. S.: "Public safety
from citizen's viewpoint." 825-830. Goodale. Dr. Walter: Address of wel
come. 452-453.
Goodspeed. M. C.: "Train machine operators in safe methods." 1144
1145. Gordon. Arthur H.: Prayer. 5. Grade Crossings:
"Careful crossing campaign" (Rowe). 61-66.
Discussion, 1070-1073. Locomotive whistle. 1072-1073.
INDEX
1155
Report of Committee on Prevention
of Highway Crossing Accidents
(Brennan). 1026-1029.
Graef, H. H.: Report of Bulletin Com mittee of Rubber Section, 946.
Grewsome bulletins, see Bulletins.
Grodzki, J. F : Report of Committee
for Co-operation with other Agen
cies, 1024-1025.
Group insurance, see Insurance, Group.
Guards:
.
Rules for.design, purchase and con struction, 889-890.
Guillotine paper cutters:
Report (Paine), 405-411.
Hale, Isaiah: "Mental causes of per
sonal injuries," 1039-1052.
Hamilton, Dr. Alice: Discussion on
blood test for tetrachlormethane
poisoning, 221.
Handling materials:
.
Discussion on Air. Hoskin's paper, 621-622.
Discussion on Air. Gillette's and Air. Reed's paper. 626-632.
Discussion on Air. Mac William's pa per, 603-606.
Discussion on Air. Shove's paper,
595-597.
Discussion on paper and pulp mill
hazard, 706 ; 708.
"Hazard of coal mine haulage de
railment" (Hoskin), 617-621.
Rules for coke handling department,
893.
"Safe handling of solvents"
(Smith), 225-231.
"Safe transportation of acids in car
boys and drums" (Crass), 239-242.
"Safety In mine locomotive haulage"
(Mac Williams), 597-603.
"Safety in underground transporta
tion at coal mines--tracks" (Bro-
sky), 606-615. .
"Safety in underground transportatation in coal mines------mine cars*'
(Gillette and Reed), 623-626.
"Safety in underground transporta
tion in metal mines" (Shove), 592
595. Hanrahan, M. T.: "How a delivery or
ganization can reduce accidents to
the public," 490-494.
Hartman. Dr. W. Eouis: "Economic
viewpoint upon syphilis in indus
try," 453-460.
Harvey. Julian: Discussion on "Co
operation of electric railways in
community safety activities," 346
348.
Haulage, see Handling Materials. Health :
"Keep well people well" (Carothers),
45-50.
Health Service Section:
Joint sessions with American Asso
ciation of Industrial Physicians
and Surgeon, Minutes, 433-482.
Minutes, 63-100.
Health Supervision of Employees:
"Can sick-benefit associations profit
ably engage in disease prevention
work?" (Thompson and Brun-
dage)). 438-446.
' "Effect of physical examination on
the health and welfare of em
ployees" (Dublin), 365-369.
"Endleott-Johnson medical service (O'Neil). 469-475.
In "Reducing accidents and minimiz
ing injuries" (Drummond), 678 679. "Safety and health in industry" (Oli ver), 165-167.
`Heat hazards In Industry" (AlcICin, stry). 77-7S.
. Helmets: . Chemical workers, 264.
' Henry, Hon. G. S.: "Accidents on the highways," '41-45.
Hernia: Discussion. 276.
Discussion on Mr. Bush's paper, 691. Dicussion on standard method of
compiling accident statistics per taining to hernia, 192.
Hero, C. O.: "Accidents in the ice
and refrigeration industry and their cost." 484-489.
Hewitt. E. Xj. : Report of Alembership Committee of Rubber Section, 989 991.
Hewitt, George C.: "Maintaining In terest in mine safety," 647-651.
Hexa-rash: In Report of Health Hazards Com mittee (Horan), 992.
Hibbs, Dr. Russell A.: "Surgery of the spine." 433-438.
High pressure vessels, see Pressure vessels
Highway, see Public safety. Hitt, E. G.: Chicago Ice Producers
Mutual Diability Co.--Record of members (Hitt). 489-490. Holcomb, Rev. Wale: "Am I my brother's keeper?" 1067-1070. Home Safety: "Accident prevention In the home" (Forster), 861-863.
"Mother's interest in accident pre vention" (Thorny). 852-853.
Hopkins, Dr. C- N:': Discussion on Dr. Meyer's paper. 89-91.
Horan, C. F.: Report of Health Haz
ards Committee of Rubber Section,
992-993.
Hord, Spencer: "Our employees' publi cation and what it has accom
plished." 779-782. Hoskin, A. J.: "Hazards of coal mine
haulage derailment." 617-621. House organs, see Magazines, Em
ployees "How I learned about safety from
them,'' 155.
"Human element, the important factor in safety" (Purkhiser), 276-281.
"Human touch" (Armour), 167-170. "I am carelessness," 760-761.
Ice and Refrigerating Committee:
Report of Nominating Committee,
502. Illness, see Sickness of employees.
Industrial Poisons Committee, see Ben
zol' Poisoning Committee.
Industrial Safety Committee report
(Auel), 19.
Infections:
'
In "Treatment of Industrial injuries"
(Lewy), 117-118. ,
.
Information on accident prevention.
Valuable Sources of (Canada),
931-937.
.
1156
JNDK3C
Injuries. Industrial, Treatment of (Lewy), 114-117.-
`"Inner meaning of the safety move
ment and its application to the problem of education ("Whitney), 26-33.
Inspection : "How insurance companies can as sist state departments to stimulate accident prevention" ( Christopherson), 107-111.
Qualifications of a safety inspector.
In "How to organize for safety in a woodworking plant" (Thomp son), 1132-1133.
State and insurance standards, 112-113.
inspection
Inspection, see also Plant visits and Patrols.
Insurance:
Industrial
Compensation
Rating
Schedule--1923. In "Reducing the
coat of point of operation acci
dents" (Wiberg), 1138-1144.
Reduction in "Safety principles as
applied to the individual utility*'
(Parsons), 358.
'
Safety measure demanded by. insur ance companies . In "Essentials of safeguarding" (RIsteen), 120.
Insurance companies: "How they can assist state depart ments to stimulate accident pre vention" (Christopherson), 107
111.
Insurance--Group : ___ Discussion on Mr. TBush's paper, 690.
Inter-plant visits, see Plant visits.
Interest in safety work. How to main tain :
Discussion, 706-708.
"International aspects of the safety movement" (Meeker), 50-57.
International Labor Bureau:
In "International aspects of the safety movement" (Meeker), 53 56.
Report on invitation (Young), 23-24.
Investigation of accidents: . Discussion on value of Investigation of accidents, 7 46 ; 884. In Report of Accident Causes and
Remedies Committee (Rutland),
880-881.
Ice and Refrigeration Industry:
"Accident hazards of the ice indus
try" ('Wilkinson), 497-500.
"Accidents in the ice and refrigera
tion industry and their cost"
(Hero), 484-489.
Chicago Ice Producers Mutual Lia
bility Co.--Record of members
(Hitt). 489-490.
.
Discussion on Mr. Hanrahan's paper,
494-496.
Discussion on Mr. Wilkinson's pa
per, 500-502.
`How a delivery organization can re
duce accidents to the public"
(Hanrahan). 490-494.
Ice and Refrigeration Section :
Appointment of nominating mittee, 483-484.
Minutes, 483-502.
Com
Iron and Steel Industry:
Accomplishments commended, 583 584.
"Essentials of safety" (Faunce), 563-567.
"Eire protection in steel mills and
foundries" (Woltz), 573-578.
Jacobsen, H. G.: "Powdered coal haz ards," 282-288.
Johnson. Bruce: "Industrial surgery In Utah," 97-98.
Joint Board of Sanitary Control: "Physical examination, of fifty thou sand garment workers" (Price), 463-468.
Jones, Charles L.: Carbon dioxide in' marine fires." 542-548.
"Functions and practical use of liquefied carbon dioxide in fighting mine fires," 632-642.
Haems. A- L.: "Punch.press hazards,"
179-181
Keleey, G. <3-.: "Methods of study of
traffic movement in relation to
traffic accident prevention," 830
843.
.
Kershaw. S. H.: Chairman,- Chemical
Section, 203-267.
Identification of piping systems, 416-
4J8.
Keyser, H. M.: Report of Program
Committee, 334.
Kinsey, A. L.: Address, 6-7.
Knife guards:
.
Discussion on Mr. Meehan's paper,
664-665.
Koehler. A. W.: Discussion on organ
ized safety in electric railways,
362-363. Kroes, Al.: "Putting pep into a safety
campaign," 140-143.
Kurkjlan, A. S.: "Safe layout and
equipment for the woodworking
plant," 1135-1137.
Laboratories : Discussion on chemical laboratories with special reference to explosives
laboratories, 254-257. "Safety code for "chemical laborato
ries with special reference to ex plosives laboratories" (Marsh). 245-254.
Ladders:
In "Slipping and falling hazards in.
packing plants" (McClellan), 682 683.
Lake Carriers' Association:
"Heed and functions of ship safety committees" (Marr), 533-542.
League of Nations: Report on invitation (Young), 23-24.
Lewy, Dr. Raphael: "Treatment of industrial injuries,-" 114-118.
Library--N. S. C.:
"Valuable sources of information on accident prevention not generally utilized" (Canada), 931-937.
License Laws, see Traffic Laws. Life expectancy:
In "Annual address of the President
of the American Association of In dustrial Physicians and Surgeons" (Ford), 70-71. "Life Savers' Club," 353-354.
INDEX
1157
Lighting:: School lighting- code (Stickney), 413
415.
Lightning: Code (Brownell). 412.
'
Llntz, A. H.: Report of Secretary of Public Safety Section, 788.
Little, Dr. R. M.: "Engineer and con
servation," 395-401.
Loading docks:
In "Slipping and falling hazards in
packing plants" (McClellan), 683.
Local Councils:
Development, 785.
Discussion on budget of Local Coun
cils, 348-349.
Discussion on "Co-operation of elec
tric railways in community safety
. activities." 346-356.
"Pacts about a community safety or-
fanimation and its work" (Talert), 845-851. "dears' experience with Local Coun
cils (Pe Bloig), 33-39.
Locomotive haulage. Safety in mines
(Mac "Williams>, 597-603.
Longshoremen, see Marine hazards.
Lyons, G. I.: Report of standardiza
tion1 and statistics committee of
Rubber Section, 991-992.
MaoBrayne, L. E.: Discussion on "Ex
perience of Massachusetts Safety
Council," 350-352.
McBride, Capt. S. M.: "Uses of the
all-purpose canister gas masks
aboard ships," 521-533. Machine Operators:
~ .
"Train machine operators in safe
methods" (Goodspeed), 1144-1145.
McClellan, W. p.: "Slipping and fall-
ling hazards .In packing plants,"
680r683.
McCulloch, B. B. : Report of Secretary' of Public Utilities Section, 867-868.
McKenney. T. II.. Chairman: Metals
Sections. 563-584.
Mddnstry, Dr. G .EC.: "Heat hazards
in industry." 77-78.
"Relation of the medical and safety
departments," 579-582.
MaeMulIan. Ralph A.: "Contractors'
.Associations' activities in the re duction of accidents," 305-308.
McNulty, I.: "Organizing the human
element for safety in the textile in
dustry," 1119-1122.
MacWilliams, G. P.: "Safety in mine
locomotive haulage." 597-603.
Magazines, Employees:
"Charting a course" (Fuller), 770
774.
Discussion on cartoons, 757-758.
Discussion on economic aspect, 758
759.
Discussion on Mr. Wilkin's paper,
765-767.
Discussion on Mr. Young's paper,
750-752.
".
"Economics for employees" (Rec
tor). 768-770.
.
"Getting the most out of ill..; Ora
tions (Redmond). 774-779.
"Our employees publication and what
it has accomplished" (Hord), 779
782.
"Our plant paper and what It has ac
complished." 782-784.
"Properly balanced and well-edited publication a necessity In selling safely" (Bentley), 753-757.
"Real functions of a plant publica tion" (Young), .747-750.
"Some proved methods of presenting safety and health through plant papers" (Wilkins), 759-765.
"Maintaining interest at the Old Do minion Company" (Tallon), 654-
"Maintaining interest in mine safety" (Hewitt), 647-651.
Maintaining interest in safety: Discussion, 156-160.
"Maintaining safety interest among shift bosses and foremen" (Cowper-
thwaite), 651-654.
Maintenance department: Rules, 896.
Malingering: Discussion, 274-276.
"Further studies In mental hygiene" . (Dershimer), 476-482.
Managing Director's Annual report (Cameron), 12-16.
Marine hazards:
"Carbon dioxide in marine fires" (Jones), 542-548.
Discussion on Commander Billiard's paper. 560-562.
Discussion on Mr. Jones* paper. 548.
Discussion on Mr. Titsworth's paper,
518-520.
"Marine fire hazards" (Titsworth),
504-513.
"
"Need and functions of ship safety
committees" (Marr), 533-542.
'
"Ship personnel- hazards" (Evans),
549-557.
"Ship stevedoring hazards' (Welch), 513-517.
"Uses of the all-purpose canister gas
masks aboard ships" (McBride),
521-533.
"Work of the U. S. Coast Guard in rescuing lives in peril at sea" (Dil
lard). 557-561.
Marine Section :
Minutes, 503-562.
.
Report of Nominating Committee,
520.. Roll call, 517-518 ; 548.
`
Marr. George A.: "Need and functions
of ship safety committees," 533
542.
.
Marsh. Henry N.: Safety code for
chemical laboratories with special
reference to explosives laborato
ries, 245-254.
Masks. Gas. see Respirators.
Masslich. George B.: "Requisites of
safety instruction in elementary
schools," 321-325.
Medical Supervision :
Discussion on Mr. McKinstry's pa
per, 582-583^
Discussion on Dr. O'Neil's paper,
475-476.
"Endicott-Johnson Medical service"
(O'Neil), 469-475.
In "Elimination of occupational dis
eases in the chemical and rubber
industries" (Roach). 233-238. "Relation of the medical and safety
departments" (McKinstry), 579
582.
1158
INDEX
Medical supervision, see also Health
supervision of employees ; physical
examination of employees.
.
Medicine. Industrial and its relation to general practice (Meyers), 84-88.
Meehan, R. M.: "Safety in the packing industry." 663-664.
Meeker. Hon. Royal B.: "International aspects of the safety movement,"
50-57.
Meetings of employees: In "Human element, the important
factor in safety" (Purkhiser), 279
280. "Men working in scattered groups."
Discussion. 156-160.
"Mental causes of personal injuries"
(Hale). 1039-1052.
"Mental hygiene in Industry, Further
studies" (Dershimer), 476-482.
Merit System, see Bonus System.
Metals Section:
Appointment of nominating Commit tee. 568.
Minutes. 563-584. Report of Xominating Committee,
572.
Meyers. Dr. Harry: "Relation of in- '
dustrial medicine to general prac
'w.tice " 84-88.
Milne,
D.*:
"Fire hazards in
chum and spreader rooms," 1012
1018.
Mine cars, see Handling Materials.
Mines and Mining: Demonstrating of effect of carbon
monoxide on animals (Ryan), 631
632.
Discussion on Mr. Jones' paper, 643
647. "Maintaining interest in mine safe
ty" (Hewitt). 647-651.
"Maintaining safety interest among
shift bosses and foremen" (Cow-
perthivaite). 651-654.
"Maintaining safety interest at the
Old Dominion Company" (Tallon), 654-656. "Mine safety and. the National Safe
ty Council (Colburn), 658-660.
Mines and Mining, see also Fire pre
vention. Mines and Mining--Coal:
Bitner fire. In "Functions and prac tical use of liquefied carbon diox
ide in fighting mine fires" (Jones),
632-642.
Discussion on Mr. Brosby's paper,
615-617.
-
Discussion on Mr. Gillette's and Mr.
Reed's paper. 626-632
Discussion on Mr. Hoskin's paper,
621-622.
.
Discussion on Mr. MacWiliiam's pa per. 603-606.
"Hazards of coal mine haulage de
railment" (Hoskin). 617-621.
"Safety in mine locomotive haulage"
(Mac Wi 11 jams). 597-603.
"Safety in underground transporta tion at coal mines------tracks" (Broa-
ky), 606-615.
"Safety in underground transporta
tion in coal mines--mine cars" (Gillette and Reed). 623-626. Statistics .in International aspects of the safety movement" (Meek er) . 52.
Mines and Mining--Metal:
Discussion on Mr. Shove's paper.
595-597.
In "Functions and practical use of
liquefied carbon dioxide in fighting
fires" (Jones), 641.
"Safety iu underground transporta
tion in metal -lines" (Sbote), SSI-
595.
Mining Section: Appointment of Nominatias Commit tee, 687. "Mine safety and the Xatioeai Safe
ty Council" (Colburn),
Minutes, 585-661. Report of Chairman (TlUpoa). 585-
Repcu-t of dominating Committee.
Report of safety service engineer
(Colburn), 587-591. Summary of lost-time accidents. 591. Summary of replies to Chairman
Tillson's letter on Mining Section
Service, 657-658.
Mitchell, A. O., Chairman: Public Util
ities Section, 867-944.
Mitchell, F. W.: "Safety as a builder
of morale," 1086-1088.
Mitchella, C. B., Chairman: Report of
Engineering Committee of Rubber
Section, 969-985.
`
Morale:
"Safety as a builder of morale" (Mit
chell), 1086-1088.
Morris, Frank E., Chairman: Textile
Section, 1115-1124.
Motion Picture Committee:
Report (Beyer), 843-844.
.
Moving Pictures in Safety Work:
Report of Motion Picture Committee,
843-844. Murphey, Elmo D.: "Getting safety to
belong," 728-734.
Mutual benefit associations, see Em
ployees' Benefit Associations.
Naphtha: In "Safe handling of solvents"
(Smith). 230. Naylor, C. L.: "Static hazards in gas
oline handling," 734-741. New Employees:
Discussion, 148-149. In "Maintaining interest in mine
safety" (Hewitt), 648-650. In "Maintaining safety interest at
the Old Dominion Company" (TalIon). 654-655. In "Mental causes of personal in juries" (Hale), 1042.
New York State Department of Labor;
Minutes of General Session, 101-118. Nichols. H. M.: Dust Explosion Haz
ards Committee of the N. F- P. A.,
415. Nlesz, Homer E.: Report of Finance
Committee, 16-18. Nitric Acid:
Discussion, 261 Nitrogen :
In "Functions and practical use of liquefied carbon dioxide in fighting fires" (Jones). 641-642. Nominating Committee: Report (Scott), 22-23. Non-English speaking foreigner, see
Foreign Workman.
INDEX
1159
Occupational diseases, see Diseases,
Occupational.
.
Oculists:
In "Entilcott-Johnson Medical Serv
ice" (O'Neil). 472.
Officers of N. . C.. see Executive com
mittee of N. S. C.
Officers of section, see Name of sec
tion. sub-head, Nominating' Commit
tee report.
Oil Company Safety:
Accident statistics. 742-743.
"Getting safety to belong" (Mur-
phey), 728-734.
"Safe practice of acetylene 'welding
and burning in an oil plant"
(Timm), 715-723.
"Safety valves and pressure gauges,
743-744.
"Static hazards In gasoline han
dling" (Naylor and Ramsey), 734
741.
Oliver, Sir Thomas: Address at Ce- '
ment Section, 270. Discussion on time of day accidents
occur. 461-462.
"Safety and health in industry," 165 167.
O'Malley. John F.: "Elimination of
hazards in by-product plants," 887
897.
O'NeiU Dr. Daniel C.: "Endicott-John-
son Medical Service," 469-475.
Operators, see Machine operators.
Opp, George : Report of Bulletin Com
.mittee of Public Utilities Section,
868
Organization:
-
"Essentials of safety" (Faunce),
563-567.
"Getting safety to belong" (Mur-
phey), 728-734.
.
"How to organize for safety in a
woodworking plant" (Thompson),
1128-1-135.
In "Reducing accidents and minimiz
ing Juries" (Drummond), 677-678.
In "Year's experience with Local
Councils" (De Blois). 36-37.
-
Men working in scattered small
groups. Discussion. 156-160.
"Need and functions of ship safety
committees" (Marr); 533-542.
"Organizing the human element-for
safety in the textile industry" (McNulty), 1119-1122.
"Relation of the medical and safety
departments" (MeKinstry), 579
582.
"Safety from the- executives' stand
point" (Young), 271-273.
"Safety principles as applied to the
individual utility" (Persons), 356
363.
Packers' and Tanners' Section :
Appointment of Nominating Com
mittee, 663.
Minutes, 663-685.
.
Report of Nominating Committee,
676.
Packing Rouses:
"Reducing accidents and minimizing
injuries" (Drummon'd). 676-679.
"Safety in the packing industry"
(Meehan), 663-664.
"Slipping and falling hazards in
packing plants" (McClellan), 680
683.
Packing houses, see also Tanning in dustry.
Paine. W. S.: Address of Chairman-
Elect. 420.
c
Discussion on hose mask, 223-224.
Report of Committee on Guillotine Paper Cutters, 405-411.
Woodworking Section, 1125-1145.
Painting:
'
Discussion on methods of (minting small interiors, 222.
Palmer, Lew R.: "How safety activi ties for children reduce accident," 816-824.
' "National cost of railroad acci dents," 1073-1086.
Paper and Pulp Industry:
Discussion of code, 698-703.
Report of Committee on Guillotine
Paper Cutters (Paine). 405-411.
Round table discussion, 704-710.
"Safety in the paper industry" (Ba
ker). 692-698.
"Value of physical examinations in
pulp and paper mills" (Bush), 687-690.
Paper and Pulp Section :
Appointment of nominating commit
tee, 687.
Minutes, 687-712.
Report of Nominating Committee.
710.
Roll call, 710-712.
Paper cutters, see Guillotine paper cut
ters.
'
Parsons. D. E. : "Safety principles as
applied to the individual utility,"
356-363.
Partridge, A. M.: Report of Secretary
Of Rubber Section, 945-9 46.
Patrols:
.
In Discussion on punch presses
(Auel), 182-183.
Patten, Robert O.: "Safe operation of
motor trucks," 665-670.
Payne, Dr. E. George: Discussion- on
School children* and car accidents,
355-356. Education Section, 319-329.
"Mother's responsibility in safety ed-
ucation," 854-858.
.
"Railroadman's approach to safety
through the schools," 1029-1032.
Pensions: Q
Discussion on Mr. Bush's paper, 691
692.
Peterson, George E.: Aeronautic safe
ty code. 419.
Petroleum Section :
Accident statistics, 742-743.
Appointment of Nominating Commit
tee. 715.
Minutes, 713-746.
Report of Manufacturing Division
(Senne). 713-714.
Report of Membership Committee,
727.
Report of Nominating Committee,
727-728.
.
Report of Producing Division (Wal
lace!. 714.
Report of secretary (Currie). 714.
Resolution of thanks. 746. '
Petroleum. see also OH Company
Safety.
Phosphorous poisoning:
In "Safety and health in industry"
(Oliver). 166.
-
1160
INDB3C
Photography:
.
In "Getting the most out o illustra
tions" (Redmond), 775-7,76.
Physical Examination of Employees:
Discussion, 468.
Discussion on Advisability of physi
cal examination. 883.
Discussion on Mr. Bush's' paper, 690
691.
-
Discussion on Mr. Dublin's paper. 369-372.
Effect of physical examination on
the health and welfare of em
ployees" (Dublin). 365-369.
"Examination of employees from the
standpoint of occupations in the
rubber industry (Quimby). 1007
1011.
In "Economic viewpoint upon syphi
lis in Industry" (Hartman), 455
458.
In "Maintaining interest in mine
safety" (Hewitt). 648-649..
"Physical examination of fifty thou
sand garment workers" (Price).
463-468.
"Value of physical examination in
pulp and paper mills" (Bush),
687-690.
Physicians, Industrial;
"Annual address of the President of
the American Association of In
dustrial Physicians and Surgeons"
(Ford), 69-77.
Discussion (Dickinson). 96-97.
Discussion on Dr. Meyer's paper
(Curtis), 91-92.
In "Endicott-Johnson Medical Serv
ice' '(O'Neil), 469-475.
'
"Relation of industrial medicine to
general practice" (Meyer), 84-S8. "Should the physician go out' into
the plant?" (Schrazn), 92-96.
Physicians, Industrial see also Sur
geons. Industrial.
Pipe Dines:
In "Safe practice of acetylene weld
ing and burning in an oil plant"
(Timm). 717-718.
Painting, in "Safe handling of sol
vents" (Smith), 227.
Piping, Identification:
Identification of piping systems
(Weaver and Kershaw). 416-418.
Plant publications, see Magazines, Em
ployees.
Plant Publications Section :
Appointment of Nominating Commit
tee, 747.
Minutes, 747-784.
-'
Report of Committee on by-Laws,
767-768.
Report of Nominating Committee,
768.
Plant railways, see Railroads____
Plant visits:
, , /' '[
Inter-plant visits. 111.
i
Plant Visits, see also InspectfcV,'-'
Plays:
.
"Scene in a foundry." 151-156.
Poems:
"Debt you Owe" (Wells), 164.
"How I learned about safety from
them." 155.
"It makes you pay." 764.
"Stop: Look! Listen!" (Chapman),
1062.
Point of operation accidents. Reducing
the cost of (Wiberg). 1138-114 4.
Point of operation of Machine:
Definition. In "Essentials of safe guarding" (Risteen). 120.
Power Houses:
Rules for power pumping, 895.
house
and
gas
Power presses:
'
Accidents due to dropping dies. In
Discussion on punch (Auei). 183. Discussion, X82-184.
presses
Discussion on punch presses (Auel).
182-183.
Discussion on punch presses (Sin
clair), 184-187.
Pliers. In Discussion on punch
presses (Sinclair). 186.
"Punch press hazards" (Kaems),
179-181.
.
Suction device. In "Discussion on
punch-presses" (Auel). 183.
Powdered coal, see Coal. Dust. ' Prayer (Gordon), 5.
President's Annual Address (Dow), 7 12.
Presses, Power, see Power presses.
Pressure vessels (Caskey), 420-426.
Discussion on Sir. Caskey's report, 426-428.
Price. Dr. George M.: "Physical ex
amination of fifty thousand gar
ment workers," 463-468.
.
Prizes:.
Discussion, 178-179 ; 765-767.
In "Safety from the executive's standpoint" (Young). 272-273.
Prizes, see also Bonus Systems; Con tests.
Production : In "Does Safety work In the textile
plant pay?" (Saul), 1116-1117.
In "National cost of railroad acci
dents" (Palmer), 1075-1078.
.
In^Funch press hazards" (Kaems),
In "Supervision and safety" (Coffin),
175.
Prohibition, see Alcoholism.
Prone pressure method, see ` Resuscita
tion.
Psychology:
"Mental causes of personal injuries"
(Hale), 1039-1052.
"Publicity as an aid to the railroad
safety officer (Wright), 1052-1054.
Public safety:
"Accidents on the highways (Hen
ry), 41-45.
"Attitude of the motorist toward
traffic regulations" (Tuthill), 810
815.
Discussion on "Co-operation of elec
tric railways in community safety
activities," 346-356.
.
"Facts about a community safety or
ganization. and its work?" (Tal
bert). 845-851.
In "Warning of public accident sta
tistics," 798-809.
More newspaper . publicity needed (Van Schaack), 786.
"Obligations and opportunities of
public service companies in com
munity safety" (Bowen). 940
944.
"Public safety from citizen's view
point" (Goldsborough). 825-830.
INDEQC
1161
"Public safety -work by the polite de
partment in the greatest city in
the world" (Dow), 790-794.
.
"Regulating motor vehicles and pre
venting accidents' ' ( Stoeckel),
794-798.
'
Report of vice-president in charge
Of public safety (Van Schaack),
19.
"Safe driver's schools and communi
ty safety work" (Cloud), 1099
1102.
"Selling taxicab safety to the pub
lic" (Beard), 1102-1105.
year's experience with Local Coun
cils (Be Blois), 33-39.
.
Public safety committee report (Van Schaack), 19.
Public Safety Section: Appointment of Nominating Com mittee, 789-790. Minutes, 785-866. Nominating Committee report, 826. Report of Committee on Public Acci dent Statistics, 798-809:' Report of Elevator Hazards Com
mittee (Shaw), 788-789. Report of Motion Picture Committee
(Beyer), 843-844. . Report of Secretary (Llntz), 788. Resolution, 809.
Public Utilities: "Elimination of hazards in by-prod uct plants" (O'Malley)', 887-897. "Obligations and opportunities of public service companies in com munity safety" (Bowen), 940-944.
"Prevention of personal injuries dur ing the construction of gas. elec tric and other plants" C Crisflelcl >,
907-920. Report of accident causes and reme dies committee (Rutland), 869
882.
Public Utilities Section:
Appointment of Nominating Commit
tee, 869.
Joint meeting. 923-944.
Minutes. 867-922.
Report of Accident Causes and Rem
edies Committee (Rutland), 869
882.
. .Report of Bulletin Committee (Opp), 868
Report of Nominating Committee,
906-907.
Report of Secretary (McCulloch),
867-868.
.
Publicity:
'
Discussion on "Co-operation of elec
tric railways in community safety
activities," 348-356.
More newspaper publicity needed
(Van Schaack), 786.
"Publicity as an aid to the railroad
safety officer" (Wright), 1052
1054.
"Pullman Company's contribution to
railroad safety" (Carry), 1089
1905.
.=
Punch presses, see Power presses.
Purifying houses:
Rules, 895.
'
Purkhlser, U. H.: "Human element, the important factor in Safety," 376-281.
Quimby, Dr. R. S.: "Examination of
employees from the standpoint of occupations' in the rubber in dustry," 1007-1011.
Radio:
Discussion on Mr. Burton's paper. 904-906.
"Hazards of Improper radio in stallation" (Burton), 899-904.
"Safety in . playing the public's
new scientific game, radio" (Whiting), 845.
Warnings addressed to children. In "Hazard of improper radio
installation" (Burton), 902-903.
Radley, Guy R.: Report of Member
ship Committee of Electric Rail way Section, 332.
Railroads:
"Am I my brother's keeper?"
(Holcomb), 1067-1070.
Discussion on bulletin for schools
by Steam Railroad Section, 1095
1096.
Discussion on making the safety
committeemen greater factors
for safety, 1096-1097.
Discussion on plant railways, 569
572.
*
Extension of whistle cord, 1027.
Locomotive whistle, 1072-1073.
"Mental causes of personal injur
ies" (Hale), 1039-1052. -
"National cost of railroad ac
cidents" (Palmer), 1073-1086.
"Public aspect of the work of the
Bureau of Explosives" (Dunn),
X033-1039
.
"Publicity as an ala to the rail
' road safety officer" (Wright),
1052-1054.
:
"Pullman Company's contribution
to railroad safety" (Carry),
1089-1095.
.
"Railroadman's approach to safety
through the
schools" (Payne),
1029-1032
Rules for yard.and railroad men,
892.
"Safetyon the plant
railway"
(Woltz). 568.
"Safety as a builder of morale"
(Mitchell). 1086-1088.
"Selling safety to the man on the
firing line" (Doak), 1054-1062.
"Selling safety to the management
of a large railroad
(Adam).
1062-1065.
"Selling safety to the management
ofa small railroad" (Rohweder),
1065-1067.
Railroad, see also Steam Railroad Section.
Rails, see Tracks.
Ramsey, Harold E.: "Static hazards In gasoline handling," 734-741.
Rating of plants: "Reducing the cost of point of
operation accidents" (Wiberg), 1138-1144. Rector, Dr. F. D.: "Simple econom ics for employees," 768-770. Redmond, Prank E.: "Getting the most out of illustrations," 774 779.
1162
XKDEX
Redpath, R. I.: "Industrial safety." 67-61.
Reed. J. W.: "Safety In underground transportation in coal mines-- mine cars." 623-626.
Refrigeration Sectiop, see Ice and
Refrigeration Section.
Reid, S. H.: "Prone pressure dem
onstration," 143-146.
Reninger, Henry A.. Chairman. Ce
ment. Section, 269-291.
Report forms;
"Compiling- and using accident
records." (Adair), 124-131.
Reporting of accidents;
Discussion on Mr. Hanrahan's
paper. 495.
Resolutions committee report (Tol-
man), 20-22.
Respirators:
Chemical workers. 265-266.
Discussion on gas masks for
workers cleaning tanks. 223-224.
Discussion on Mr. Timm's paper, 725-726.
U.' S. Bureau of Mines publication,
225.
"Uses of the all-purpose canister
gas masks aboard ships" (Mc
Bride), 521-533.
Responsibility for accidents:
In "Supervision and safety" (Cof
fin), 176-177.
Resuscitation:
Discussion on Mr. Timm's paper.
726.
Discussion on Mr. Wilkin's paper,
765-766.
.
"Prone pressure demonstration"
(Reid), 143-146.
In "Work of the U. S. Coast Guard
in rescuing lives in peril at
sea" (Hillard). 559.
Rewards, see Bonn; `Systems.
Risteen, A. D.: "Es 'entials of safe
guarding." 119-:. 24. Roach, .Tohn: "Elimination of occu
pational diseases in the chem
ical and rubber industries, 233
238.
Rohweiler, A. "V.: "Selling safety to
the management of a small rail
road." 1065-1067. Rosseland. Fred M.: "Taxicab busi
ness and the National Safety
Council," 1105-1106.
Rowe. H. A.:
"Careful crossing
campaign." 61-66.
_
Rubber industry:
Calender drives. 957-960.
Discussion on Dr. Quimby's paper,
1011-1012. '
Discussion on Mr. Milne's paper,
1018-1020.
Discussion on safety stops on rub
ber mills and calenders. 962-967.
"Elimination of .occupational di
seases in the chemical and rub
ber industries" (Roach). 233-238.
"Examination of employees from
the standpoint of occupations
in the rubber industry (Quim-
by). 1007-1011. "Fire hazard in churn and spread
er room" (Milne). 1012-1018.
Mill line 4r'vts- 950-952: 957.
Mills and calenders. 978-986.
New .Jersey safety code. 967-969.
"Personal accident prevention in the rubber industry" (Date). 950-962.
"Safe handling of solvents" (Smith), 225-251.
Stopping tests, rubber rolls. 952. Vulcanixers. 970-978.
Rubber Section:
Appointment of committees. 1021. Discussion on standardisation. 987-
9S9. Joint* meeting of Chemical and
Rubber Section, Minutes. 203 238.
Minutes. 945-1021. Report of Bulletin Committee
(Graef). 946. Report of Engineering Committee.
969-985. Report of Health Hazards Com
mittee (Horan). 992-993. Report of Membership Committee
(Hewitt). 989-991. Report of Nominating Committee,
1020. Report of Safe Practice Commit
tee (Schneider), 993-1007. Report of Secretary (Partridge),
945-946.
Report of Standardization and Statistics Committee. 991-992.
Safety Code Committee. 1020.
Rules, Safety: * . Ammonia concentrator, light oil and by-product operation, 893 894. Blue gas, 895. Boiler plants, 895.
Coal department, 892-893. Coke handling department, 893, Coke ovens, 891-892.
Designs, purchase and construc tion, 889-890.
Electric department, 896-897.
Foremen. 890-891. Maintenance department. 896. Power house and gas pumping,
895. Purifying house. 895.
Yard and railroad men. 892.
Rutland, C. J., Chairman: Report of Accident Causes and Remedies
Committee, 869-882.
Ryan. J. T.:
Demonstration of
effect' -of carbon monoxide on
animals (Ryan), 631-632.
Safe drivers' Schools, see Automo
bile driving.
Safeguarding:
"Essentials of safeguarding" (Ris-
- teen), 119-124.
Sanitation:
.
Industrial sanitation code (Bur
lingame). 412-413.
Saul. Harvey: "Does safety work in
the textile plant pay?" 1116
1117.
_
Saws:
"Circular saws and shapers"
(Auel), 1126-1127.
Discussion, 1127.
Scaffolds:
In "Slipping and falling hazards
in packing plants" (McClellan),
682.
"Scene in a foundry," 151-156.
INOK3C
1163
Schneider. W. Iu : Report of Safe Practice Committee. 993-1007.
Schools, tlKbting, see Lighting.
Schools. Safety work in:
"How Buffalo teaches safety in
its public schools" (Cobb). 325
326
'
"How Buffalo teaches safety in its
public schools" (Connors). 326
327.
In `'Public safety work by the
police department in the prcat-
est city in the world" (Dow),
791-792.
"Mother's responsibility in safety
education" (Payne), 854-858.
"Railroadman's approach to safety
through the schools" (Payne),
1029-1032.
Report of Secretary of Eudcatlon
Section (Whitney). 319-321.
"Requisites of safety instruction
In elementary schools" (Mass-
lich). 321-325.
"Street safety education for school
children" (Brown). 863-866.
"Teaching' the child to be careful"
(Beard), 858-861.
"Traffic games in the primary
grades" (Boland), 327-329.
Schools. Safety work in. see also Children. Safety , work with.
Schram. Dr. C. P. X.: "Should the physician go, out into the plant?" 92-96.'
Schults. J. H-: "How safety first penalizes the contractor." 310
311. Schwab. Frank X.: Address of wel
come. 6. Scott. Robert: Report of Member
ship Committee. 1024.
Report of Xominating Commit tee. 22-23. Searls R. M.: Address. 938-940. Sectional Activities Committee Re port (Fonda). 19-20.
"Selling: safety to the man on the firing: line" (Doak). 1054-1062.
"SeJlinjc safety to the management of a large railroad" (Adams),
"Selling: safety to the management of a small railroad" (Rohweder).
"Selling taxicab safety to the pub lic" (Beard). 11*2-1196.
Sense. E. Jr,, Chairman: Report of
Manufacturing: Division. 713-714. Report of Membership Commit tee. 727. Shapers:
"Circular saws and shapers" (And). 1128-1127.
Shaw. J. O.: Report of Elevator
Hazards Committee. 788-789. Sfelentag Bernard L.: Address of
X*w TOrlc State Industrial Com missioner. 24-25. Shoes:
rHfmfs$5.
Discussion on paper and pulp mill
hazards. 7*4-705. Shove. Bryon D.: "Safety In under
ground transportation in metal mines." 592-595. Sick-benefit associations, see Em ployees' Benefit Associations.
Sickness of Employees:
"Can sick-benefit associations
profitably engage In disease pre-
vention work?" (Thompson and
Brundage), 438-446.
'
In "Annual address of the Presi
dent of the American Associa
tion of Industrial Physicians
and Surgeons" (Ford), 73-75.
Signals, Traffic:
'
In Public safety development
(Van Schaack). 787.
Signs:
Discussion on use of danger signs, 1071.
Sinclair, Harry R.: Discussion on punch presses. 184-187.
"Slipping and falling hazards in
packing plants" 680-683.
(McClellan),
Slogans:
In "Safety principles as applied to
the individual utility" sons),358-3 5 9.
(Par
Smith. A. Gr.: "Safe handling of
solvents." 225-231. Solensten, R. T.: "Bulletin board--
on Indispensable safety adver tiser," 13.4-140. Solvents, see Volatile solvents. Spine:
"Surgery of the spine" (HIbbs), 433--438
Spine, see also Back Sprain. Sprained back, see Back Sprain.
Stairs and Stairways:
.
In "Slipping and falling hazards
in packing plants" (McClellan),
.681-682.
Static electricity, see Electricity. Steam jets:
In "Static hazards in gasoline
handling" (Naylor and Ramsey), 738-740. Steam Railroad Section: Address of President Dow. 1032 1033.
Appointment of Film Committee,
1095. Minutes. 1023-1097. Report of Bulletin Committee of
Steam Railroad Section, 1025
1026.
.
Report of Committee for Co-oper
ation with other Agencies
(Grodzki). 1024-1025. Report of Committee on: Preven
tion of Highway Crossing Ac
cidents (Brennan). 1026-1029.
Report of Membership Committee
(Scott). 1024.
`
Report of Nominating Committee.
. 1088.
Steel industry, see Iron & Steel In
dustry. Sterne. W. F.: Discussion on goggle
problem. 177-178. Stevedoring, see Marine hazards. Stickney. G. H.: School lighting
code. 412--41S. StoeckeL Robbins B.: "Regulating
motor vehicles and preventing
accidents." 794-798.
Suggestions System: In "Some-proved methods of pre
senting safety and health through plant paper" (Wilkins),
761.
1164
INDKX
Sulphur dioxide:
'
In "Functions and practical use of
liquefied carbon dioxide in fight
ing- fires" (Jones). 641-642.
.
"Supervision and safety" (Coffin),
- 172-177.
.
'
Surgeons, Industrial:
,
Discussion (Hopkins), 89-91.
Industrial surgery in Utah (John
son), 97-98.
"Relation of industrial surgeon to
family . physician" (Giddings).
78-84.
Surgeons, Industrial, see also Phy sicians, Industrial.
"Surgery of the spine" (Hibbs), 433 438.
Switches:
.
In Report of Electrical Committee
on Engineering SeetiO:: (Whit
ing), 402-404.
Switches, see also .Electricity.
Syphilis:
"Economic viewpoint upon syphilis
in industry" (Hartman), 453
460.
.
Talbert, C. M.: "Facts about a com munity safety organization and
its work," 845-851.
Tallon, Albert: "Maintaining safety
interest at the Old Dominion Company, 654-656.
Tanning industry: Round table discussion, 684-685.
Tanning industry, see also Packing
houses.
Taxicab and Delivery Section:
Appointment of Nominating Com
mittee, 1107-1108.
Minutes, 1099-1113:
Report of Nominating Committee,
1108.
-
Taxicab driving, see Automobile
driving. Taxicab and Delivery Sec
tion.
Tellers, Appointment of, 7.
Tetrachlormethane poisoning, see
"Dopes".
Textile industry:
.
Discussion on organization prob
lems. 1117-1118.
"Does safety work in the textile
plant pay?" (Saul), 1115-11XT.
"Organizing the human element
for safety in the textile, indus
try" (McNulty), 1119-1122.
Textile Section:
. Appointment of Nominating Com
mittee, 1115.
Minutes, 1115-1124.
-
Report of Nominating Committee,
1124.
.
Report on the Textile Safety Code
Committee (Dearborn). 1122.
Thalner. R. F.: "Value of accident
statistics on the standard basis,"
187-191.
Thompson, John L.: "How to or ganize for safety in a wood working plant" 1128-1135.
Thompson, Dr. D. R.: "Can sick-
benefit associations profitably
engage in disease prevention
work?" 438-446.
Thorny, Mrs. J. P.: "Mother's in
terest in accident prevention, 852-853.
Ties, see Tracks:
Tillson, B. K., Chairman:
Section, 585-661.
`
Mining
Timm, E. A.: "Safe, practice of acetylene welding and burning in an oil plant," 715-723.
Titsworth, Frederick S.: fire hazards." 504-513.
"Marine
Toastmaster's address (Wells). 164 165.
Toggle Press:
.
In "Personal accident prevention in rubber industry" (Date) 960
961.
Tolman, C. P.: Report of Resolu tions Committee, 20-22.
Tolsted. E. G., Chairman: Repor.t of Committee on Flywheels, 411.
Totuol: Discussion on relative toxicity of
benzol, totuol and xylol (Hamil ton), 224-225. In "Safe handling of solvents"
(Smith), 230.
Trachoma:
.
''
Discussion, 199-200.
In ''Eye injuries" (Francis), 196.
Tracks--Mines: Discussion on Mr. Brosky's' paper. 615-617. "Safety in underground transpor tation at coal mines--tracks" (Brosky), 606-615.
Traffic:
Bibliography, 843. In "Facts about a community
safety organization and its
work" (Talbert), 851.
In "Warning of public accident
statistics," 801-803.
"Methods of study of traffic
movement in relation to traffic
accident. prevention" (Keleey).
830-843.
.
"Regulating motor vehicles and
preventing accidents" (Stoeek-
el), 794-798. Traffic laws:
"Attitude of the motorist toward
traffic regulations" (Tuthill).
810-815.
Discussion on licensing drivers,
824.
In "Regulating motor vehicles and
preventing accidents" (Stoeck-
- el), 796-797.
Traffic signals, see Signals, Traffic. Transformer tanks:
Discussion on methods of paint
ing, 222.
Transportation, see Handling mater
ials.
Treasurer's report (Niesz), 16-18.
Trucks, see Automobiles.
Truett. J. H., Chairman: Electric
Railway Section, 331-363; 923
- 944. Tuberculosis:
Discussion, 1122.
Tuthill, Stephen S.: "Attitude of
the motorist toward traffic regu
lations." 810-815.
'
\ HJDB3C
1165
. "Underground
transportation
at
coal mines--tracks" (Brosky ),
606-615.
"Underground
transportation
in
coal mines--mine cars," (Gillette
and Seed), 623-626.
"Underground
transportation
in
metal mines," (Shove), 502-595.
Unemployment:
;
In "International aspects of .the
safety movement" (Meeker), 55
57.
Union Health Center:
"Physical examination of fifty
thousand
garment
workers"
(Price). 463-468.
U. S. Bureau of Mines--Co-operation
with 1ST. S. C.: In "Report of safety service en
gineer" (Colburn), 687-591.
U. S. Coast Guard: "Work--in rescuing lives in peril at sea" (BHlard), 557-661.
Vaccination: Xn "Annual address of the Presi dent of the American Associa
tion of Industrial Physicians and Surgeons" (Ford), 75-76.
Vaccination, see also' Antitoxin.
Van Brunt, A. J.: Report of Bulle
tin Committee of Electric Rail way Section, 332-333.
Van Schaack, David: "Engineering
Section and the Council," 429
432.
Chairman, Public Safety Section,
785-866.
Public safety development, 785 788.
Report
of Vice-President
in
Charge of Public Safety, 19.
Vessels, see Pressure vessels.
Volatile solvents:
In "Fire hazards
spreader room"
1015.
"Safe
handling
(Smith). 225-231.
in churn and (Milne). 1013
of solvents"
Vulcanlzers. see Rubber industry.
Walker. F. P., Chairman: Ice and
Refrigeration Section. Minutes. 483-502.
Wallace. D. J.: Report of Producing Division, 714.
Warehouse hazard: Discussion on minor injuries, 744 746.
Warning of public accident statistics, 798-809.
Weaver, Bt. P.: IdentiScation of pip ing systems, 416-418.
Weibley, J. W.: "Paying a bonus for good no-accident records," 1110-1112. Chairman, Taxicab and Delivery Section. 1099-1113.
Welcome. Address of (Schwab), 6. Welch, W. E.: Chairman, Marine
Section, 503-562. "Ship stevedoring hazards," 513
517.
Welding: Discussion bn Mr. Timm's paper, .723-726.
"Safe practice of acetylene weld ing and burning in an oil plant" (Timm), 715-723.
Wells, John D.: "Debt you owe," 164. Toastmaster, Annual banquet, 161-170.. Toastmaster's address, 164-165.
Whitney, Albert W'.: "Inner mean ing of the safety movement and its application to the problem of
education," 26-33. Report of Secretary of Educa tion Section, 319-321.
Whiting S. E.~ Report of Electrical Committee oT Engineering Sec tion. 402-404.
"Safety in playing the public's
new scientific game, radio," 845.
Wiberg. H. G.: "Reducing tbe cost of point of operation accident," 1138-1144.
Wilkins, E. T.: "Some proved meth ods of presenting safety and. health through, plant papers,"
. 759-765.
Williams, J.'G.: "Story told by the accident statistics of the taxi cab business," 1108-1110.
Wilkinson, Adam, Chairman: Paper and pulp Section, 627-712.
Wilkinson, O. F.: "Accident hazards of the ice Industry," 497-500.
Woedtke, Leo D.. Chairman: Em- .
ployees'
benefit
associations.
365--394
W oltz, J. M-: "Fire protection in
steel mills and foundries," 573
578. "Safety on the plant railway," 568.
Woman's Section:
-
Appointment of Nominating Com
mittee, 854.
Minutes. 852-866.
Report of Nominating Committee.
858.
Woodworking industries:
"Circular saws and shapers"
(Adel). 1126-1127.
"Fire protection In lumber yards
and woodworking
plants"
(Brockwell). 1138.
"How 'to organize for safety in
a woodworking plant (Thomp
son). 1128-1135.
"Reducing the cost of point of
operation accidents" (Wiberg),
1138-1144.
"Safe layout and equipment for
the woodworking plant," 1135
1137.
"Train machine operators in safe
methods"
(Goodspeed),
1144
1145.
.
Woodworking code (Chaney), 419
420.
Woodworking industries, see also saws; shapers.
Woodworking Section: Appointment of Nominating Com mittee, 1126.